Does Your Blog Need HTML Validation?

A few blog owners are concerned about blog network performance - and spend time validating and tweaking the template, based on advice from various third party services.

I don't know how to use W3C Validation, there are always errors displayed for my blog!

And we see periodic questions about validation - and sometimes reports about broken templates, with blog owners following the validation advice, blindly.

W3C Validation produces hundreds of errors, for every blog page.

I Tried Validation, For This Blog.

I used to tear my hair out, trying to fix my W3C validation errors, for this blog.

Check out the validation log, for this blog, as an example. See the size of the scroll tab? That's a 20 page report - of critical errors, in the blog home page.

See the size of the scroll tab? This display shows just the first page, of 20 or so.



Validation Is Useful, For Static Websites.

W3C validation is designed for HTML based, static websites - that are centrally located. Blogger blogs are XML based, and dynamic - and use the Google Content Delivery Network, which serves blog content from dozens of different data centres, worldwide, based upon the location of each individual reader.

With the Google CDN delivering content locally, to many readers, distance related network issues are less important - and with Blogger templates being maintained and tested by Blogger Engineering, a lot of the issues identified by validation are not easily resolved by the typical blog owner.

If you publish a Blogger blog, using a Blogger supplied template, work on content. Blogger manages the network settings, relevant to your blog, as it is served by the Google Content Delivery Network. You publish your blog - and let Blogger / Google worry about the networks, the servers, and the templates.

Custom / Third Party Templates May Benefit, In Specific Cases

It's possible that some blogs with third party templates, and non Blogger standard code, may benefit from validation.

If your blog has a non Blogger template, you could check out Blogger Developers or Stack Overflow - and ask for advice there. Or, try contacting the person / site that provided you with the template, and see what they can tell you.

But with a blog with a supported Blogger template, concentrate on content. Don't tweak the template HTML, unless necessary. Leave Blogger / Google to worry about network issues and the template.

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Some #Blogger blog owners concern themselves about third party network performance analysis. Learn why some performance analysis advice may be unnecessary - and can be harmful to your blog.

https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/8plQKqdwSGg/discussion

Diagnosing Geographical Location / IP Address

We see various problems reported, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, which may involve geographical or network relationships.

Why can't I regain access to my blog, that I stopped publishing 5 years ago?

and

Why can't I see my blog?

and

Why does my dashboard show up in a language that I can't read?

With questions like these, it helps to know how and where the owner and / or readers of the blog get Internet service.

Geographical location and IP address are useful details, when diagnosing various problems with our blogs.

• Access and authentication.
• Connectivity.
• Language.

Address / location diagnosis is not a difficult procedure, given the right tools. As an example, click on each of these three links, one by one. Print or copy text details, as convenient - then combine and compare the details, from the different services.

• IP-Details.com : Find your IP address Information
• IP Location Finder - Geolocation
• Locate IP Address Lookup Show on Map

There are other similar tools, that I may identify later.

I'll show each location discovery tool, from various geographical locations. This will illustrate the uncertainties of geographical vs geolocated location - and why use of multiple ("redundant") online diagnostic tools is a good idea.

I clicked on each link, twice - while connected differently - and made the screen prints from these geographical locations. I may show additional locations as I use them.

• 22 May, 2016: MacDonalds, Martinez CA
• 23 May, 2016: StarBucks, Martinez CA

"IP-Details.com"
Date: 22 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Austin, TX
Geographical Location: MacDonalds, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 64.134.233.29
Provider: MacDonalds

"IP Location"
Date: 22 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Valencia, CA
Geographical Location: MacDonalds, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 64.134.233.29
Provider: MacDonalds

"Info Sniper"
Date: 22 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: (Los Angeles, CA)
Geographical Location: MacDonalds, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 64.134.233.29
Provider: MacDonalds

"IP-Details.com"
Date: 22 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Bedminster, NJ
Geographical Location: MacDonalds, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 70.197.3.7
Provider: Verizon Cellular

"IP Location"
Date: 22 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Rohnert Park, CA
Geographical Location: MacDonalds, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 70.197.3.7
Provider: Verizon Cellular

"Info Sniper"
Date: 22 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: (Los Angeles CA)
Geographical Location: MacDonalds, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 70.197.3.7
Provider: Verizon Cellular



