Blogger Magic - Adding Label Search URLs

One of the simplest ways to make a blog useful is to add label searches.

Adding label searches, in page / post text, is not easy - unless you know how to build the URLs. Here's a label search from this blog.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/search/label/Blogger%20Magic

All that I want, when using that label search, is to add another reference to my "Blogger Magic" post series.

"Blogger Magic" emphasises how easy it is, to use Blogger. How easy is it, to remember that syntax - to add a label link? Maybe, a "Blogger Magic" reference, in this post?

When you read a blog post, that has label references, look at the bottom of the post.

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Please note the advice, at the bottom of the post.

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Look in the post footer, for the "Labels" section.

Here's the bottom of another post, from this blog.

Here's the bottom of this post.



Note that not all blogs will provide a "Labels" posts section. That is an owner choice.

Look at a label link, in the "Labels" section of the post - when provided.

There's the bottom of two of my "Label Search" posts - "Blogger Magic - A Blog Within A Blog", followed by this post "Blogger Magic - Adding Label Search URLs". Now, look at the Labels links.

In most blogs, the Labels links would be labeled "Labels". I call mine "Topics". As owner of this blog, that is my personal choice.

Also, in most blogs, the "Labels" section will be found, in the post footer. Some blog owners have chosen to position their "Labels" in the post header. This, too, is their choice - and carries with it, some risk.

See "Label Search"?



Look in the browser status area, when hovering over the link caption.

Look at the "Topics" section. See "Label Search"? Hover the mouse cursor, over the "Label Search" link.

See the label search URL, in the browser status area?



Look in the browser status area, when hovering over the link caption.

Hover the mouse over "Label Search", and look in the browser status area.

blogging.nitecruzr.net/search/label/Label Search

For a blog using an HTTPS redirect, you might see a slightly different URL.

If this blog uses the "HTTPS: Redirect" option, you might see it slightly differently.

https://blogging.nitecruzr.net/search/label/Label%20Search

Click on either of the above 2 links. OK, I cheated with the second link - since this blog, right now, does not support HTTPS - and I obviously don't want you looking at an HTTPS Error display.

Whether HTTP - or HTTPS - is in use, there is the label search link.

Whichever you see - and decide to use - with your blog, there is a label search URL. Now, get a label search URL from your blog - and use the URL, in another page or post in your blog.

This post opens many links in new tabs / windows, intentionally.

BTW - and if you have clicked on any of the links above - and since you have apparently read to this point - I have to warn you that many of the links, above, are intentionally coded to open in a new tab / window. That is necessary, based on the nature of the links in this post.

Many of the links in this post are clickable, simply to illustrate to you the content in label searches - as opposed to links which lead you to additional information in the blog. So as not to lead you away from this post, you should not lose context after clicking on a link - as long as you simply close the new (illustrative) tab / window.

My sincere apologies, if my seemingly gratuitous opening of new tabs / windows inconveniences or offends you.

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Some #Blogger blog owners want to use label search URLs, in page or post text. Getting a label search URL is easy enough, when you look in the post label search section - which is generally in the post footer.

Blogger Magic - Links And Colors

We see an occasional question in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue about blog links - and the captions that change colour, mysteriously.

Some blog owners seem to regard the colour changes as one more Blogger pecadillo - ignoring the fact that colour changing link captions have been part of Internet design, since the early days.

In most blogs, you can change link colours - and prevent the colour changes - using the Blogger dashboard Template Designer.

You can change any color using the color code, or a color chart, part of any colour wizard.



To access the Template Designer, start from the dashboard Template page.

The Template Designer is behind the "Customize" button, on the dashboard Template page.

From the dashboard Template page, click on the "Customize" button.

Start with the Template Designer main page.

Click on Advanced - and look for "Links".

On my blog, I can adjust "Link Color", "Visited Color", and "Hover Color".



Template Designer menu and wizard combinations may vary.

The Template Designer menu / display can be adjusted according to the decision of the template designer.

Your template, when customized, using Template Designer, may have a "Links" section, with "Link Color", "Visited Color", and "Hover Color". It may have additional colours - or colours and fonts may be combined. All of this is as setup in the template "Variable definitions" section.

You can change any colour using the colour code - or a color chart.



If you want your links - including titles - to remain one colour constantly, change the 3 colours (or whatever your blog has) to one common value.

My blog uses "Link Color" = "2d25ce", "Visited Color" = "ce25c5", and "Hover Color" = "583fff". Your blog may use a different colour combination.

For a useful color number / visual chart, you can use W3Schools: HTML Color Picker.

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Not all #Blogger blog owners understand link captions - and how the caption colours change, to indicate pages that have been visited from a given browser. Some think the colour changes are a Blogger novelty.

In reality, link caption colours have been a feature, since browsers were first used in the Internet.

Is There A Purpose To Referer Spam?

We've been experiencing - and discussing - referer spam, since 2011.

We still see unaware blog owners, asking in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

When I checked my stats for my blog, and looked at traffic sources, I noticed a link from a different country - and it just seems weird that Russian readers would then go to a US site.

When we explain that they're probably seeing another referer spam attack - and that clicking on the links is not always a good idea, we get a variety of responses. Some want to know if there is a purpose, to this noise.

Referer spam has a variety of purposes - ranging from commercial, to dangerous, to deceptive.

Garbage? Or a purpose?



Here are just 3 examples, from Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

• Advertise any paying customer.
• Lead you to a website with hacking content.
• Attack innocent third parties.

Advertise any paying customer.

This is the commercial possibility. If there's money to be made from publishing informative, interesting, and original content, there is probably lots more money to be made herding innocent third parties to ads on any website needing traffic - and lacking informative, interesting, and original content.

This may even represent a variation of GPT. And with the volume of referer spam that's possible, there are surely enough naive blog owners to make this a very lucrative activity.

Lead you to a website with hacking content.

This is the dangerous possibility. With hacking activity as a possible destination, clicking on a Stats link blindly is like playing "Russian Roulette", with your computer.

