The Real Blogger Status

The exciting, new "Responsive" themes are a move forward, for Blogger. Like every move forward, though, there's always a couple steps backwards. The "Responsive" themes are not as easily customised as the earlier "Designer" and "Layout" themes - and they lack some enjoyable features.

I have suggested that properly sizing the Jump Break and Title sections of each post is an important decision, when publishing a post in your blog. Publishing this blog, using carefully sized post title and jump break sections, allows me to consistently publish posts, with maximum detail visible in main page view - and with the "Read more" link visible. Potential readers may read a post in this blog - instead of returning to a SERP , and reading another blog. This affects a key reader retention metric, the " bounce rate ". All of that considered, sizing of the introductory post sections won't always produce predictable results.

Some blog owners would like their readers to view the entire blog in one page. A small blog, with very limited size, can theoretically fit on one page. If you intend to publish a blog with any future, and page rank , you will have to publish content periodically - and the size of the blog will increase, steadily. And eventually, thanks in part to main page limitation by auto pagination , older posts in your blog will be forced into archive pages.

Some blog owners use email, to distribute blog content - and like the post summarisation technique, Jump Break. We see occasional hopeful questions, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger , about Jump Break, in emailed post content. How do I use Jump Break, in my posts email subscriptions? This is one need that probably won't be solved, precisely as requested.

Besides optimizing post content , to make the blog easier to read and encourage readers to remain. you have a similar task in optimizing the blog structure. The posts content is what people read, when they are in the blog. The blog structure is what you similarly need to optimize, to get people into the blog.

Along with consistently using Jump Break, properly sizing and wording of important post sections can make the blog pages neater, and easier to read. You see my opening paragraph, above. Sizing and wording of important post sections, such as the opening paragraph, helps make the main page layout more consistent - and gives a slightly more professional look to the blog. And, a cleaner and more consistent page layout, to complement a carefully structured blog , encourages readers to read more of the blog.

Blog owners are constantly asking how to add post specific accessories, from third party services. How do I add a Like button, for my posts? Adding many post accessories requires adding XML code, to the post template. Adding code to the post template is scary - and it can cause problems, when incorrectly done. The easiest way to add a per post accessory is to add an HTML gadget that references the post by the URL, as displayed for the page. The problem with an HTML gadget is that it simply references the page displayed. If your posts are read from the main page, or an archive page - and somebody uses a Like accessory, what happens?

Some blog owners are unsure what a Jump Break looks like, when applied to their blogs. Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , we see the confusion. Where's the Jump Break? or I added a Jump Break to several posts, but it never shows up! When asked for a screen print of what they're seeing, they may provide a image of the post, in the Post Editor Preview window - or possibly, the published post, but in post page view.

In 2010, we learned about the mysterious Post Template - and the problems that can be caused, when it is corrupt or out of date. We developed magical ways of correcting the problems . Revert the widget templates. Reset the post template. Add or tweak specific template code. It's now 2015, and Blogger Engineering has rewritten the Template Editor , and given us new possibilities for correcting problems with the post template - and other gadgets.

With a static website, you use different sized headers to indicate sections of each page - and how important each section may be. That helps your readers search each page, and makes them happy - and making your readers happy increases SEO. With a Blogger blog, what makes your readers happy increases SEO, also. With a blog, you make your readers happy by providing content, for them to read . And you make them happier, by organising the content.

A few blog owners become concerned about how their blogs are indexed - and why the search hit lists, that point to their posts, point to archive or main pages - instead of the individual post pages. "www.mydomain.com/2015_01_01_archive.html" , "www.mydomain.com/2014_12_01_archive.html", and similar URLs are part of the same URL structure as "www.mydomain.com" - and as "www.mydomain.com/2015/02/whatever.html". They aren't harmful to the blog search engine reputation. They are annoying, though. When I setup this blog, long ago - and would find my posts listed in index pages, they used to annoy me, too.

Occasionally, we see a report in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , that reflects on the reader audience - not necessarily only the blog content. Why is my blog behind a Content Warning? Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is objectionable. Occasionally, a quick eyeballing of the blog in question may turn up some dodgy content, which may be suggested, in the forum, as problematic. This story may not end immediately. But, I've had that picture gallery, for years! Why did I just get the Content Warning? Here, the blog owner is not considering changing standards - or the possibility that the blog, becoming more popular, may be adding readers who don't appreciate a photo gallery started years ago.