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"IP-Details.com"
Date: 23 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location:
Geographical Location: StarBucks, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 50.247.110.187
Provider: StarBucks

"IP Location"
Date: 23 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Menlo Park CA
Geographical Location: StarBucks, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 50.247.110.187
Provider: StarBucks

"Info Sniper"
Date: 23 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Milpitas CA
Geographical Location: StarBucks, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 50.247.110.187
Provider: StarBucks

"IP-Details.com"
Date: 23 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Bedminster, NJ
Geographical Location: StarBucks, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 70.197.12.193
Provider: Verizon Cellular

"IP Location"
Date: 23 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Salinas CA
Geographical Location: StarBucks, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 70.197.12.193
Provider: Verizon Cellular

"Info Sniper"
Date: 23 May, 2016
Diagnosed Location: South San Francisco CA
Geographical Location: StarBucks, Martinez, CA
IP Address: 70.197.12.193
Provider: Verizon Cellular

"IP-Details.com"
Date: 5 June, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Bedminster, NJ
Geographical Location: Martinez, CA
IP Address: 70.213.0.103
Provider: Verizon Cellular

"IP Location"
Date: 5 June, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Berkeley CA
Geographical Location: Martinez, CA
IP Address: 70.213.0.103
Provider: Verizon Cellular

"Info Sniper"
Date: 5 June, 2016
Diagnosed Location: Oakland CA
Geographical Location: Martinez, CA
IP Address: 70.213.0.103
Provider: Verizon Cellular

"IP-Details.com"
Date: 2 March, 2017
Diagnosed Location: ?
Geographical Location: Berkeley Inn, Berkeley CA
IP Address: 50.247.98.197
Provider: ?

"IP Location"
Date: 2 March, 2017
Diagnosed Location: Berkeley CA
Geographical Location: Berkeley Inn, Berkeley CA
IP Address: 50.247.98.197
Provider: Comcast Cable

"Info Sniper"
Date: 2 March, 2017
Diagnosed Location: Oakland CA
Geographical Location: Berkeley Inn, Berkeley CA
IP Address: 50.247.98.197
Provider: Comcast Cable



Geolocation is a useful diagnostic tool, when diagnosing various Blogger problems - but geolocated details, using the above tools (or complementary procedures), need to be persistently cross checked. Tomorrow, or from a different location or service, one may see different results.

Access and authentication.

Sometimes when trying to regain access to a dormant blog, you'll be advised to access from the previously used computer. Google uses location comparisons, as part of demographic authentication.

Connectivity.

Some blog disconnections may have geographical origin. Knowing where you, and other blog readers may be (or appear to be), can be useful in determining a geographical relationship between problems.

Language.

Blogger uses geolocation to determine appropriate local language. Knowing where you are - or appear to be - can be useful in determining why you may be seeing the Blogger dashboard and / or your blog, in a given language.

The bottom line.

Along with blog address / name / URL verification, location diagnosis is a useful procedure - but the results need to be considered selectively.

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When diagnosing various access / connectivity problems with #Blogger, knowing the IP address and location of the reported problem is useful. It's easy to get the desired details - but the details may need to be verified, carefully.

https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/4LkxHxYsj1c/discussion

Blogger Magic - Using Sitemaps To Diagnose Problems

Knowing how to read, and follow, sitemap entries is a useful skill in diagnosing many Blogger problems.

The Blogger generated sitemaps, which apply to each blog, index both pages and posts. This blog, like every other blog, has two sitemaps, automatically generated.

"sitemap.xml" (posts) roughly duplicates the "Archives" gadget - but has advantages, over the gadget. "sitemap-pages.xml" (static pages) is not redundant, to any Blogger accessory.

The two Blogger generated sitemaps provide possibilities for content and problem analysis, unequaled by any Blogger accessory.

• http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/sitemap.xml
• http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/sitemap-pages.xml

The posts sitemap is valuable.

• The Archives gadget, which provides a canonical list of posts, is not included on all blogs.
• The Archives gadget, for most blogs, must be examined one month at a time - and does not provide a search option.
• Manually searching for a post, using "Older Posts", is time consuming.

The pages sitemap is especially valuable.

• There is no canonical accessory, that lists pages.
• The Pages gadget only lists pages that the owner wants to index.

