FaceBook Is Aggregating BlogSpot CC Aliases

We're seeing a few questions recently, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about FaceBook, and their treatment of Blogger URLs that are subject to local country domain redirection.

When I share a post on FaceBook, the URL used for my blog ends with "blogspot.in" instead of "blogspot.com".

Some people in Europe observe a variation.

When I share a post on FaceBook, the URL used for my blog ends with "blogspot.nl" instead of "blogspot.com".

We've been observing, for a long time, that FaceBook and other Internet services should start using the canonical tag - and aggregate BlogSpot URLs, that are subject to local country domain redirection.

With aggregation done properly, all BlogSpot URLs would be listed as "blogspot.com" - and all Likes, and similar references to a given Blogger blog, would be later counted under the proper "blogspot.com" URL - regardless where a given blog reader gets Internet access.

Apparently, FaceBook is now aggregating BlogSpot URLs - but they are not successfully using the canonical URL, as provided by the tag in the blog header. FaceBook now uses "blogspot.in" - or maybe "blogspot.nl" or "blogspot.pe" - as the final URL for some Blogger blogs, when shared.

If you share your blog to FaceBook and observe this problem, try using the FaceBook Sharing Debugger. Select "Scrape Again", when you see "blogspot.pe", or another alias, in the debugger log.

Selecting "Scrape Again", enough times, may lead to the Debugger displaying "blogspot.com" - and your actual canonical blog URL will be cached. This will provide a work around until FaceBook corrects their sharing feature.

When Blogger first started using local country domain redirection, only Google services such as Google Search would reliably aggregate all local country domain references, to "blogspot.com".

Many non Google services did not use canonical aggregation, immediately. Like every other newly developed Internet feature, it takes time for every web service to update their code.

With only Google using canonical aggregation, every Blogger URL subject to country code alias redirection would be shared using the country domain, as seen by the person doing the sharing. People in France might share a Blogger URL as "blogspot.fr", people in India as "blogspot.in", and so on.

People in the USA, of course, would share a Blogger URL as "blogspot.com". The USA, and various other countries, is not subject to country code alias redirection.

FaceBook is now aggregating BlogSpot URLs - but they are not using the canonical tag, in the blog header. They are aggregating to "blogspot.in", "blogspot.nl", or "blogspot.pe" for some or all BlogSpot URLs, shared to their service.

Maybe, FaceBook is resolving "blogspot.com" from various countries that are subject to local country domain redirection - and generates the redirection themselves?



Right now, for some blog owners who share a BlogSpot URL to FaceBook, the URL will be modified, to "blogspot.in", "blogspot.nl", or "blogspot.pe". Every Like, and similar activity against that URL, will then be counted under the "blogspot.in", "blogspot.nl", or "blogspot.pe" alias. This is probably slightly better than having every different URL shared by country code alias - but only slightly better.

Blogger blogs published to custom domains are not subject to URL modification, because custom domain URLs are not subject to local country domain redirection.

Some Blogger blogs will continue to appear to have at 3 URLs - "blogspot.com", "blogspot.in", "blogspot.nl", or "blogspot.pe", and any others under which FaceBook was sharing, originally. The search engines may index blog content, accessed from FaceBook shares, as "blogspot.com", "blogspot.in", "blogspot.nl", or "blogspot.pe".

If this is not acceptable, you may need to report this to FaceBook Support. Please, resist the temptation to install malicious code on your blog, that will later leave you asking for advice on having the blog unlocked, cleaned and reviewed.

---

https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/2UXBv3Q21YY/discussion

Search Engines, Visitor Logs, And Country Domains

Some blog owners are seeing the recently added Country Code Top Level Domain Aliases in their visitor logs / meters, and various non Google search engines.

Possibly unaware of the aliases, they are afraid that their blog has been hacked.

My SiteMeter logs show that I've had incoming traffic from "mybloggerblog.blogspot.in". Clicking on one of the links in SiteMeter, I see my blog, "mybloggerblog.blogspot.com". Has somebody cloned my blog?

In reality, the scenario is not so ominous.

Those of us aware of the CC aliases, and how they are being used by Blogger, will understand that simply seeing a non canonical alias in our referer lists, in any search engine or visitor log / meter, is not an indication of malicious activity.

People unfamiliar with the country code aliases may be confused.