And, don't expect the website URL to provide a clue as to the destination. "www.innocous-name.com" could itself be hacked - and might unknowingly serve content from "www.hacking-website.com" - or redirect to "www.hacking-website.com".

Attack innocent third parties.

This is the deceptive possibility.

My blog was a "victim" of referer spam attack, in 2011. I have seen similar referer spam reports, that suggest this is not an unusual use of referer spam.

Protect yourself - if you must investigate your referers.

Surely, there are still actual people surfing - and some referer links are genuine. Eventually, you will want to check out some of the more intriguing URLs, in "Traffic sources".

If you decide to investigate one of the links, copy the text of the link URL - then use a proxy server.

Just don't investigate links, without protection. That's what proxy servers are for.

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Some #Blogger blog owners want to know if referer spam has a purpose - or if it is simply random noise. It actually has a variety of purposes - commercial, dangerous, and deceptive.

Adding A "Top Of Page" Button To The Blog

This week, I added a gadget that's been needed, on this blog, for some time.

You may see my new "Top" button, at the lower right corner of this blog. If you have a normally wide browser window, with wallpaper showing on either side of the posts / sidebar section, you'll see the new gadget floating on top of the wallpaper. If you have squeezed your browser window to save horizontal space, you may see the new gadget floating on top of the sidebar (but beneath the sidebar gadgets).

This is an extremely easy tweak to add. The hard part was finding - and sizing - the icon that I used.

To find a suitable icon for the button, Google for it.

To find the icon, Google Is Your Friend. Just look through the search listings, until you find one that fits with your blog.

free up arrow icon

Once you have found an icon that you like, download to your computer - then upload to your blog - politely. Don't hot link icons.

• Hotlinking is rude, and may abuse somebody's limited bandwidth.
• Hotlinking depends upon somebody's intention to host their icons, using their service, for eternity (however long you publish your blog, anyway).

Once your chosen icon is saved as a blog image, setup the button code.

Once you have your icon politely saved as part of your blog, add an HTML gadget - and add the gadget code, in the Content window of the HTML gadget.

<a style="display:scroll;position:fixed;bottom:20px;right:60px;" href="#" title="Top"><img border="0" height="60" width="60"  src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2eOcCRS3N1_JwNrk6zva82CQybo8TWCvgMs6lUtZhyl_6XrkbjWP8Ayf2eQLtg3KEaUMruYNMT3uHK7llf3gltPNd6PMaMEjSWXuTpPzCX-fAebzTg5xQTb9kdRRiRhVVm347DAyfZzdk/s320/Up+Arrow+4.jpg" /></a>

Here's the magic.

style="display:scroll;position:fixed;bottom:20px;right:60px;"

That positions the icon in a fixed location on the screen. The new HTML gadget contains the code - and can be located anywhere in the blog. The magic determines where the icon is displayed.

Adjust settings, to make the button appear in an acceptable screen position.

Adjust "Bottom" and "Right" values, to position your new icon in the desired location, for your blog. Resize the browser window a few times - make it narrower and wider - and get an idea how the final location of the icon may vary. Test in different browsers, too.

This is my icon:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2eOcCRS3N1_JwNrk6zva82CQybo8TWCvgMs6lUtZhyl_6XrkbjWP8Ayf2eQLtg3KEaUMruYNMT3uHK7llf3gltPNd6PMaMEjSWXuTpPzCX-fAebzTg5xQTb9kdRRiRhVVm347DAyfZzdk/s320/Up+Arrow+4.jpg

Your icon will have a different URL. Use your own icon, please!

Then sit back, and enjoy your blog, with its new navigational aid.

A caveat.

If you add your "Top Of Page" button code into a page or post, never switch between Compose and HTML modes, when editing that page or post.

Confusion From Blogs That Use Smart Links In Titles

Some blog owners like to publish blogs that use custom colours, in the titles.

Carefully coordinated colours are important, in some blogs. Both the blog title, and the individual post titles, in many blogs, are clickable link captions. The blog title links to the blog home page, and / or the post titles link to the individual post pages.

Some blog owners get confused, when they try to set the colour of the titles, to a custom colour - and see link colours (which vary according to status), instead of the selected custom colours.

With some templates, both the blog title, and the post titles, may be captions for "smart" links.

A "Smart Link" is clickable, only when it leads to a different page.

With a smart link, the caption is clickable only when you are viewing a page not targeted by the link. When the link is clickable, it becomes subject to the "link" vs "visited link" colour combination.

With a blog that uses a custom colour title, and links in the titles, you will have 4 possible title colours.

• Custom title colour.
• Link colour.
• Visited link colour.
• Hover colour.

The above colour settings are provided, for some templates, when one uses the Template Designer "Advanced" menu. All settings are not included on all templates - though you can add any needed setting, with a little work.

A post title is clickable, only when the post is viewed on an index page.

With a smart link, the title in question will be a link only when you are not viewing the page that's targeted by the link. The blog title smart link, for instance, will point to the blog home page - and each post title smart link will point to the individual post page.

• When you are viewing the blog home page, the blog title will not be clickable. Each post title will be clickable link captions.
• When you are viewing an individual post, the blog title will be a clickable link caption, and the post title will not be clickable.
• When you are viewing an archive retrieval or label search, both the blog title and posts titles will be clickable link captions.

It appears that the post title smart links are enabled, when the post permalink is part of the published date / time, in the post footer. This option was common, with older templates; with some (but not all) Layout and Designer templates, it may also be available.

If the post permalink is not provided in the post footer link, it appears that "smart" links may not be an option.

If you don't want the "smart link" colour action, you can add a CSS rule, and make page / post titles a consistent colour.

h3.post-title {
color:#000000;
}

This will, for instance, make all titles black. Be observant, though - and make sure that this works, consistently, for you!

Simple Edit / Removal Of Problem Blog Gadgets

Blog owners frequently have to edit or remove various blog gadgets - and sometimes need coaching, to edit or remove.