Auto pagination, and "Jump Break", have been a (controversial) feature in Blogger blogs since 2010 . Oddly enough, not all blog owners yet understand the difference between "Jump Break", and other "Read More" features. And there are more than a couple "Read More" features available, in the Internet - some not so beneficial . Occasionally, we see the confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . I have 12 articles which must appear on my homepage. Just 10 of the 12 articles are showing up. When I added 2 new articles, another old post disappeared from my homepage. This blog owner, like many, suffers from the effects of auto pagination . When I suggested using "Jump Break" , to make the posts smaller, I was met with confusion. Did you not look at the blog? I have "Read More" there, already. And looking at the blog again, I saw that he was correct.

We see occasional evidence of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from blog owners who are using a dynamic template. Why does the Jump Break not show up, in the blog display? or Why can't I see the entire post? Not all blog owners understand the limited options , in the dynamic templates.

The articles in this blog, which discusses production and use of Blogger blogs , are written as posts. The various posts are combined, using embedded links , in different ways. Each new post appears on the main page, as it is written - and the various posts, appearing together on the main page, create opportunities for confusion, with the readers of the blog. Long ago, the task of moderating comments was rather depressing to me, as the focus of many of the comments made me think that nobody was actually reading the articles. Maybe, I would write an interesting post about URL availability ; but when moderating comments, I would find questions about posting comments on static pages . Or maybe a post about dynamic template concepts would attract complaints about referer spam . Why should I publish my advice, if nobody cares enough to read the articles and comment relevantly?

The problem of last week , with Stats, was fixed late yesterday, and our Stats displays once again are showing Posts pageview counts and enumerating individual Posts. Now, we have a perceived problem, being reported by newer blog owners. My Stats display does not show my newer posts! This concern is visually valid - but it's not real. It's most common with blogs that have just over 10 posts, which are owned by people who are not aware of the Stats display limitations , as we have explored.

Last week, I explored the issues involved in sizing a jump break properly . Adding a Jump Break is a popular alternative, or complement, to setting main page post count - for some blog owners. Besides some uncertainty about how large a jump break section should be , some people are still uncertain how to add a jump break. Jump break sections, unlike some other "read more" solutions , can be uniquely located and sized in each post. This requires the blog will not use a dynamic view .

The most important single part of any post is the first sentence, and the first paragraph. Jump break, the auto summarisation feature for Blogger blogs , helps you focus your readers attention on the first sentence / first paragraph of your posts, while offering each reader a personal choice - to read more of any individual post - or to scan the rest of the current page. Careful sizing and wording of the post content, before the Jump Break, makes it more likely that the casual reader will be interested enough to read the entire post.

Blog owners are becoming increasingly interested in using the new Blogger offering, Static Pages (aka "pages"), in their blogs. Recently, we've seen blog owners who like to publish blogs with large displays asking about another new Blogger feature, Jump Break. Some blog owners would like to use Jump Break to summarise their static pages. Jump Break, the Blogger solution for auto summarising posts , displays an entire post, when the post is being displayed in individual post mode. When a post is being displayed in multi post mode - archive retrieval / label search / main page - the summarised portion of the post is displayed, with a "Read More" link leading to the individual post display. Multi post code is very simple - the group mode, summarised post links to the individual mode, full display post.

Blogger is continually adding new features to the Blogger platform. Some features, which are specific to individual posts, don't always work as well as they should - or in some cases, don't work at all. Other Blogger supplied features may stop working, after the blog is changed to use a third party template , or after the template code is tweaked using " Edit HTML " - maybe when installing a third party commenting system . In many cases, failure of a post related feature to work consistently, or at all, is caused by the lack of supporting code in the post template. Generally, when someone reports such a problem in BHF: Something Is Broken , the advice to refresh the gadgets, or the post template, will be given. Some forum helpers may grow to see the advice, now given as From Template - "Edit HTML", select "Revert widget templates to default", and select "Blog1". as a magic wand, to be waved over any blog with a problem. There is n...