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

Recovering Your Account Information

Blogger promises us that our blogs will be ours, forever, and that we are free to publish our blogs in privacy, if we so desire.

They do this by protecting our Blogger accounts behind Two Factor Authentication. Both the name of our Blogger account, and the password used, are our secret to keep.

Since both the account name and the password are secrets, you can't just write to Blogger Support one day and say

I forgot my account name - can you tell me what it is?

When you setup a Blogger account, you provide an email address, which will be used for recovering forgotten account names and passwords.

If you forget the account name, or need to reset the password, you can use the Forgot your username or password? wizard.

"Forgot?" has two options, which you use depending upon what you know.

The "Forgot?" wizard gives you two options, and sends a recovery email message accordingly.

• Recover access to an account. Provide the account name (the email address that you provided when opening the Blogger account), and the email goes to to the primary email address for that account.
• Recover access to the blog. Provide the URL of the blog in question, and the email goes to the owning account(s) for that blog.

There are several interesting details, with the "Forgot?" wizard.

• The wizard works only for BlogSpot URLs. If the blog is published to a non BlogSpot URL (as a custom domain), you will need to provide the original BlogSpot URL.
• The wizard works for all BlogSpot URLs - regardless of the Country Code alias which affects the blog owner. Whether the owner is in Canada (and seeing "xxxxxxx.blogspot.ca"), in Mexico (and seeing "xxxxxxx.blogspot.mx"), or in the USA (and seeing either "xxxxxxx.blogspot.com" or "xxxxxxx.blogspot.us"), you use only the "xxxxxxx" BlogSpot name, in this wizard.
• The wizard works only for active URLs. If the blog is deleted, either by you or by Blogger, you won't be able to recover access.
• You will only get the recovery email, when you login to the recovery email account. You have to use an active email account, for recovering your login information.
• Blogger will not tell you the email address, since the account name / email address is kept a secret.
• Blogger cannot tell you anything, if you have intentionally obscured your identity.

In cases where the account was last used under Old (Pre 2006) Blogger, the Claim your blog wizard may be used - but note that Legacy accounts are no longer supported, in general.

"Having trouble?" complements "Forgot?".

A third possibility would be the Google Having trouble signing in? wizard. You may also find Google Accounts: Secondary Email Address to provide relevant - if not welcome - advice.

In any case, your personal identity is kept a secret from others - as other folks identities are kept a secret from you. If you don't have access to the email account that's associated with the Blogger account, you don't get the email. That restriction leads to interesting scenarios - such as mysterious email received from the Forgot Password wizard, caused by desperation.

Whether you use either "Forgot?" wizard, when you open the email and login to Blogger as part of the authentication process, be sure that you provide / use the right Blogger / Google account. Alternately, clear cache, cookies, and sessions - then restart the browser - before executing either wizard. Do not claim or recover the blog, to an unknown or unexpected account.

Recovery is easiest done, using two browsers.

Account recovery will involve accessing two accounts, simultaneously - and is best done using two browsers.

It's possible that understanding the relationships between Blogger accounts, email addresses, and Google accounts may reduce your need to continue. If your account is based on a non GMail email address, you may wish to consider the special relationships.

Your next possible solution is to try using the Blogger "Forgot your password?" wizard. If "Forgot?" does not provide you enough clues, you're entitled to ask Blogger Support for help - but you need to understand the limitations of their ability to help.

If you choose to ask for help, consider making an effort to recover access to your GMail account, or to your non GMail account, as necessary. And when you check your email accounts, GMail or non GMail, check carefully.

Having recovered the account, you should be able to find the blogs previously owned - and possibly un delete them - starting from the "Deleted blogs" dashboard list.


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Some blog owners lose access to their #Blogger accounts - either forgetting the account name / password, or letting the blog go dormant and requiring demographic authentication when trying to access later. They expect that Blogger will just send them an access token, without verifying that they are the rightful owner.

They fail to observe that Blogger wants them to continue publishing their blog - and does not intend to let unknown parties have control of it, through failure to require verification of identity.