Editing or removing gadgets, normally, is pretty simple - when you know what you're looking for. Whenever you are logged in to Blogger, as a blog administrator, you can find the "Edit" link, on the dashboard Layout wizard - or the "Quick Edit" link on the blog (when "Quick Edit" is enabled), as displayed.

Sometimes, identifying a problem blog gadget, to another person, isn't easy. What happens, if someone misreads your instructions?

Even when identified, it may not be a simple task to locate a given gadget.

• The "Quick Edit" option may not be enabled, on a blog.
• Even when "Quick Edit" is enabled, a blog with lots of gadgets may be tedious to search, looking for the gadget in question.
• Mistakes can be made. What happens, if you click on the wrong link, and remove the wrong gadget?
• When a malicious or misbehaving gadget is involved, either loading the blog or the dashboard may produce unacceptable results.

Fortunately, with the right diagnostic work, we may not have to load either the blog, or the dashboard, to edit or remove an identified gadget.

Start by locating, and identifying, the gadget in question. As an example, I will use a gadget from my test blog. First extract the code, for gadget "HTML13" - my so called "Empty HTML Gadget".

<div·class='widget·HTML'·id='HTML13'>(LF)
<h2·class='title'>Empty·HTML·Gadget</h2>(LF)
<div·class='widget-content'>(LF)
This·is·a·(<span·style="font-weight:bold;">somewhat</span>)·empty·HTML·gadget.(LF)
</div>(LF)
<div·class='clear'></div>(LF)
<span·class='widget-item-control'>(LF)
<span·class='item-control·blog-admin'>(LF)
<a·class='quickedit'·href='//www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=6231987187698503326&widgetType=HTML&widgetId=HTML13&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1'·onclick='return·_WidgetManager._PopupConfig(document.getElementById("HTML13"));'·target='configHTML13'·title='Edit'>(LF)
<img·alt=''·height='18'·src='http://img1.blogblog.com/img/icon18_wrench_allbkg.png'·width='18'/>(LF)
</a>(LF)
</span>(LF)
</span>(LF)
<div·class='clear'></div>(LF)
</div>

Look for "quickedit" - and extract the "href" value.

//www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=6231987187698503326&widgetType=HTML&widgetId=HTML13&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1

Be really careful here - extract the complete string, between the ' ... '.

Add "https:" to the front of the extracted value.

https://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=6231987187698503326&widgetType=HTML&widgetId=HTML13&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1

And there is the exact URL needed, to access the Edit wizard, for the gadget, "HMTL13".

Now, to point out the "obvious".

• The URL will work, for the gadget on any blog, even if "Quick Edit" is not enabled for the blog - for a blog administrator.
• The URL will not work, for the gadget on any blog, even if "Quick Edit" is enabled for the blog - for a non blog administrator.
• Disclosure / possession of the URL poses no security threat to your blog - nor any benefit to a hacker. Try the link below, and see for yourself.
• Even if you are logged in as an administrator, the URL may not work - if "third party" cookies are not enabled.

The URL is simply a tool, which can be extracted, by anybody - and can be used, by a blog administrator (and only by a blog administrator), when properly logged in to Blogger.

Having noted the "obvious", your life can be a bit simpler, when instead of having to instruct someone how to locate and use the correct "Quick Edit" or Layout Edit link, to remove a problem gadget, you simply instruct them.

Login to Blogger, and click on the link below:
https://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=6231987187698503326&widgetType=HTML&widgetId=HTML13&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1.
Then click "Remove".

Now, extract and try a link from your blog - and see for yourself. Isn't that simpler?

Use "Quick Edit" To Bypass The Dashboard Menu

One very useful Blogger feature is the option to bypass the Blogger dashboard - to edit the various gadgets, and existing blog posts.

The feature, termed "Quick Edit", provides two different icons, generally visible to the proper recipients, with the option enabled, on the published blog.

• The "Quick Edit" "pencil" is visible to administrators and authors, in the posts toolbar, to the right of the "Email Post" icon. This will generally be in one of the post footer lines.
• The gadget "screwdriver / wrench" icon is visible to administrators, to the lower right of each template gadget (except for "Blog Posts").

Though the "screwdriver / wrench" icon is more visible, that icon has no name, and no selection option in the Blogger dashboard. And, there are more mysteries.

The "Quick Edit" option is selected using "Configure Blog Posts", as "Show Quick Editing".

Most blog owners enable "Quick Edit" on their blogs, routinely.


What I see, of the"Search Me, Direct" gadget, in this blog.


The Quick Edit icon, that I see. You should not not see the icon, when you view this blog - but you may see it, on a gadget in your blog, when you view your own blog.


You enable "Quick Edit" from the dashboard Layout page.
Though the option affects visibility of the "screwdriver / wrench" icons, in the blog template, there is no dashboard Settings selection. It is only selected as a post template option, in "Configure Blog Posts".

The "Configure Blog Posts" wizard is accessible only by Editing the "Blog Posts" gadget, from the dashboard Layout wizard. There is no "screwdriver / wrench" icon which allows access to the "Configure Blog Posts" wizard.

Names used to identify the "Quick Edit" icon may vary.
Adding to the mystique here, residents of Europe may term the "wrench" as a "spanner". Long ago, some blog owners referred to the "screwdriver / spanner / wrench" icon as "dragonflies".

Both the "pencil" and "screwdriver / wrench" icons may or may not be consistently visible. Both icons have been known to be invisible / non functional, with improperly configured cookie or script filters.

The icon may be visible, even when not operational.
And thanks to caching, a blog owner may see either the "pencil" or "screwdriver / wrench" icon when logged out of Blogger - and mistakenly conclude that the public, in general, is able to access the Dashboard or Post Editor for his blog, and change blog options or edit posts. Having logged out, then clicking on any visible icon - or clicking on a carefully configured link URL, we can verify that no illegal access is possible.

And some blog owners, thanks to an intriguing terminology variation, may refer to the "pencil" as an option for editing a "blog".

All that said, use of the Quick Edit URL - with Quick Edit enabled or not - can be very useful, in removing gadgets properly identified.

Confusion From "Add external link" In Pages

The recently redesigned Pages gadget and wizard has been with us for just over 3 months.