People long used to seeing only "blogspot.com" and "google.com", and not yet experienced with the CC aliases, may become confused, however. Blogger blogs owners with long established blogs that have audiences outside the USA are probably used to seeing all references to their blogs based on the canonical URL, such as "mybloggerblog.blogspot.com".

Now that BlogSpot published blogs are being served using the CC aliases, in many countries outside the USA, the readers of BlogSpot published blogs are seeing each blog under non "blogspot.com" URLs in some search engines, and in many visitor logs and meters.

Many search engines will aggregate search references, to the canonical URL.

Most major search engines, which reference the "canonical" tag in the blog header, are aggregating all SERP entries to use the "blogspot.com" URLs. Our important search reputation is not being fragmented, such that readers in Australia provide reputation to "blogspot.com.au", readers in India provide reputation to "blogspot.in", readers in New Zealand provide reputation to "blogspot.co.nz", and so on.

Every hit, from every reader in every country, still provides reputation to the canonical alias, "blogspot.com".

Some specialised search engines like Alexa, DMOZ, etc - and most visitor logs like SiteMeter, StatCounter, and Stats, may not be designed to reference the canonical tag. It's also possible that visitor logs, by their nature, should not aggregate CC aliases to the canonical URL - as the country code, relevant to the individual readers, may be important to some blog owners.

Until the canonical tag is used by every Internet service, there will be confusion.

Until the use of the canonical tag, and the CC aliases to our readers, becomes mature, it's possible that we will see various oddities like a perceived problem with Alexa, SiteMeter, or StatCounter. It's likely that not all Internet services will ever reference the canonical tag consistently, and aggregate all statistics and visitor demographics, canonically.

Given the latter probability, this may be yet one more reason why Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken may never go out of business.

---

Some Confusion Over Use Of The CC TLD Aliases, By Search Engines And Visitor Logs
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/02/some-confusion-over-use-of-cc-tld.html

Search Engines And Visitor Logs, And The Country Specific Domains
Search Engines, Visitor Logs, And Country Domains
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/02/search-engines-visitor-logs-and-country.html

Blogs Viewed, Using A CC TLD Alias, Will Continue To Be Indexed Using "BlogSpot.Com"

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.

99% of all Blogger blogs will see no difference, in indexing or reputation, to their blog, in Blogger / Google services.

Properly constructed Blogger blogs always reference a "blogspot.com" URL.

Every BlogSpot published blog, which uses a standard blog header, has a "Canonical" tag, defining the "BlogSpot.Com" URL for that blog.

Search engines which recognise the Canonical tag will simply index all BlogSpot content, whether accessed as "blogspot.com.au", "blogspot.in", or whatever new CC TLD alias is deployed in the future, under the base URL, "blogspot.com". Blogs such as this one, published outside "blogspot.com", will continue to be indexed under the current non BlogSpot URL.

<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' rel='canonical'/>

That's the Canonical tag for this blog, "blogging.nitecruzr.net".

Search engine metrics are always checked as "blogspot,com", if no custom domain.

When you check the Page Rank, you should continue to check the "blogspot.com" URL - if your blog is published to "blogspot.com".

Some non Google services such as Alexa - and some third party accessories such as commenting, provided by Disqus and Intense Debate - are known to require tweaking of their code, so they will recognise the Canonical tag for the host blog. Once the code is properly updated, they should simply reference the host blog under the "blogspot.com" alias - no matter where the blog viewer may be geographically located.

It also appears that the Stats "Traffic Sources" display is displaying the different CC aliases, rather than aggregate inlinks using the canonical URL. This is causing some confusion with people who are not yet aware of the CC aliases, and their purpose.

Some Blogger features only reference the Blogger blog name.

The "Forgot?" wizard, on the other hand, uses only the blog name. Whether you are seeing your blog as "xxxxxxx.blogspot.ca" (in Canada), as "xxxxxxx.blogspot.mx" (in Mexico), or "xxxxxxx.blogspot.com" / "xxxxxxx.blogspot.us" (in the USA), you'll always use only "xxxxxxx" when recovering access to your Blogger account.

If your blog uses no third party accessories or services, relax just a bit - then get back to work on your blog.

What's The Canonical URL Of My Blog?

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 "blogging.nitecruzr.net".

