Social Sharing Popularity, And URL Changes

As both custom domain publishing, and social sharing networks, become normal with many blogs, we see anguish when blog owners change the URLs of their blogs, without planning for the effects of the change.

What happened to my Likes?

This blog owner - and many others - do not realise that FaceBook counts Likes, based on the URL, not the blog.

FaceBook Likes, and Google+ +1s, are counted by URL - and are not controlled by DNS redirection, or simple name changes. If you rename your blog, you get a new URL with a new popularity counter, in FaceBook and Google+.

Some social sharing services allow for URL changes.

BlogLovin lets you transfer Followers from one URL to another.

BlogLovin, for instance, provides for transfer of Followers, to a new URL - as long as the blog owner owns both the old and new URL.

First, make sure that you've claimed both of your blogs.

Once both blogs are claimed, navigate to "My blog" and select the "Edit Blog Info" option next to your original blog.

From the "Move Followers" dropdown menu, select the blog you'd like to move your followers to and click "Move". This will remove your original blog and move your followers to your new blog of choice.

Start from any BlogLovin page.

Select "Blog analytics" from the drop down menu.

Click "Edit blog info".

Select a blog, from the drop down blog menu, in the "Edit blog info" wizard - and click on "Move Followers".



Whether you have a blog with a new URL, or a blog with multiple feeds and groups of Followers, BlogLovin lets you consolidate / move Followers so you can address your Followers, conveniently.

Blogger Followers stay with the blog, automatically.

With a Blogger blog, and Blogger Following / Google Friend Connect, your Followers Follow the blog - not the URL. You can rename the blog, and change the URL - but as long as you don't change the BlogID, your Followers remain with your blog.

FaceBook and Google+ give you a new counter, for each URL.

Neither FaceBook or Google+ provide a similar option. To both FaceBook and Google+, if you change the URL of the blog, you have a new blog. Google+ Followers - unlike Blogger Followers - Follow the URL.

With custom domain publishing, and the BlogSpot to domain redirect, the attention of your Followers may end up on your redirected blog - but the +1 counter and Followers community, that was based on the BlogSpot URL, stays with the BlogSpot URL. With the blog published to the domain, your blog gets a counter and community for the domain URL - and starts over.

With a BlogSpot to BlogSpot URL change, and a domain to BlogSpot URL change, everything starts over.

FaceBook Likes are counted, within FaceBook - and Google+ +1s are counted, within Google+. Both are based on the URL of the blog which accrues the Likes and +1s. If you change the URL of the blog, you get a new counter - and a new Followers community.

A URL change is effective for different changes, to a Blogger blog.

• BlogSpot to BlogSpot name change.
• BlogSpot to custom domain republishing.
• Custom domain to custom domain change.
• Custom domain to BlogSpot republishing.

All of these are URL changes - and are treated as a different blog, for most social sharing services.

BlogLovin supports URL changes. Neither FaceBook, Google+, or LinkedIn provides this ability. You change the URL, you start over with +1 / Like count, Followers community, and sharing reputation.

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With most social sharing services, if you change the URL of a #Blogger blog, you start over accumulating +1s, Followers, and Likes. BlogLovin appears to be alone, in letting you transfer Followers from one blog to another - if you create a new blog, or change the URL of an existing blog.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/ZiozKZOS07Q

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/gkmBV6s03Ck

Verifying Blog Ownership, In BlogLovin

In BlogLovin, the ownership verification process is termed "claiming your blog".

Claiming your blog involves installing a BlogLovin link, with embedded token, on your blog where it can be seen, by the BlogLovin claim verification process. Getting the claim link, from the BlogLovin dashboard, is not an obvious process.

Not every blog owner is able to get the BlogLovin blog claiming link, for their blog.

1. Some folks can't find the "Claim blog" button.
2. Others don't provide the right URL, into the "Claim blog" window.

If you have either problem, you end up unable to "claim your blog".

Finding the "Claim" button is not obvious.

You start the Claim process from the "Blog analytics" display. In some instructions, this is referred to as "My blogs". There is no menu selection to "Claim your blog".

From the home page, click "View all in Analytics".

From "Blog Analytics", click on "Edit blog settings".

Find the blue "Claim blog" button.




BlogLovin needs the blog published URL - not the blog feed URL.

Observe the caption in the "Claim blog" window.

When you provide the URL, only provide the published URL - not the blog feed. This works best if the blog publishes a feed, and if the blog has a standard Blogger header. BlogLovin gets the feed URL from the blog header - when the URL is there.

Paste the published URL of the blog - not the blog feed - into the window, and hit "Search".

Select your blog.

And, there is the BlogLovin link, with an embedded token.



Now, you install the token on your blog - and that is another source of confusion.

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Not every #Blogger blog owner is able to verify ownership of their blog, to BlogLovin. Some folks can't find the "Claim blog" button - and others don't know what URL to provide, in the "Claim blog" process.

And the term "claim blog" is not obvious, to everybody, either.