We are occasionally seeing some confusion from people who can't add a dynamic page link to their blog - even when they manage to find the redesigned Pages gadget.

I added a dynamic page, linking from "mymainblog.blogspot.com" to "mysecondblog.blogspot.com". Imagine my dismay, when the new page link goes to "mymainblog.blogspot.com/mysecondblog.blogspot.com", instead of to my actual target "mysecondblog.blogspot.com"!

Here is a blog owner who is not aware of the unforgiving syntax of the "New Page › Web Address" wizard, and the "Web address (URL)" entry.

If we were to view the HTML code for this web page, 'Confusion From The "Add external link" Procedure In The Pages Gadget', and look at my link to a previous post "Adding A Link To Your Blog Post, Part 2", where I discussed link entry syntax confusion, we could see the HTML behind a typical post to post link.

<a href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html">link entry syntax confusion</a>

See the code for the link target?

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html

When adding a link, many blog owners would simply think

blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html

If I were to add a link, using the "Add link" wizard in post editor - or using the "Web address (URL)" entry in the "New Page › Web Address" wizard, I would see a window, with the essential prefix "http://" preformatted there.

Taking my target address of "blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html", and pasting the target after the prefomatted prefix "http://", I would get "http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html".

If I were to simply paste "blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html" into the window, I would end up with (no surprise, here)

<a href="blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html">link entry syntax confusion</a>

That's a bit odd looking - and that gets worse. A URL which lacks the prefix (for instance) "http://" has the current base URL added, when the post is compiled into the blog.

This would result in HTML code

<a href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html">link entry syntax confusion</a>

With these two Blogger link entry wizards, you must remember to add the link target selectively, if and only if it is not already prefixed by "http://" - after the preformatted "http://".

Conversely, if you start with a target

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html

you want to overlay the "http://" prefix in the window. If you follow the "http://" in the window with

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html

you'll end up with

http://http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/08/adding-link-to-your-blog-post-part-2.html

and that will present a new problem.

Some link entry wizards are more forgiving - and will add / strip the target URL, as necessary, so it always ends up with the right syntax construction. This is just another Blogger peccadillo.

Dynamic Templates, And Problems Editing The Layout Pages Gadget

Ever since the new Pages wizards have been in use, we've been seeing reports from blog owners, who have problems with adding, deleting, and re sequencing links on the dynamic template menu bars.

Most blog owners have gotten used to the idea of maintaining dynamic pages ("link pages", formerly known as "web address"), using the Layout Pages gadget - separately from maintaining static pages (formerly known as "blank pages"), using the dashboard Pages wizard.

Even understanding the changes, some blog owners, who publish blogs that use dynamic templates, cannot add or delete dynamic pages - or cannot resequence the various page links.

Some owners claim to have links on the menu bar that they can't delete. Others have added, deleted, or resequenced links - but have found their changes to be lost, when viewing the blog, after saving the changes.

It appears that some blogs have had multiple Pages gadgets.

Blogs using a dynamic template, with multiple Pages gadgets in their history, become a problem.

If we look at the "Edit" link of the Pages gadget, in most blogs, we find the gadget referenced as "PageList1".

https://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=1573647684922284136&widgetType=PageList&widgetId=PageList1&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1

That is the "Edit" link for the gadget, for my dynamic template test blog.

Some blogs show signs of having had multiple Pages gadgets. "PageList2" - or even "PageList3" - are seen in some blogs.

https://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=3821418744348630367&widgetType=PageList&widgetId=PageList2&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1

That is the "Edit" link for the gadget, for one blog with this problem.

Apparently the dynamic templates only use "PageList1" in the menu bar - even if "PageList2" or "PageList3" is the active "Pages" gadget. This is not a problem for non dynamic templates.

The workaround, in this case, is simple enough. The blog owner must edit "PageList1".

https://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=3821418744348630367&widgetType=PageList&widgetId=PageList1&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1

Just extract the URL from the "Edit" link, paste it into the browser address window, change the "2" to "1", and hit Enter. Then add, delete, and rearrange links as necessary - and Save the changes.

The workaround is simple enough - but until Blogger Engineering fixes the problem, the blog owners affected have to use the workaround, each time they need to update Pages. And, if they ever switch back to a non dynamic template, they will need to update the active alias of "PageList", with any changes made to "PageList1".

Let's hope that Blogger Engineering can identify and fix the problem.

Verifying Ownership Of Your Site To Bing Webmaster

As a web master (aka blog master), besides adding posts and enhancing the template, you have a third activity - connecting your web site (blog) to other web sites and blogs. In many cases, you'll simply send the owners of the other web site (blog) a request to link to your blog.

For links to large and very active web sites, you'll use an online wizard. To prove ownership of your web site, instead of sending email, you'll add a file of specific name, or maybe specific content, into the web site. You can't add a file to your blog, though. With a Blogger blog, you have no control over files and folders - all that you do is publish posts.

One of the most important web sites that you can add your blog to, similar to Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer, is the Microsoft search engine, Bing.

Similar to Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer, Microsoft provides Bing Webmaster, which provides you the web site (blog) owner the ability to monitor and tune the relationship between your web site (blog) and Bing, the Microsoft Search Engine. When you add a non Blogger web site to Bing Webmaster, you add a file of specific name and content, to the root. When you add your blog, you add a record of specific content - a meta record - to the template.

This meta record, which provides your verification of ownership to Bing, may be one of the most important single lines of code in the template. Add this with care.

1. First, and always, backup the template for the blog.
2. Sign in to your HotMail / Live / Microsoft account (Yes, here, too, you have to sign in! And you will need a Microsoft accepted account!)
3. You start from Bing Webmaster Center - Home.
4. Under "Sites", you'll see the "Add Site" button. Hit the button.
5. Paste or type the URL of the blog into the "Site:" box.
6. Hit "Submit".
7. Now you'll have "Verify Ownership".
8. Click on "Option 2: Copy and paste a tag in your default webpage".
9. Copy the meta record, as presented to you.
10. You'll take the record as provided, and reformat it slightly. Here's an example of what they provide.
    