To help this happen, Blogger uses the "canonical" tag, in the blog header.

The "canonical" tag is not unique to Google.

The "canonical" tag is a cooperative standard.

It was developed as a standard in 2009, jointly, by Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

Every Blogger blog, which has a standard and up to date header, contains a "canonical" tag.

A Blogger "canonical" tag is used to convert the blog URL to lowercase characters.

The "canonical" tag provides the base URL of the blog, in all lower case letters, so the search engines know how to ignore various syntax variations.

• Case variations.
• CC TLD aliases.
• Any other reader generated variations.

All links are indexed under one unified URL, providing better SERP positioning, and more search engine generated traffic.

Look at the source for this blog home page, in the header. Note that you have to look at the online "source code" - not at the raw HTML, using the Template Editor!

Here's an excerpt of the header for this blog, with a few line breaks added - and some lines removed - to make it more readable.

<head>
<meta content='IE=EmulateIE7' http-equiv='X-UA-Compatible'/>
<meta content='width=1100' name='viewport'/>

...

<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/favicon.ico'
rel='icon' type='image/x-icon'/>
<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' rel='canonical'/>
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom"
href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - RSS"
href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" />
<link rel="service.post" type="application/atom+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom"
href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/24069595/posts/default" />
<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml"
title="RSD" href="http://www.blogger.com/rsd.g?blogID=24069595" />
<link rel="openid.server" href="http://www.blogger.com/openid-server.g" />

There it is.

<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' rel='canonical'/>

My test blog, "Nitecruzr New Template Laboratory", is still published to "nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com".

<link href='http://nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com/' rel='canonical'/>

The "canonical" tag is essential for the country code domains.

These records are essential, for blogs published to "blogspot.com", now that Blogger is aliasing our blogs using country code TLD URLs.

My test blog, for instance, published to "nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com", will be accessed as "nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.in" in India - but the search engines, which observe the Canonical tag, will still index any links as "nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com".

BlogSpot Published Blogs Being Accessed Using Country Code TLDs

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"?

Blogger will host our blog content using country code relevant aliases, according to the unique laws of each different country.

The local country domain URL is determined using geolocation.

The relevant CC alias will be accessed automatically, according to the network location of the reader in question. These aliases are being added on a country by country basis, with Australia ("blogspot.com.au") and India ("blogspot.in") apparently recently deployed.

This will let Blogger remove content, that's illegal in one country, without having to remove that same content for all of your readers, worldwide. You benefit, because your blog won't go offline, for the entire world, when you publish something that's illegal in one single country.

A BlogSpot blog, with a standard header, will be indexed under "blogspot.com".

With any BlogSpot published blog containing a standard Blogger header, the blog will have a canonical reference to the "blogspot.com" alias. The search engines will index the blog, using the "blogspot.com" alias - even when following a country code specific link.

The search engine ranking of your blog won't be affected - except that a blog, left online in most countries, will get more traffic than one taken offline worldwide. When you check the Page Rank, you should continue to check the "blogspot.com" URL, because all search engine reputation will accumulate under the "blogspot.com" alias.

Owners of blogs with custom templates should check the template.

Owners of older or uniquely developed blogs, possibly using Classic or highly customised templates, may want to check the headers in their blogs, and make sure that they have a "canonical" tag referencing their "blogspot.com" alias.

Blogs published to non "blogspot.com" URLs, using properly setup and fully operational "custom domain" publishing, will not be affected - as the default "blogspot.com" URL is already redirected to the domain URL. While a newly purchased custom domain is "In Transition", the domain redirect will not be in effect - and the "blogspot.com" URL will be subject to CC alias redirect.

Any reader using a browser or computer that's affected by domain based filters will need to check all filters. Add "blogspot.com.au", "blogspot.in", "blogspot.jp", or any other relevant country, wherever "blogspot.com" is specified.

Note that geolocation will produce anomalies in odd cases.

Note that the redirect uses geolocation, to identify a relevant country code. Readers in small countries, or located near the border of other countries, may be using an ISP located in a different country, and may find their personal redirect reflecting the other country.

Any reader wishing to bypass the local alias can access a "no country redirect" alias using the URL of "blogspot.com/ncr". Similar to the "ncr" URL modifier used to bypass local language redirects of "blogger.com", this will give access to the U.S. English alias of the blog of your choice.