You can view pages, and posts, using either sitemap. Note only a published page or post will be listed. Draft status pages and posts will not be listed.

This blog, like many, has a paged posts sitemap.

Each posts sitemap page will list up to 150 entries. Any blog with over 150 posts will have a paged sitemap.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/sitemap.xml

The posts sitemap, for this blog.



Page 1 of the posts sitemap contains the 150 most current posts.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/sitemap.xml?page=1

Page 1 of the posts sitemap, for this blog. It's a very simple display - just URL and "last edited" date / time, for each post.



Here is the pages sitemap.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/sitemap-pages.xml

I don't have a lot of pages published, in this blog, that are of public interest.



You can access pages and posts, from the sitemap.

Using browser features, you can access any listed page or post, directly from either display.

Highlight the URL that you need to examine.

Right click, select "Go to http://blogging.nitecruzr.net /p/what-are ...".

And there is the page in question.



You can access "http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/p/what-are-differences-between-pages-and.html" from the pages sitemap - or "http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2013/12/what-are-differences-between-pages-and.html" from the posts sitemap.

Most browsers have a right click context menu, and a "Go to (URL)" selection - and provide direct access to any page or post, using a properly formatted URL.

One practical case, diagnosed using the sitemaps.

One of the intriguing uses of the sitemaps, that we find useful, involves a blog with content - yet when viewing it, we see

No posts.

in the blog "status message" section. Why do I see "No posts." - instead of blog content?

People who confuse "pages" (aka "static pages") and posts (aka "dynamic pages") may publish a blog, using nothing but static pages. The blog main page will normally only display posts - and show "No posts.", when viewed.

You can, however, redirect the home page to a given static page - and add links between the static pages. Or, republish the pages as posts, if convenient.

---

The recently added #Blogger generated pages and posts sitemaps offer canonical access to all published pages and posts, in every publicly accessible blog. These sitemaps are useful to people - as well as to search engines and other indexing processes.

Diagnose Problems, With Blogs Using Dynamic Templates, Using Non Dynamic Templates

The process of examining browser source listings for a blog, and of having a blog owner carefully examine blog template code, is an important part of diagnosing many Blogger problems.

With blogs published to dynamic templates, neither source listings, nor template "Edit HTML", contain as much useful information, as with blogs published to non dynamic templates. Dynamic templates reference scripts, that are hosted in external libraries - and that cannot be updated or viewed.

The idea of having templates that were less customisable was originally supposed to encourage people to work on post content, and increase stability of their blogs - not create instability.

One of the original reasons for having the dynamic templates was to have templates that would encourage blog owners to work more on content - and less on style.

Dynamic templates were designed for less customisation - and increased reliability.

Having the less customised templates would, hopefully, have made the dynamic templates more reliable. Unfortunately, Blogger chose to add features to the dynamic templates, to make them more popular.

The "infinite scrolling" feature of the dynamic templates impressed people, who decided that "infinite scrolling" would be useful for their blogs - but without having noted that dynamic templates have less options for customisation.

People, who like the existing dynamic templates features, demand more features for them. And, they cause more problems, for themselves - since many of them lack the ability to diagnose their own problems.

Eliminate general blog problems, by re publishing to a non dynamic template.

Any time a blog problem is diagnosed, and the problem involves a blog that uses a dynamic template, it's a good idea to start by re publishing the blog to a non dynamic template. Try to diagnose and eliminate any general blog problems, before tackling problems caused by tweaking of dynamic templates.

Just go to the dashboard Template wizard, and choose any non dynamic template - then "Apply to blog". Then, reset the post template (if the posts are involved, in the problem).

Publishing to a non dynamic template lets us use standard diagnostic tools.

With the blog published to a non dynamic template, you (the blog owner) can use the Template Editor to examine general (non dynamic) template CSS, HTML, and / or XML code. Also, you (and any helpers) can use a browser "View Source" window, to examine the rendered blog code.

If you diagnose a problem with non dynamic code, you can edit and correct any problems found. Once that is done, and you are satisfied that there are no non dynamic template related problems, re publish the blog to a dynamic template - and diagnose any remaining problems.

As always, template backups are strongly advised.

