How To Get Google Sitelinks For Your Blog?

Hi friends!!! It's been few weeks since we got sitelinks from Google. I did not post about this stuff because no one exactly knows what should be done to get sitelinks for a particular site or blog. However, I would like to share my knowledge about sitelinks. Also, I 'm  going to share few practices which may  fetch you sitelinks. Interested to know what they are???

So, what are Sitelinks? This is what Google defines about Sitelinks - "The links shown below some sites in our search results, called sitelinks, are meant to help users navigate your site." So, basically these links are aimed at improving a site's navigation. Still confused??? Then, have a look at the image below for better understanding.

METHODS TO GET SITELINKS
Although we do not know the exact algorithm that Google uses to create sitelinks, we can approximate and deduce few methods to yield these sitelinks. At least, if not for the sitelinks, I'm sure your website will rank better in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc...

1. PROPER HIERARCHY AND TEXT LINKS: Make sure your site has a clear hierarchy and text links. That is, create a site with proper CSS which utilizes the <ul> and <li> tags primarily. Add background images and other styles using the the same. This is one main reason why Thesis Theme has been outstanding when it comes to SEO.

2. SIMPLE AND CLEAN NAVIGATION BAR: Have a simple and clear navigation bar. Do not provide too many options for the readers. Get to know what the readers visit most frequently on your blog and put those labels/categories on the navigation bar. If your blog covers a variety of topics, then provide the reader with a second level menu.

3. UNIQUE TITLE: Get an unique title for your blog. If you have a unique name, the click through rate for your blog will increase. If you have it common, then no matter what you do, the click through rates will not high. So, make sure your blog has gotta unique title.

4. USEFUL CONTENT: Provide content that interests the reader. Content is King. So, it's very important that you keep providing content that interests your reader and I suggest you to choose titles that are comment provoking. This will fetch you more comments and improve your blog's reputation, as well.

5. PROPER META TAGS: Make sure you have proper META tags and titles that best fits the post. Although blogger does not support individual meta tags for each post, we can partially achieve it with a little bit of coding. Check out this article - Add META Tags To Each Blogger Posts. It is very important that the META tag on the home page is perfect. I recommend you to read this article - Create An Effective META Title For Your Blog.

I just wanted to share my knowledge about sitelinks. May be if you have an idea about getting sitelinks in a much easier way, then let us know via comments. Your thoughts are always welcome. See you soon in another interesting article.

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How To Use Google Custom Fonts On Blogger?

I'm sure many users are fed up with old simple fonts. Especially, web designers and web masters are completely stuck with the default fonts. But, we have got a solution to this problem. Google has launched a service called Google Web Fonts. It's completely free to use for both commercial and private purpose. Go check out their directory and grab the font of your style.

Once you have chosen your font style. Just make sure you back up your template. Login to your dashboard. Navigate to "Layout>>Edit HTML" from your dashboard. Hit the download template button and your done. Now, follow these steps.

1. Just click on the font of your choice from the Google Font Directory. Later, hit the tab that says "Use This Font" and you will find a code something like the one shown below.

<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Dancing+Script' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>

(Note: I have chosen Dancing Script as the font. The coding may vary depending upon the font you choose)

2. Copy and paste the code just below the following line.

<head>

(Note: You need to add a forward slash - / at the end of the coding on step 1.  Only then, you can save your template.)

3. That's it. Save your template. You have added the font on your blog. To make them really working, you need to specify it in the CSS as follows.

3.1. If you wish to have the fonts displayed for your POST TITLES, then declare them as follows.

.post-title {font-family: 'YOUR FONT NAME';
}

3.2. If you wish to have them displayed on the body section of your posts, then you need to edit your CSS for post body as follows.

.post-body {font-family: 'YOUR FONT NAME';
}

(Note: Replace YOUR FONT NAME with the font name you have chosen. In my case, it is Dancing Script. You have to remove the previous font style that existed on your template.)