    <meta name="msvalidate.01" content="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX">
    

    
    Here's what I used.
    

    <meta content='XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX' name='msvalidate.01'/>
    

11. In another tab or window, open the template editor window, for the blog.
12. Copy the record into the template for your blog, just below the records added for Google Webmaster Tools and / or Yahoo Site Explorer verification.
13. Save the template.
14. Back in the Bing Webmaster "Verify Ownership" window, click on the "Verify" button.
15. You'll now see your site, added to the Sites list, and the "Dashboard" for your newly added site will be displayed.
16. And again, backup the template for the blog. Save both backups.

Having verified ownership of your site, you now have access to various features of Bing Webmaster.

>> Top

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Earlier today, I observed one new feature in New Blogger GUI (2011) - the Post Editor "Add or remove link" wizard now offers the option to

Open this link in a new window.

This, in my opinion, is a major improvement in the New GUI (in general), and in Post Editor (in particular). A few minutes later, to my disappointment, I discovered a major design deficiency, in Post Editor.

Having acknowledged the new option, in the update of another post, I hit "Update" - and found myself back in the Posts list, positioned at the top of the list (with the recently added post The First Compelling Reason To Use The New Blogger GUI (2011)) at the top of the display. My recently updated post Make Links Open In A New Window, written long ago, was nowhere to be found.

The ability to return directly to Post Editor mode, for a given post just updated, was an option given to us, some time ago, after much pleading. It appears that option is now gone - and once again, we have to start from "Posts" and re locate any given post, just updated. Any old post, just updated, is somewhat unlikely to be found on the home page of "Posts", in any blog of any significant size.

My personal publishing strategy (shared with a few people) is to publish a post, then re publish it, repeatedly, with one simple goal.

Make each post as well written as possible.

Some time ago, I observed that I generally re publish any given post an average of maybe 6 times the number of paragraphs in the post. That means that I will, possibly, re publish this post 42 times, in an effort to make this post as clearly written, and as complete, as absolutely possible.

Having hit Publish above, I will now be returning to the Classic GUI. My morning of experimenting with the New GUI (2011) Post Editor, and the option to "Open this link in a new window.", is now ended. Having to re locate any given re updated post, in "Posts", is distracting - and interferes with my re publishing efforts.

One step forward, followed by two steps back. This is an experience not unknown, in the world of Blogger blogging.

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The First Compelling Reason To Use The New Blogger GUI (2011)

For many years, I have consistently used "Edit HTML" mode when creating and editing my posts, because I need to make some links, embedded in the post content, open in a new tab / window (subject to choice of the reader). Up to this month, this could only be done by manually editing the links, and inserting the link modifier

target="_blank"

. Today, in creating this post, in "Compose" mode, and adding the above link, I see the option

Open this link in a new window.

in the "Add link " wizard.

If Blogger is able to resolve the many design issues with the New Blogger GUI (2011) in general, this change in the New GUI (2011) Post Editor will go a long way towards removing our need to use "Edit HTML" Mode. This will remove a significant amount of problems of using Post Editor in dual modes, and will allow them to stabilise Post Editor in general.

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Making Jump Break Work For Blogs With Older Templates

The new Blogger solution for auto summarised posts, also known as "Read More" or "Jump Break", is becoming increasingly popular in Blogger blogs, for several reasons.

• Auto Pagination resulted in display segmentation, caused by the perceived need to publish hundreds of posts on the main page.
• Desire to display a dynamic index of posts as the main page.
• Desire to simply make the main page and / or archive retrieval displays smaller.

The "Jump Break" feature itself is reasonably easy to use, when you are using the New Post Editor, and with blogs that use a template released after Jump Break was released - apparently in September 2009. If your blog was created before then, you may need to add a critical bit of code to the post template.

The simplest way to add the necessary code would be to refresh the post template.

If you have customised your post template, this won't be a good idea. If you want to keep the current post template, and add the critical bit of code, you're going to have to edit the template HTML, and you're going to have to Expand Widget Templates when you edit the HTML.

Instruction from Blogger, in Creating 'After the jump' summaries is pretty simple

After backing up your template, then click the Expand Widget Templates checkbox, and scan your HTML for the following snippet:

<data:post.body/>

Once you've located that code, paste the following snippet directly below it:

<b:if cond='data:post.hasJumpLink'>
<div class='jump-link'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url + "#more"'><data:post.jumpText/></a>
</div>
</b:if >

After you've pasted in the code, click Save and then you're done!

It's possible that such simple instruction may be slightly misleading.

Here's the snippet in question, as seen in the template in my newest test blog, "Chuck's Jump Break Test", with surrounding code to provide a contextual reference.

<div class='post-header'>
<div class='post-header-line-1'/>
</div>

<div class='post-body entry-content'>
<data:post.body/>
<div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
</div>

<b:if cond='data:post.hasJumpLink'>
<div class='jump-link'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url + "#more"' expr:title='data:post.title'><data:post.jumpText/></a>  
</div>
</b:if>

<div class='post-footer'>
<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>
<span class='post-author vcard'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
<data:top.authorLabel/>
<span class='fn'><data:post.author/></span>
</b:if>
</span>

If you read the above instructions literally, Blogger would have us take an older template

<div class='post-header'>
<div class='post-header-line-1'/>
</div>

<div class='post-body entry-content'>
<data:post.body/>
<div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
</div>

<div class='post-footer'>
<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>
<span class='post-author vcard'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
<data:top.authorLabel/>
<span class='fn'><data:post.author/></span>
</b:if>
</span>

Add the recommended snippet to produce

<div class='post-header'>
<div class='post-header-line-1'/>
</div>

<div class='post-body entry-content'>
<data:post.body/>
<b:if cond='data:post.hasJumpLink'>
<div class='jump-link'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url + "#more"'><data:post.jumpText/></a>
</div>
</b:if>
<div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
</div>

