Custom Permalink Feature in Blogger. How Do I Use it?

When you write a blog post, Blogger automatically generates a permalink (a URL that links to a blog post) from the title of the post. if you prefer to customize the link, you can do so with the custom permalink feature in Blogger. It was one of the suite of SEO features integrated into Blogger in 2012 to enable users effectively customize their search preferences.





I use it alot every-time I compose my posts. It makes it possible for me to generate URLs that provide readers with more information about my posts when scanning search engines results. Atimes, when you fail to use it, Blogger might end up auto-generating a URL that might not really make sense for your blog post.

How To Use Blogger Custom Permalink

To create your own URL for a specific post, go to the Compose page and enter a title for your blog post.



Click on "Links" in the Post Settings box.

Allow Blogger to auto-calculate the permalink. Once completed, click on the 'Custom Permalink" option.



You should see the editable permalink generated by Blogger



Edit it as desired. You can also delete all and retype whatever you want there.



Click DONE.



That's all.




NOTE



==> Separate each word with -

==> Avoid words like "of", "the", "is", "from" etc

==> The shorter, the better.

==> Each blog post must have a unique permalink.

==> You can't edit permalink of an existing post. It's only for new posts. 





I hope this helps.

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Google Scrapper Report Form For Reporting Copycats

If you see a scrapper URL outranking the original source of content in Google search, you can now report such URL to Google using the new Scrapper report form. This is Google's latest effort in reducing the activities of Internet copycats known as "scrapers".





According to Google, the form does not perform a spam report or notice of copyright infringement. For now, Google just want to use the data you submit to test and improve algorithms as Google is currently testing algorithmic changes for scraper sites (especially blog scrapers).



The link to the Google scrapper form was posted on Twitter by Matt Cuts; head of the webspam team at Google.

If you see a scraper URL outranking the original source of content in Google, please tell us about it: http://t.co/WohXQmI45X

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) February 27, 2014

The form asks you the source URL, i.e. the original source of the content, the URL of the page stealing the content, the search results page where it is being outranked, and just a confirmation.

You can fill the Google Scrapper form here.

Such scrapper sites sometimes score higher than the original content in Google search results, thereby frustrating thousands of bloggers. So, if Google can do something about this, don't you think it will be cool??



NOTE: Use https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en&pli=1 to report spam or http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=ts.cs&ts=1114905 to report copyright complaints. 

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Google Webmaster Tools Preferred Domain Set Up Guide

Links may point to your site using both the www and non-www versions of your site's URL (for instance, http://www.example.com and http://example.com). Google sees both as two different web pages if your site is not using redirection from www to non www or vice-versa. This might hurt your link building efforts and might also get you penalized for duplicate content because Google sees both URL pointing to same content.





To be on the safer side, it is highly recommended that you set your preferred domain in Google Webmaster Tools. Setting the "preferred domain" enables you to tell Google if you'd like URLs from your site crawled and indexed using the www version of the domain (http://www.example.com) or the non-www version of the domain (http://example.com).



Once you set your preferred domain name, Google considers all links that point to your site to be pointing at the version you prefer. For instance, if you specify your preferred domain as http://www.example.com and Google finds a link to your site that is formatted as http://example.com, Google will follow that link as http://www.example.com instead. In addition, Google will take your preference into account when displaying the URLs in search results..

How Do I Set My Preferred Domain?

==> Go to www.google.com/webmasters

==> Add and verify the www and non www versions of your site's URL. Tip: try using the same verification code that you used to verify your first domain. That way you’re just one click from verification



Once both have been verified, go to the Google Webmaster Tools homepage and click on the site you want.

Click the gear icon and click "Site Settings"

In the Preferred domain section, select the option you want and SAVE.



That's all.



NOTE: It may take some time before you see this change fully reflected in Google index. All pages that currently display the non-preferred version of the URL in the index will remain in the index that way until Google refreshes their indexing of those pages.



Have you set your preferred domain name? Which one do you prefer? (www or non www). Kindly let me hear from you via comments.

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How To Set GeoGraphic Target With Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools features "Geo-targeting" tool which handles geographic data, (not language data) and allows site owners to set targets. It allows them to connect their sites to a country, as an intended audience for their websites.



If your site has a neutral top-level domain, such as .com or .org, geotargeting helps Google determine how your site appears in search results for geographic queries.

According to Google, setting a geographic target won't impact your appearance in search results unless a user limits the scope of the search to a certain country.

A good example of where setting a geographic target would be useful is for a restaurant website: if the restaurant is in Nigeria, it's probably not of interest to folks in France. But if your content is in French and is of interest to people in multiple countries/regions, it's probably better NOT TO restrict it.

So, if you're targeting users in different locations—for example, if you have a site in French that you want users in France, Canada, and Nigeria to read—Google doesn't recommend that you use this tool to set France as a geographic target.

How To Set A GeoGraphic Target

==> Log in to Google WebMaster Tools page.
==> On the Webmaster Tools Home page, click the site you want.
==> Click the gear icon , and then click Site Settings.

==> In the Geographic target section, select the option you want and click SAVE.


If you want to ensure that your site is not associated with any country or region, select Unlisted in the drop-down list.

NOTE:



Sites with country-coded top-level domains (such as .ng) are already associated with a geographic region, in this case -Nigeria. In this case, you won't be able to specify a geographic location.

That's all.

Source: Google Webmaster Tools Help

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