4. Save your template and see your fonts in action!!!

The coding may vary depending upon the template. If you have some unique custom templates, then I'm sure the coding will be different. So, don't worry. You can contact me via email or leave a comment below and I will help you with the customization. Don't forget to share your views about this post. See you soon in another interesting blogger hack.

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Designing A Perfect Sidebar On Blogger

I just wanted to share some information about sidebar which I think would benefit both the newbies, as well as the webmasters, who are striving hard to make money via blogging - to design a perfect sidebar for your blog. To start off, sidebar is basically a section on your blog that comes either to the left or to the right of the main section & includes information related to the blog posts.

It is very important to design this element, that is, put the right content on the right area to attract both the readers and advertisers. As far as I know, a well organized sidebar should include some of the most important widgets like subscription box, advertisements, recent or popular posts, search bar or any information related to the blog they are browsing. Many blogs like TechieMania, Shoutmeloud and my very own blog - EAB, includes optional widgets like Facebook Fan Page/ Twitter Updates or Google Friend Connect.

IMAGE CREDIT - www.woorkup.com

So, it's important to know what should come first and what should go at the last. The importance of each widget based on their function has been ordered as shown in the list below. The percentage for each widget in the picture depicts both the importance and the area it should occupy on a particular blog. So, just have a keen look at it!!!

SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS:

This is a very common widget that could be found on most of the blogs. On an average, it should occupy 5% of the space provided for sidebar and I suggest you to include links to your RSS feed, Facebook and Twitter profile page. You can have a short and catchy description about your blog, as well.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

This is the most important element which every blog should possess. It's the ideal place for advertisements and should occupy, at the most 40% of the total space. It's very important that you don't place too many advertisements on your blog and make it look very ugly for the reader. Also, I suggest you have the width set to something more than 260px because you can have two advertisement blocks on the same row - just like the one on my blog. It's up to the individual to decide whether he wants to display ads related to the topic he is blogging about or just sell the ad space he has to run to meet his hosting/domain costs. 

RECENT OR MOST POPULAR POSTS:

This is another important widget that every blogger should place on the sidebar or at least, at the footer section because the maximum traffic your blog receives would be due to the posts you wrote earlier, that is people land on post pages and not on the home page of your blog. So, when you have a recent or most popular posts widget on the sidebar, there is a very high probability that the readers goes to check out another article on your blog. 

EXTERNAL WIDGETS:

This includes widget such as the Google Friend Connect, FaceBook Fan Page and so many other social bookmarking widgets. It's basically used to build better interaction with the readers. So, I suggest you can have these widgets though they are are not necessary. Make sure they don't occupy too much of your space. Limit the space allotment to not more than 10%.

OTHER ELEMENTS :

This additional space is basically for people to add miscellaneous widgets like job boards, tag cloud, etc... Limit the spacing for these elements to not more than 10%.

Basically, this post provides a quick summary about what should be present on your sidebar to make it more professional. So, I suggest you follow the same list especially if you are newbie. This schematic will definitely earn a better reputation rather than dumping a hell lot of widgets for no use. If you gotta share something, then just leave a comment. We love to hear from you!!!

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Make Your Blog More Attractive - Tip 4

Hi guys! This the next tip in my series about making your blog more attractive. If you had missed the earlier versions, then click on the following links to read about them - Tip 1, Tip 2, Tip 3. This post basically deals with adding the text "Posted by" followed by the author name. If you wish to display the labels below the author name, well we have got the code that as well. Still confused? Check out the screen shot below!!!

The main advantage of adding tags/labels below your post title is that it will provide better navigation on your blog and your labels will get indexed by major search engines like Google. Interested to add this stuff on your blog??? Well, just follow these steps.

1. Login to your dashboard. Navigate to "Layout>>Edit HTML" from your dashboard. Make a back up of your template before you make any changes in the template.