<div class='post-footer'>
<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>
<span class='post-author vcard'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
<data:top.authorLabel/>
<span class='fn'><data:post.author/></span>
</b:if>
</span>

I suspect that the update may be much more correctly installed as

<div class='post-header'>
<div class='post-header-line-1'/>
</div>

<div class='post-body entry-content'>
<data:post.body/>
<div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
</div>

<b:if cond='data:post.hasJumpLink'>
<div class='jump-link'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url + "#more"'><data:post.jumpText/></a>
</div>
</b:if>

<div class='post-footer'>
<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>
<span class='post-author vcard'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
<data:top.authorLabel/>
<span class='fn'><data:post.author/></span>
</b:if>
</span>

Or possibly, you may even want the full, original snippet

<div class='post-header'>
<div class='post-header-line-1'/>
</div>

<div class='post-body entry-content'>
<data:post.body/>
<div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
</div>

<b:if cond='data:post.hasJumpLink'>
<div class='jump-link'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url + "#more"' expr:title='data:post.title'><data:post.jumpText/></a>
</div>
</b:if>

<div class='post-footer'>
<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>
<span class='post-author vcard'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
<data:top.authorLabel/>
<span class='fn'><data:post.author/></span>
</b:if>
</span>

So, what is "expr:title='data:post.title'"? Look at my demonstration, hover the mouse cursor over "Read more »", and see.

If you just added the Jump Break to your blog after following the instructions from Blogger, and you followed their instructions literally, you may be observing odd details. It's possible that reports of post / sidebar alignment problems, and odd problems with photos and jump break, may be related to this confusion. You may do well to modify their instructions, when you update your template.

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Make The Blog Header Non Clickable

Everybody has their own idea how they want their blog.

Not everybody wants the blog title to link back to the main page at all, while some folks would like to have the title link back to the main page even when the main page is displayed.

The default Blogger code enables a link in the blog header, when anything but the first segment of the main page (aka "home" page) is displayed. Some people would like the link completely disabled, on all segments. Others would like the link enabled, on all segments.

Some folks don't like the way the title changes colour - in many blogs, the "links" (unvisited links) and "visited links" have colours that stand out from the text. Look below - see the purple and blue text? Those are links. If you don't like the title to colour itself, you remove the links - or replace the title with a picture - as I have done above.

In most of my blogs, I could do without the clickable title, completely, as I have my Menu Bar, which includes a "Home" link.

For some blogs, removing the link, in the blog title, is a fairly simple change.

Blogs that use text in the header (including text over a picture) contain code that's reasonably easy to tweak. Blogs that use a custom image in the header, with no text, are slightly more challenging.

This is done under the layout template editor. First, (yes, again!) back up the template. Next, "Expand Widget Templates" and look in the body, for

    <b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
    <data:title/>
    <b:else/>
    <a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:title/></a>
    </b:if>

To disable the link completely, change all of that to one simple line.

     <data:title/>

To enable the link, completely, change all of that to one alternately simple line.

     <a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:title/></a>

Blogs that use only an image in the header contain some more complex code to display the image. They include the link in all pages, without any checking for the home page.

      <!--Show the image only-->
      <div id='header-inner'>
        <a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl' style='display: block'>
          <img expr:alt='data:title' expr:height='data:height' expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + "_headerimg"' expr:src='data:sourceUrl' expr:width='data:width' style='display: block'/>
        </a>
        <!--Show the description-->
        <b:if cond='data:imagePlacement == "BEFORE_DESCRIPTION"'>
          <b:include name='description'/>
        </b:if>
      </div>

Here, the only choice is to remove the link, if you wish.

      <!--Show the image only-->
      <div id='header-inner'>
        <img expr:alt='data:title' expr:height='data:height' expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + "_headerimg"' expr:src='data:sourceUrl' expr:width='data:width' style='display: block'/>
        <!--Show the description-->
        <b:if cond='data:imagePlacement == "BEFORE_DESCRIPTION"'>
          <b:include name='description'/>
        </b:if>
      </div>

Save, and test. And (yes, yet again) backup the template.

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Including Content From Other Websites In Your Posts

I use excerpts of articles from other websites, in a few of my posts - when the other websites provide more in depth description of the issue being discussed.

I use some websites, such as WikiPedia, more than others. It's good practice to at least link back to the originating website, when copying or quoting any significant amount of unique content. There are so few restrictions, in general, what content we may include in our blogs - so it makes sense to be polite when we include content from other websites.

In most cases, and to keep my posts relatively short, I prefer to simply quote a brief, relevant snippet of content, and link back to the originating website.

In WikiPedia: Occam's razor, we see the advice

the simplest solution is usually the correct one.

For best results, ask for permission from the legal owner.

Since every different blog / website, with a different owner, could be published under a separate content policy, it's always best to ask for permission, before copying. Without permission, you could find yourself here later, asking about various content related penalties.

• Some owners might appreciate the free publicity.
• Other owners might not want their content used in another website.
• Some owners might be paying a third party for the right to use their content.

You won't know, until you ask.

I like to add " target="_blank"" to any link that takes the reader to another website, however temporary.

In WikiPedia: <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor" target="_blank">Occam's razor</a></span>, we see the advice<blockquote>the simplest solution is usually the correct one.</blockquote>

Content such as Lorem Ipsum is ancient public domain, and it's available all over the Net. It may or may not be necessary to attribute that, for brief snippets.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

When you include original content from a specific website, however, it's good practice to attribute.

The text is derived from sections 1.10.32-33 of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Ends of Goods and Evils, or alternatively [About] The Purposes of Good and Evil ).[3] The original passage began: Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit (Translation: "Neither is there anyone who loves grief itself since it is grief and thus wants to obtain it"). It is not known exactly when the text acquired its current standard form; it may have been as late as the 1960s. The passage was discovered by Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar who is the publications director at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, by searching for citings of the rarely used Latin word "consectetur" in classical literature.[1][2]

The original version (with the excerpted items highlighted) appears in Book 1, sections 1.10.32-33 (pagination varies by publisher):

[32] Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci[ng] velit, sed quia non numquam [do] eius modi tempora inci[di]dunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?
[33] At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus, qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti, quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint, obcaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa, qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio, cumque nihil impedit, quo minus id, quod maxime placeat, facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet, ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat.[2]

- From Wikipedia: Lorem Ipsum

Blogger spam classification looks for scraped content.