If you decide to make any changes to the template code, as always, I advise that you backup the template - before and after making changes. Whenever you detect a problem, recover the template to the backup taken before the changes, and see if this fixes the problem noted.

FeedBurner Feeds Not Being Updated

Recently in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, we've seen a few reports of blog feeds that aren't updating promptly.

With FeedBurner, is it a good idea to diagnose any problems experienced.

After a brief feed diagnostic procedure, we do an HTTP trace of the feed.

Sending request:

GET /feeds/posts/default HTTP/1.1
Host: myblog.blogspot.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.19.191
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·302·Moved·Temporarily(CR)(LF)
Content-Type:·text/html;·charset=UTF-8(CR)(LF)
X-Frame-Options:·ALLOWALL(CR)(LF)
Location:·http://feeds.feedburner.com/MyCustomFeed(CR)(LF)

OK, the feed is redirected to FeedBurner.

Given a problem involving FeedBurner, it is a good idea to use the FeedBurner "Troubleshootize" wizard.

All feed problems won't involve FeedBurner - and all FeedBurner problems won't affect only the blog subscription options - but a careful diagnostic procedure is still a good idea.

Diagnosing Problems With Custom Domains: An Alternative Dig Tool

As I wrote earlier, when I'm diagnosing a problem with a custom domain - and occasionally, with other blog and network problems - my most frequently used tool is a Kloth online Dig. With Dig being an important diagnostic procedure, it's a good idea to have more than one Dig utility available.

• The Kloth server may be down.
• The Kloth server may not offer the right options.
• It's good practice to occasionally (and sometimes, intentionally) cross check results against another server.

For many Dig investigations, I like to use a second online Dig service - WhoIs, provided by All-NetTools. The All-NetTools WhoIs Dig actually provides more than a standard Dig. A WhoIs Dig, for a domain, provides much valuable information about the domain / registrar relationship. Here, for instance, we can see an All-NetTools WhoIs Dig for this domain, nitecruzr.net.

http://www.who.is/whois/nitecruzr.net/

REGISTRY WHOIS FOR NITECRUZR.NET

Domain Name: nitecruzr.net

Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Status: clientDeleteProhibited, clientRenewProhibited, 
clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Expiration Date: 2010-03-24
Creation Date: 2008-03-24
Last Update Date: 2009-05-01

Name Servers:
ns11.domaincontrol.com
ns12.domaincontrol.com
ns53.domaincontrol.com
ns54.domaincontrol.com

Here, we see useful information about this domain, including the fact that it expires within the month. In cases where the domain in question is seen to be parked, knowing that a domain recently expired helps us advise a blogger that it's necessary to contact the registrar immediately, and avoid loss of domain registration.

A an All-NetTools DNS Dig against nitecruzr.net provides still more interesting and useful information.

http://www.who.is/dns/nitecruzr.net/

The WhoIs SOA Dig shows us the SOA record.

NITECRUZR.NET SOA RECORD
Name Server  ns11.domaincontrol.com
Email   (masked)
Serial Number  2009121603
Refresh  8 hours
Retry   2 hours
Expiry   7 days
Minimum  1 day

Here, we see the name of the domain master server, and the various expiry times for the domain.

The Whois DNS Dig shows us the well known host records.

NITECRUZR.NET DNS RECORDS
Record  Type   TTL  Priority  Content
mail.nitecruzr.net  CNAME  1 hour   ghs.google.com
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.36.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.32.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.34.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.38.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  10  aspmx.l.google.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  20  alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  30  alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  40  aspmx2.googlemail.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  50  aspmx3.googlemail.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns11.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns12.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns53.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns54.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   SOA  1 day   ns11.domaincontrol.com. dns.jomax.net. 2009121603 28800 7200 604800 86400
www.nitecruzr.net  CNAME  1 hour   ghs.google.com

This will never replace the Kloth Dig log, completely. The Kloth server offers many more options, such as the ability to selectively Dig against aliases besides the domain root and well known aliases. It is a worthy complement to a Kloth Dig in many cases, and can be used as a backup or cross check.

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Diagnosing Problems With Blog Feeds

Recently, we're seeing an assortment of complaints about blog feeds, either not working at all, or updating slowly. Whether presented in a browser display, in a Following Reading List / Google Reader, or in a bloglist gadget, the accuracy of the feed as displayed can be affected by a few issues.