2. Expand your template. To do so, make sure you have a tick mark enabled to the left of this text "Expand Widget Templates".

3. Once expanded, just search for the following piece of code. Use "CTRL+F" to fasten your search results.

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

4. Paste the following piece of code just below the line mentioned in step 3.

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "static_page"'>
<b:else/><span class='post-author vcard' style='no-repeat;'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
<data:top.authorLabel/>
<span class='fn'><data:post.author/></span>
</b:if>
</span>
</b:if>
<br/>
<span class='post-labels'>
<b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
Tags :
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'><data:label.name/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'> | </b:if>
</b:loop>
</b:if>
</span>

5. That's it!!! Save your template!!!

Go check out your homepage or post page, I'm sure you should find the author name followed by the labels you tagged with your post. I hope you enjoyed this post. See you soon with another interesting and attractive tip on my next post. We love to hear from you, so please keep your comments coming!!!

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To Do's - Before And After Publishing A Post On Blogger

Hi friends, I would like to share my to do list with you which I feel, will drive more traffic as well as improve the SEO of your blog. I'm not sure whether my techniques are right but, I guarantee that you will see a change in the rankings on the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc... If you are aiming to make money by blogging, then I highly recommend you have a to do list for every article you write.

Apart from writing unique content and providing the best about a topic, I suggest you to have a simple to do list as mentioned in this post. I would like to make myself clear with the idea behind this post. It's not any where related to content (say an article with a to do list that tells how to write your article more effectively) - rather, it deals with few simple practices related to coding and spreading your article to make the best of out of your content.

1. EQUIP YOURSELF (OPTIONAL)

The first and foremost thing you need to ensure before you publish a post on your blog is to ask yourself this question - Do I have the right tool for the right job? This includes the images or videos on your post and the tools to optimize them as well - say, for example, Adobe Photoshop. I highly recommend you  to attach at least one image per post because apart from attracting people to read the post, images convey better meaning than the words do.

I'm sure few might contradict with my point about a minimum of one image per post.  To those contradict, just read the following comparison. I would compare a post without image to an editorial page on "The Hindu". Though it is rich with content, only few people have the patience to read them where as, a post with image would be like the first page/sport's page - quickly captures our heart and pushes our mind to read the article.

2. OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGES (RECOMMENDED)

I'm sure many would do the first step that I mentioned above. That's the basic one! Next, optimizing your images for SEO. This is one of the most important step that every newbie should follow. I know that the pro's would already be doing this. I strongly recommend you to read the following article if do not know how to optimize your images for SEO - 3 Tips To Make Your Images SEO Friendly. It will drive traffic from images and improve your blog rankings on search engines. Forgot to mention that I usually smush my images before I upload them on blogger - to improve the speed of your blogger blog (Speed Up Your Blog - Tips And Tools).

3. OPTIMIZE YOUR LINKS (RECOMMENDED)

This is another important that should be done when you publish on blogger. When you include a link on your post, the default coding on blogger is such that the link opens the new page on the existing page. That is, when people click on the link, they move to new page while your blog becomes inaccessible - it does not open on a new tab/window. It is very important that you make the coding right so that, the visitor is taken to the link on a new tab while your blog still is on another tab. 

For example, I recommended the article about optimizing images for SEO on blogger. Did you notice that when you hit the link, it opened up on new tab/window? It did not open on the same tab. If that happens , then it will disturb with  the continuity in reading the post. So, optimize your links for SEO and readability by adding the following codes.

1. Once you link a page on your post, hit the edit HTML tab on your post editor. You will find the coding for your linked page as follows.

<a href="http://www.newbloggingtipz.com">

2. Add the following codes to it.

<a title="YOUR TITLE" target="_blank" href="http://www.newbloggingtipz.com">

Note: The tag to be included is highlighted in green. More over, don't forget to replace YOUR TITLE with a suitable title for the page you link.