Blogger is now diligently screening blogs for "spam" and other forms of misbehaviour. One of their classifications of "spam" is termed "scraping". Many blogs consist, largely, of content scraped from various websites, minimally relevant.

Your blog needs more than scraped content - if you wish to continue.

People who publish blogs that contain material from other websites, simply must make it a consistent practice to distinctly attribute copied material - or face the possibility of spam classification by the Blogger bot.

Note that, however you attribute, yor blog will simply serve as a gateway to the other source blog / website. With the other website higher in page rank than yours, you'll just be sending your readers to theirs - and the SERPs will list theirs ahead of yours.

You're not going to gain much - except empty volume - by including their content.

You will be responsible for content from other blogs and websites.

Note that any time you include material from - or link to - another blog or website, what you include or link to must be abuse and malice free. You are responsible for the comfort and safety of your readers - and anything that you do, to possibly disturb their comfort or safety, can cause your blog to be locked or deleted, as abusive or malicious.

A connection to another blog or website - using a feed, iframe, or link - puts a portion of your blog under the control of the other blog or website. If an abuse / spam classification bot determines the other blog or website to be abusive / malicious, your blog will suffer the consequences.

Make A Static Page For Your Blog

A static page is one of the simplest accessories that you can add to your blog. It's simply a post that has been archived, and will never display in main page view.

It's astonishingly simple to make a static page.

• Publish enough non static posts, to populate your main page. If you're simply making a web site, set main page size to 1 post, and publish one post.
• Publish additional posts, and back date additional posts before the oldest non static post.
• The additional posts, back dated, become static pages.
• Wasn't that simple?

---

(Update 2010/01): As a belated Christmas present, Blogger now provides us, as a new post editor option, with the ability to create true static pages for our blogs.

---

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Choose Your Text Colour And Background, Carefully

If I publish a blog in which I concentrate on content and information, I want to make the content and information easy (yet inviting) to read.

This blog, The Real Blogger Status, is marginally easy to read - and looked boring - before I upgraded to a Designer template, which has a more complex background. Then, I added my floating background, to make the text easier to read.

Recently, I redesigned this blog, and published using a new Blogger supplied Responsive template.

If I wanted something stylish, I might have chosen a template with a black background, such as in my Tech World blog. White on black is very elegant looking, yet reasonably easy to read.

Some people like elegant, but mysterious, colours - such as dark blue or red text, on a black background.

Search engine bots ignore colors - both background and text colors are ignored.

Going a step further, some folks will choose black text, on a black background. All three colour schemes are fine for search engine visibility, since search engines don't look at colours - they just look at text content.

People prefer to read blogs that can be read, easily.

Your readers, on the other hand, won't be so lucky. How easily can you read dark blue or red text, on a black background? Worse yet, black on black? You can't. If you're like me, and have seen this nonsense occasionally, and you watch what looks like an otherwise normal blog load, displaying large patches of blank space, you'll get curious.

Can you read this?



However intriguing the content, blogs that can't be read, easily, won't get as many readers - and may not qualify for AdSense.

Look at my "click and drag" demonstration.

How many readers will try click and drag where no text is visible, unless they see a "click and drag here" caption?

If you want readers, publish a blog that can be read.

Be kind to your readers, if you want readers. Choose text and background colours that complement each other. What may be elegant may not always be kind.

And if you see a blog or web site with an interesting colour combination, use "Red Alt: I Like Your Colors" to check out the colour palette used.

---

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2009/11/be-kind-to-your-readers-choose-your.html

The New Post Editor And Read More

One problem which we seem to see, pretty consistently, in Blogger Help Forum, is where the posts and a sidebar end up in one long column, with one above the other.

Reports like

My posts have vanished!

and

My sidebar (my archives, my Followers, my profile gadget, ...) have dropped to the bottom of the page!

are seen a lot in the forum. Generally, it's caused by trying to put too much in one place.

Recently, though, a few bloggers report the dropped sidebar symptom, after they try the new post editor, and the Blogger "Read More" option (called by Blogger, "Jump Break").

The "Read More" feature in Blogger blogs has been a long needed option.

Before the new post editor, Blogger, and at least 2 other bloggers, had their own competing, and mutually incompatible, procedures for making your blog show, and execute, a "Read More" link. All 3, to my knowledge, had drawbacks. One of the most obvious was that each different version was added by editing the post HTML, and the HTML was complex, and messy.

The "Jump Break" option, in the new post editor, is easy to add.

1. Add a New Post, or edit an existing post, in Compose mode.
2. Position the cursor after the words that you want to be always shown.
3. Hit the "Jump Break" button, in the editor toolbar.
4. The jump break is inserted into the post editor window.
5. When you publish the post, you'll see the words that you want to be shown, followed by the link "Read More".
6. What could be simpler?

---

(Update 2010/04/17): It's possible that the above instructions from Blogger, if you follow their complete instructions and add Jump Break to an older template, may be slightly misleading. Read their instructions, then read mine, please.

---

In rare cases, the "Jump Break" button in the toolbar may not work. If you have that problem, go into the "Edit HTML" mode, and insert

<!-- more -->

right where you need your jump break.

For all the simplicity in adding this (either in Compose or "Edit HTML" mode), it's not producing simple results.

There appear to be at least two scenarios where a blog, with one or more posts published with jump breaks, would have a dropped posts or sidebar section.

1. When the blog displays more than 10 posts in main page view, each post with a jump break, the 11th post will cause this problem.
2. If the jump break is inserted into the middle of a section of text with formatting implemented using a "<div> ... </div>", a "<div>" section broken by a jump break will cause this problem.

The workarounds to prevent these scenarios are obvious.