Editing The Blog Template

The template is like the skeleton of your body - you can't see it (easily), but the success of the blog depends upon its being there, and being structured properly.

If you're going to have a blog, and publish it effectively, eventually the dashboard Layout and the Template Designer pages won't do enough for you. You're going to want to get to the details, underneath the GUI processes.

You access the template editor using the dashboard Theme page, where you will find (among other options) the "Edit HTML" button.

Click on "Edit HTML".



Clicking on "Edit HTML", you may get a serious warning to read.

Directly editing HTML may affect the way some features work and is only recommended for advanced users. Editing template HTML may unpredictably affect other Blogger features. We recommend using the Template Designer first, where you can Add CSS under the Advanced section.

Should you choose to click on "Proceed", you'll be into the "Edit HTML" display.

Edit carefully. Some changes may require editing / removing multiple lines of code.



With a Classic template, you have just one major activity when you're in "Edit HTML" - and that's what the name suggests, you edit the HTML. You'll have some CSS code, but no XML - so it's all relatively straightforward.

With a Layout template, you'll have a few extra options.

• Backup ("Download a copy") the template.
• Upload the template ("Backup / Restore").
• Revert widget templates to default.
• Revert to classic templates.
• View classic template. If you started the blog with a classic template, and upgraded to layout, you can look here to find any left behind HTML accessories and tweaks. You can add as "HTML / JavaScript" gadgets, any well defined accessories and tweaks.

With a Designer template, you'll have one additional minor option.

• Revert the template to Layout.

And with a layout template, you'll have "Edit HTML", but with a few more tweaks than with a classic template. You'll have CSS and HTML - and XML - code to edit. And don't overlook the possibility of using HTML code in place of XML code, in a layout template.

One of the least understood selections in the Template "Edit HTML" wizard is the option to "Expand Widget Templates" , which has been replaced by selectively unfolding any gadget to be edited. Just understand when to unfold - and when to not unfold.

Remember that Blogger blogs offer many possibilities. Some code can be installed using HTML / JavaScript gadgets, as an alternative to adding code to the template using "Edit HTML".

And please, as always - backup the template, before and after using Template Editor.

Identifying Yourself, As The Owner Of Your Blog

Occasionally, somebody in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? wonders

Why don't I have a Layouts (or Template) link in my dashboard?

or

How do I setup additional team members, without the right link in Permissions?

and the first question is

Are you logged in as the blog administrator / owner?

It's not difficult to verify the owner of your blog, if you have a public profile, and a standard template.

In your browser, select View, then "Page Source" or "Source". Or, use an HTTP text proxy. Look at the code for this blog, heavily trimmed and broken, for 'link rel="me"'.

<head>

...

<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="me" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/08069634565746003311" />

There it is!

https://www.blogger.com/profile/08069634565746003311

or maybe you'd see

https://plus.google.com/114025756997654559499

That's my profile. Click on either link.

Find the Profile URL, and follow the link - and look at the Profile.

So, look at the header code for your blog, locate the "me" link, extract the attached URL, and follow the link- either for a Blogger Profile, or for a Google+ Profile.

If there's no "me" link - which is normal, for blogs under team ownership - look carefully in the sidebar - if the blog has a Profile / "About Us" gadget, you may be able to find a "www.blogger.com/profile/ ..." or "plus.google.com/ ..." link there.

With some team blogs, you may find a list of each individual profile, for the whole team. Each individual profile should have a different Profile ID in the attached URL - again, "www.blogger.com/profile/ ..." or "plus.google.com/ ...".

Then, find the Profile URL from your dashboard - and compare the two.

Take each available "www.blogger.com/profile/ ..." or "plus.google.com/ ..." link, paste it into your browser, and take a look - or click on the link, if possible. Then, go to your dashboard, and find the Profile URL, from the dashboard. Compare the two profiles - are they the same?

If not, you probably inadvertently created a second (or third) Blogger account, possibly as you incorrectly transferred a blog from one Blogger account to another.