• Custom feed redirection.
• Custom Domain redirection.
• Classic vs New feed URL, and Blogger vs BlogSpot / domain served feed.
• Feeds served by third party servers (FTP publishing).
• Feeds from private blogs (which don't exist).
• Cached feed content.

Custom Feed Redirection

A custom, redirected feed, redirected through FeedBurner or a similar service, will be affected by problems with the service. When you check out a problem with a redirected feed, it may be helpful to compare the redirected feed content with the non redirected feed content.

Custom Domain Redirection

A feed coming from a blog that's published to a custom domain will be affected by the custom domain DNS issues. Feeds redirected through DNS addresses that use spurious solutions, like frames or URL forwarding, will be slow to, or never, update.

When you check out a problem with a feed from a blog published to a custom domain, start by examining the DNS setup for the domain. For each person reporting a problem, see if they are using the BlogSpot URL, or the domain URL. If the former, check the BlogSpot to domain redirection.

Feed Format and Source

For any feed with a problem reported, find out if the problem is with a classic, or a new, feed URL. The exact feed URL may be relevant. Look at the 3 feeds served from this blog page, as provided in the blog header.

<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" />

Here, we have 2 new URL feeds served from the custom domain, plus one feed served from Blogger.com.

Third Party (FTP Published) Feeds

When you're looking at feed URLs, watch out for a feed that comes from an external third party server. Feeds published from non Google servers may have many issues. Use of the Blogger based feed, vs the third party server served feed, may be especially significant. We've even recommended use of the Blogger served feed, as a workaround for feed problems in some FTP published blogs.

Feeds From Private Blogs

A feed coming from a private blog will never be updated. If the blog was just made private, you'll be seeing the blog feed as it was before the blog was made private, for a long time.

Effects Of Caching Upon Your Clients

Also, consider the effects of cache. Your readers that are affected by a local cache, or an upstream cache, will see irregular performance when they view a feed. Depending upon the nature of a blog, a given blog may have more readers who use a bloglist or feed reader, and who have Internet service that includes an upstream cache. A regional, or reader service, affinity may point to a cache issue.

Summary - When Reporting A Problem

Anybody reporting a problem with a feed viewed in somebody else's blog should state their geographical location, ISP name, and type of Internet service. Anybody subscribed to a feed with a problem should state the complete and precise URL of the feed. All of these details may be relevant to the problem.

All of these are details which will affect peoples access to any blog feed, and the displayed content in the bloglists and feed readers which they view.

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Google Webmaster Tools

As a Google customer, we have access to a very useful set of tools, which help us develop and maintain a healthy relationship between our blogs and the Google search engine spiders.

Google Webmaster Tools (now Search Console) provides us with tools to measure our visibility, and it provides us with helpful hints on how to improve our visibility.

You can use Google Webmaster Tools for any active URL that you administer.

If your blog is published to BlogSpot, you use the "xxxxxxx.blogspot.com" URL; if the blog is published to a custom domain, you use the primary URL for the domain.

Using Google Webmaster Tools for any web site requires that you are the administrator of the web site.

Google doesn't want anybody who's not the administrator, of any web site, accessing search engine diagnostics for that web site.

The meta tag provided in the verification process is a token, and it must match the URL that you are verifying. If you change the active URL for the blog (rename it within "blogspot.com", or publish it to a custom domain), you will need a new Google Webmaster Tools entry, with a new verification tag.

The meta tag is as important a data element as the clickable link that you get in your email, when you're offered membership in a blog - or when you verify an email address, for an account. You click on the link, which opens the token, and applies it to your account.

With a Blogger blog in Google Webmaster Tools, you install the token into the blog template, to verify ownership of the domain (blog). Only a blog administrator has the authority to update the template. If you don't install the token into the template, you can't prove that you own the blog, and you can't use Google Webmaster Tools for your blog.

Elsewhere in Google Webmaster Tools, you'll find the Web crawl logs. Some information in the web crawl logs can be very useful to you, while other is informational only. It's to your advantage to separate the two categories. The "Preferred domain" setting in "Site Configuration" is a very small setting, that can have a big impact. And most of us setup our blogs on GWT so we can add a sitemap to the blog.

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