The Real Blogger Status

Occasionally, we see concern in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about the long term effects of Blogger hacking / malware / porn / spam classification or detection. My blog was deleted, because of spurious spam classification - and later restored to service. Did my blog lose search engine reputation, in Google? Any time a blog goes offline, its reputation is affected, to some extent. How much effect a hacking / malware / porn / spam classification or detection has, on any given blog, will vary widely. You might expect to see different penalties, for different offenses .

As custom domain publishing becomes simply one more feature to add to your Blogger blog, some blog owners decide that the domain that they are using, right now, is not to their liking. Fortunately, with a Blogger blog, the process of changing your domain to another is not complicated - hoping that you have the right tools, and make the right decisions. Buy (as required), and setup , a new domain URL. Publish the blog back to BlogSpot. Publish the blog to the new domain. All that considered, there is a fourth step which many blog owners manage to overlook - until long after they have completed the third.

Many blog owners take great pride in publishing a blog that's read by many readers, and that is held in high esteem by the search engines. Some owners have even installed various badges on their blogs, which automatically retrieve the Page Rank achieved by the blog, as distributed at the most recent Page Rank calculation. Recently, we've been seeing cries of anguish, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . I lost my Page Rank! My blog, as a ".com", had PR of 2 - but as ".in", it has 0! Woe is me!! These owners do not understand that search engine reputation is still calculated and indexed using the ".com" alias .

For a Blogger blog, proper indexing by the search engines is critical to the success of the blog, in getting readers. Some blog owners are disappointed to find that their blog has no page rank, and no visibility in the search engine results - and little to no chances for getting readers. Not all blog owners understand details about the custom domain migration process , any issues related to renaming the blog , or simply how to get a blog properly indexed .

We're starting to see some evidence of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about the impact of the new CC TLD aliases , upon indexing and reputation. There's no cache for my blog, after redirecting to a ccTLD! This is an example of the confusion, from a concerned blog owner.

This blog is (for those of you not familiar with it) "The Real Blogger Status". The URL of this blog is currently "http://blogging.nitecruzr.net". As long as I publish the blog properly (as "blogging.nitecruzr.net"), I am allowed to advertise the blog using any combination of lower case and upper case letters, that I like. This blog can be accessed as "blogging.nitecruzr.net", "Blogging.Nitecruzr.Net", or even "BlOgGiNg.nitecruzr.net". We say that Blogger URLs are case insensitive. Even with my readers allowed to use any combination of lower and uppercase letters, to access this blog, I don't want the search engines to index (and determine page rank) my blog using the exact URLs, as typed by each different reader. Even with this blog being addressed as "blogging.nitecruzr.net", "Blogging.Nitecruzr.Net", or even "BlOgGiNg.nitecruzr.net", the search engines index this blog as "blog...

Recently, some blog owners outside the USA have been asking about mysterious redirects which they (or their readers) are seeing, when accessing their blogs. Why is "xxx.blogspot.com" now redirecting to "xxx.blogspot.com.au"? and Why was my blog address recently changed from ".com" to ".in"?

We continue to see evidence of frustration about getting a blog indexed, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . I can find the blog using the URL - but my visitor log shows nobody is reading the blog! and My blog was #1 for my title, in Google, 3 months ago! Last month, it dropped out of sight!! Why does Google let people hack their results??? People who report these problems do not understand that getting traffic to the blog involves more than simply getting the blog indexed , using the Author, Title, or URL of the blog.

For a Blogger blog which needs a sitemap for indexing, changing the URL requires creating a new sitemap. For a blog newly published to a different URL - either a non BlogSpot URL, using custom domain publishing, or simply a different BlogSpot URL - the first few days under the new URL are critical to the success of the blog. Some blog owners find, to their horror, that their blog suddenly has no page rank, and has dropped out of visibility in the search engine results. I bought a domain from Google, and my blog is now invisible. Obviously, this is another swindle by Google, stealing my money! These blog owners have not done any research, about the custom domain migration process , or about any issues related to renaming the blog . The successful migration process starts with getting the blog, under its new URL, indexed by the search engines.

There's a lot of confusion seen in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , about our blogs, and how they are treated by the search engines, after being published to a custom domain URL. Does the Page Rank transfer to the new domain? and Is the blog automatically indexed after the change? and Will my readers be able to find my blog after the change? Each of those questions has a simple answer - but each simple answer leads to interesting detail.

As May 1 fast approaches, there are still a few FTP bloggers waiting to make the plunge, who ask What happens to my page rank, when I migrate? and How do I retain my traffic, if I move to a new URL? and these are not very simple questions to answer. The best result will be achieved by migrating to the same URL structure, under the custom domain. If you can migrate from your external, FTP published server, to an absolutely identical URL - for all posts - in a Google custom domain, then you can retain page rank, and traffic. If your URL changes, even slightly, then your page rank starts over at 0, because the content has to be re indexed under the new URL . Now, you ask whether the traffic can be automatically redirected, from the old URL to the new URL. If the URL changes, but the traffic can be redirected properly, then you can retain your traffic, and your page rank - though starting at 0 - will build up faster than it did when the blog was started. You'll see moderate total...

Money is a popular artifact used in magic tricks - everybody loves looking at it, and playing with it. The disappearing quarter - which starts out in your hand, and is found behind your ear - is intriguing. Equally as intriguing is the magician who can take two 50 cent pieces, and turn them into a dollar bill.

Your blog depends upon traffic for its success. Anything that affects the traffic to your blog, such as any change in the URL , affects the success of your blog. Publishing the blog to a custom domain, like renaming the blog , will affect traffic to your blog . The effects of the change will vary from blog to blog, because of the different traffic to every different blog. Followers . People who find your blog because of recommendations by other people. Search engines . Robotic processes which methodically surf your blog, and provide dynamic indexing to people who search for information. Subscribers . People who read your content from their newsfeed reader, such as the dashboard Reading List. Viewers . People who read your content from their browser. No two blogs are the same - and no two blogs will have the same combinations of traffic sources .

I'm not a fan of Search Engine Optimization ("SEO") in general. Too much "SEO" advice nowadays seems to consist of abusing the search engines, using dubious content in a web site. If you're interested in the needs of your readers , you should focus upon relevant content in, and traffic into, your blog or web site.