Learn to login to Blogger properly - and avoid multi account confusion.

When you login to Blogger, first clear cache, cookies, and active login sessions - then make sure that you login using the proper Blogger account. If necessary, recover the account information, and start over.

Remember that when you login, Blogger will not select the account for you. If you have FeedBurner, GMail, Picasa, or any of the other many Google services under another account, you'll need to use two different browsers - or a different computer.

Note the limitations of the procedure, when the owner wants privacy.

Note that this procedure works only for blogs and profiles that are properly made public. If a blogger has chosen to not make the profile public, or if the blog in question is published as private (with designated readers), you won't get the details needed here. And if the blog has multiple administrators, it probably won't have the "me" meta tag in the header.

In extreme cases, you'll need assistance from Blogger, using the Having trouble signing in? wizard. Now, you have to hope that your account isn't intentionally based on a bogus email address.

Please Google, Restore My Deleted Account And Blog!

A frequently seen sign of confusion in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? is the question

How soon after deletion can I reuse a blog?

And the answer is two part.

Immediately, if you can just undelete it using the same account. Never, if you are trying to transfer the blog.

Occasionally the response to that involves a complication.

But I deleted the account, to make sure that the blog gets freed up.

And now, the blogger gets no choice.

You have to reactivate the account, because the URL is locked to that account.

Now, the blogger has a four fold task ahead of him.

• If you just recreated the Google account, by creating a new account with the same email address, you have to delete the account just created.
• Re activate the original Google account, using Google Accounts: Contacting Support - I can't access my account. Select "No" for "Did this work?", and fill out the form that you see there.
• Alternately, re activate the earlier deleted Google account, using Google Accounts: Google Accounts: Forgot your password?. Enter your email address, then fill out the form that you see next.
• Re activate the blog, if necessary, by un deleting it.
• Finally, what he should have done in the first place.
  • Make a stub, then delete the blog properly.
  • Transfer control of the blog.

And next time, plan the change.

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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The Edit Posts Menu

When you create a blog, do you just post, endlessly? I don't.

For every new post I make, I update, revise, and relink each post to other posts. And the dashboard "Posts" menu (formerly "Edit Posts") is an essential part of that activity.

From the Blogger dashboard menu, click on "Posts" - and you're there.

In the "Edit Posts" / "Posts" display, you'll see a menu of each post in the blog, with the ability to

• Edit (using Post Editor).
• View (using the browser).
• Add, delete, or even edit Labels en masse.
• Identify all posts using a given label.
• Do an onscreen check of the text in that post.
• Delete a post. If you delete, do so very carefully. And do not delete, to quickly clear a post, with the intention of publishing a new post with that same title. You may use the same title, but the post URL will never be the same.
• Review and delete comments published for the post.

The posts will be ordered by post date, as they are when displayed in the blog.

If you don't see the posts that you're expecting to see, check your post type link bar, at the upper right of the posts list.

• All
• Drafts
• Scheduled
• Imported
• Published

If "All" is clickable, click on it. If you want to see a list of posts of a specific type ("Draft" posts, "Scheduled" posts, "Imported" posts, or "Published" posts), click on the appropriate link.

If you have missing posts, that are listed in "Edit Posts", but don't show up in the published blog, look at "Drafts", "Imported", or "Scheduled". Posts that are currently "Draft", "Imported", or "Scheduled" won't show up in the blog, online.

You can also re publish or delete multiple posts, using the "Publish Selected" and "Delete Selected" buttons at the bottom of the posts list. Do the latter very carefully, unless you enjoy posting in BHG

I deleted a bunch of posts, by accident. Help me!!!

Once you get the warning, and hit the button, you're past the point of no return, so do this carefully!

Also, keep an eye on the contents of the "Search" box left of the button. If you just used the posts search, don't count on clearing that box and seeing all posts displayed again. You'll have to click on "Edit Posts" and refresh the entire screen. Try this and see for yourself, if you don't believe me.

It's an essential tool for me, and it probably will be the same for you.

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