4. FINAL TOUCH (OPTIONAL)

Once you finish writing your article, I suggest you add a line welcoming your readers and encouraging them to comment. Apart from that, let them know they have some benefit when they comment say,  you gain back links for every comment you make. I recommend you to read about making your blogger blog dofollow - How to make your blogger blog dofollow? Preview your post before you publish. This is very important for webmasters. Check whether your tutorials are perfect, coding is correct and the text appears the way you want.

5. SPREAD YOUR ARTICLE (RECOMMENDED)

One important thing which every one should do is to spread their article. After you publish a post on your blog, make sure you drive traffic to it. Try entering to discussions and leave a link to your post. Comment on blogs related to your niche. Spread it via the social media. I recommend you tweet your article once after you complete your post. After tweet, a Facebook like. Then, ping your blog - call the search engines.

I have listed the to do list which I follow for every article I publish on my blog. I hope you have one. If not, create one. Please, do share with us if you got some other unique step that you regularly follow on your blog. We would love to hear from you. 

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Another February Offer - Free Reseller Hosting

I'm very happy to announce that one of my guest blogger has accepted to give away some exciting offers.  If you had missed the earlier FEB OFFER, just check out this post - Whois Privacy. I'm sure every webmaster would love to avail this offer. However, there is a small criteria that should be satisfied to avail this offer - you need to link FirstHosting on the website you host. I don't think it should bother you!!! Just a link at the footer will do good!!!

Well let me now reveal what the offer actually is... FirstHosting has accepted to provide a  FREE RESELLER HOSTING FOR LIFE. Apart from a Reseller Hosting for life, you get FREE PREMIUM SUPPORT as well. Do you think it's over??? No!!! Wait a second!!! We have something more for you guys!!! You will get instant $5 upon activating your affiliate account. However, there is one small trick here. Your affiliate commission will be 20% for every sale you make. And this commission will be valid only when there is a true sale. That is, you will not earn commissions when you refer people for this offer.

FirstHosting is providing hosting services since 2009 and they have servers located at different locations(USA/GERMANY/NETHERLANDS). They guarantee 100% up time with 24/7 premium support. As such, I have no personal experiences to share with you about FirstHosting. However, I have signed up for account to check out their services. May be you can try one too, because it's completely FREE!!! I will guide you through a step by step instruction for availing this SPECIAL OFFER!!!

PROCEDURE TO AVAIL THE OFFER

1. First visit the client area by hitting the following - CLIENT AREA.

2. Now, hit the ORDER NOW tab at the right corner of the web page. 

3. Choose Reseller Hosting. Scroll the page down. Now, choose ELITE - 3rd option and select the payment as annually. Now, hit the ORDER NOW button.

4. Continue with the next page. It involves about details about your domain. If you want to purchase one, you may do so. Else, you can continue with the other option. Hit the continue button. 

5. This is about additional detials. Here, you may enter your Twitter Username and in the link next to it, just  type my blog URL - www.newbloggingtipz.com. Hit the continue button.

6. Next, hit the CHECK OUT button. The next page will ask you about personal details. Fill them up. Then, hit the complete order button. It will redirect you to the PayPal page. Scroll down and click on "Cancel and Return To Client Page" link at the bottom left.

7. You just need to open your mail box and find the order number in it. Note it down. 

8. Now, open a ticket at the client area and tell them the source you came from to get free reseller hosting, and give us your site details along with the order number. The support person will reply to you in a short while. That's it!!!

NOTE: You must link their site on your new website. You can join their affiliate program as well. You will be credited with $5 instantly on activation.

It's actually a simple procedure but, I made it look bigger. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know, if you have any clarifications via comments. If you faced some any issues during the subscription, let me know via comments because I can contact a member of FirstHosting personally and ask him to solve your issues. So, feel free to leave your comments. And don't waste this offer. Grab one because it's FREE!!! COMPLETELY FREE!!! 

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