1. Reduce your main page size.
2. Don't add jump breaks in the middle of "<div> ... </div>" sections.

---

One possible cause of code containing lots of "<div> ... </div>", a "<div>" would be content composed in Microsoft Word, or another external word processor / desktop layout program. Another, as noted above, may be slightly misleading instructions.

Also, watch out for the third party gadget "Related Posts" LinkWithin. You need this gadget ahead of the "Read More" break (you want your readers to see it without having to display the entire post), but be careful and don't put the "Read More" break in the middle of the LinkWithin code!

---

But those workarounds may not be popular, or easy to implement.

1. Some bloggers like to publish blogs with 15, 20, or more posts in the main page.
2. Blogger who like this new, shiny feature may not be aware of when their posts include "<div> ... </div>" sections. How can they avoid breaking a section that they can't see?

---

(Update 2010/02/22): This week, we are seeing an incompatibility problem between the new Auto Pagination feature, and the older "Read More" variants. This is resulting in greatly reduced main page and archives page height. It appears that the proper solution is to replace all old "Read More" variants with the new "Jump Break" solution.

---

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Removing the "Subscribe to:" Caption / Link

Not everybody who produces a blog, and not even everybody who produces a blog and provides a feed, likes the caption / link at the bottom of the posts column

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

or

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Some folks think this feature makes the bottom of the posts look cluttered. Maybe they're right.

Fortunately, it's not hard to remove.

First (and I always advise this) Backup Your Template. Next, From the Template Editor, select "Expand Widget Templates". Look through the code for "nextprev".

<!-- navigation -->
<b:include name='nextprev'/>

<!-- feed links -->
<b:include name='feedLinks'/>

Remove just one line.

<!-- navigation -->
<b:include name='nextprev'/>

<!-- feed links -->

Save. Test. Finally, Backup Your Template, again.

Verifying Ownership Of Your Site To Google Webmaster Tools

As a web master (blog master), besides adding posts and enhancing the template, you have a third activity which is almost as time consuming.

You will be constantly connecting your web site (blog) to other web sites and blogs. In many cases, you'll simply send the owners of the other web site (blog) a request to link to your blog.

For links to some web sites, you'll not use email, you'll use an online wizard. To prove ownership of your web site, instead of sending email, you'll add a file of specific name, or maybe specific content, into the web site. You can't add a file to your blog, though - with blogs, you have no control over files and folders - all that you do is publish posts.

One of the most important web sites that you can add your blog to is Google Webmaster Tools.

"Webmaster Tools" - now known as "Search Console" - provides you the web site (blog) owner the ability to monitor and tune the relationship between your web site (blog) and the Google Search Engine.

Note that some time ago, Blogger added a quick, universal verification of your blogs. At the bottom of your dashboard, under "Tools and Resources", you'll find a link "Webmaster Tools". This appears to generate a file known as the "WMX Verification File".

Right now, there are some odd circumstances which may be a result of using that link. For right now, I would only verify my blogs, one at a time, adding a meta record - as shown below.

When you verify ownership of your web site to GWT, you add a file of specific name and content, to the root. When you add your blog, you can't do that, so you add a record of specific content - a meta record - to the template. Note that the automated process which reads the blog header, and verifies your ownership, appears to be sensitive to private blog settings.

This meta record, which provides your verification of ownership to Google Webmaster Tools, may be the most important single line of code in the template. Add this with care.

1. Sign in to your Google account.
2. You start from Google Webmaster Tools - Dashboard.
3. In the Click here to add a site box, enter the URL to your blog, and then hit Add Site. Make this entry identical to the URL to which the blog is published. Use the following examples, substituting appropriately your value for "myblog", "mydomain", "xxxxx", and "zzz".
   • If the blog is published to "myblog.blogspot.com", enter it as "myblog.blogspot.com".
   • The blog will never be published to "www.myblog.blogspot.com", so do not enter it as "www.myblog.blogspot.com".
   • If the blog is published to "mydomain.zzz", enter it as "mydomain.zzz".
   • If the blog is published to "www.mydomain.zzz", enter it as "www.mydomain.zzz".
   • If the blog is published to "xxxxx.mydomain.zzz", enter it as "xxxxx.mydomain.zzz".
   If you rename the blog, either changing the BlogSpot URL or republishing to a Custom Domain, remember to repeat this exercise with the updated URL.
4. This will take you to Overview.
   

   Next Step
   Verify your site. By verifying your site you can access comprehensive statistics and crawl errors about the pages in your site

5. Click the link for "Verify your site".
6. This will take you to Verify a Site.
7. In the Choose verification method... pull down list, select Add a meta tag.
8. This will generate your site verification meta tag. Highlight and Copy the text from the box.
9. In a separate window, edit the template for your blog. Add into the template, in the heading section, your site verification meta tag, that's provided by the GWT wizard. After you add the meta tag, you should have something like:
   

   <head>
       <b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
       <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
       <meta name="description" content="......."></meta>
       <meta name="keywords" content="......."></meta>
       <meta name="verify-v1" content="......."></meta>
   
       <b:skin><![CDATA[/*
   

   
   Note that some detail was removed from the above example, and that the above example shows template code for designer and layout templates.
   
   You might want to observe the different ways to format a meta tag, including differences between classic and layouts formats. The XML, in a layouts template, will require a properly closed tag.
   
   • The tag will probably be presented, by the GWT wizard, as

     <meta name="verify-v1" content=".......">

   • One way to code the tag, in a layouts template, would be

     <meta name="verify-v1" content="......."></meta>

   • A second way to code the tag, in a layouts template, would be

     <meta name="verify-v1" content="......." />

10. Save Template Changes.
11. Go back to Verify a Site, and hit Verify.
12. This will take you to Overview. Part of the display will include:
    

    You've successfully verified (your site)

    and may include
    

    No pages from your site are currently included in Google's index.

    and

    You have not submitted any Sitemaps. Submit a Sitemap to help Google discover pages our crawlers might not otherwise find.

    Select the Sitemaps menu entry.

Having verified ownership of your site, you now can add a Google Sitemap, or use the other features of Google Webmaster Tools.