Stylify Your Blog

How to Evaluate Your Link Profile

2013-05-17T22:31:00.002-07:00

Getting good links to your site is one of the best ways to raise your page rank, improve your position in search results, and get more traffic to your site. After Google's Penguin update, the source of your links is more important than ever. Poor quality links such as those from article directories or link farms can now actually bring the page rank of your site down. It is important to evaluate the quality of your link profile on a regular basis to make sure that you are only getting high-quality links that will improve your ranking. Here's how you can evaluate the quality of your link profile

What type of site is it?

Link farms of any kind are not going to give you quality links. Article directories are really pushing it, but you might be able to get a good link if you focus on only the top directories and only on submitting unique content to each directory. Of course, the most high-quality links are those that come from authoritative websites and blogs.
In order to ensure that your link profile remains positive, you need to regularly review the links that your site is getting through analytics or webmaster tools, and you need to check out what type of site is associated with each link. If you identify a bad link, you need to take action to remove or disavow it.

What niche is it?

When links come from sites within your niche, they are going to be worth more in raising your page rank. On the other hand, if you write a blog on, say, finance, but you get a link from a health and fitness site, that link is not going to do much for you. In fact, if too many of your links come from blogs and websites outside your niche, it will bring down your page rank. When you are linkbuilding, actively focus on getting links from your niche. Again, if you get too many links that can negatively affect you, work on removing or disavowing them.

What anchor text is used?

The anchor text used to link to your site is just as important as the site itself. Too many links using exact match keywords in the anchor text can bring down your page rank. Exact match keywords are phrases such as "Atlanta bridal shops" or "search engine marketing." Instead of always trying to link to your site through these phrases for which you are trying to rank, you need to add some variety by using generic terms such as "click here," as well as your own brand name. You can analyze the anchor text being used for your links through a tool like Raven Tools, and you can get a percentage of links that are using exact match keywords. A good general rule of thumb is not to have more than half of your links have anchor text with exact match keywords.

What is the page rank of the site?

Even a blog that is outside your niche can offer you a high-quality link if it's from a PR 8 or 9 site. Higher ranking sites offer you more link juice, while lower-ranking sites can actually bring your page rank down. When investigating your links, make sure you check the page rank of each. Again, remove or disavow links that are actively hurting your page rank. It is ever more important to monitor the quality of your backlinks since Google Penguin was introduced. It is likely that Google will only get more and more particular about the kinds of links it wants to see, so it's important to build links with high-quality, relevant blogs and websites.

How do you monitor the quality of your backlinks? Share your tips in the comments!

Bio: Amber Satka writes on financial topics, such as her look into auto refinance for bad credit. Amber is a former office manager and current mother and writer.

Official Blogger Contact Form Gadget Released

2013-05-15T23:22:00.000-07:00

Word about Google working on a official Contact Form gadget started to go around when many Blogger developers start to encounter some code in the Blogger hosted CSS and JavaScript files which clearly indicated that a Official Contact Form gadget was on the way. Finally today after a long wait of 14 years , Blogger has released the new Contact Form gadget which will surely ring a death knell for third party contact form providers

How To Add It

1. Go to the Layout Tab of your Blog

2. Click the Add a Gadget button

3. Click on More Gadgets

4. Click on the Contact Form Gadget

5. Give it a appropriate title and Save it

Its Features

> Sending simple text messages
> No Support for attachments ( Will be likely added in the future )
> Custom CSS Styles can be added easily
> All code is escaped before sending ( Cannot send any HTML via the message )

This new gadget release comes with the recent updates announced Google I/O 2013 and it looks like Blogger is still a integral part of the Google's Product line.

Five Reasons to Switch to Google+ Comments Now

2013-04-30T08:58:00.001-07:00

Google+ Comments launched just 2 weeks ago yet it has garnered lots of good reviews and a positive response from the Blogger user community. This move is a part of Google's ongoing initiative for plusification of its products but its a clear sign that Blogger is still and will remain a indispensable product in Google's arsenal. G+ Comments are also a clear challenge to the FB Comments , Disqus and other commenting systems even though it is yet to launched outside of Blogger officially. The presence of unofficial implementations for Drupal and Wordpress establishes the fact that its being liked by everybody out there. So if you one of those people who are still not convinced of using it on your blog then here are Five Solid Reasons that will surely make you change your mind

1. Connected with everybody ( Literally !! )

Lets think of a dream scenario , Somebody , Somewhere on the Web shares the link to your newest article and you are thanking them for doing it the very next minute. In reality other than when you get traffic from some popular website , many conversations about your blog on social media are ignored by you or you have no way to know that they are even happening out there. G+ Comments takes a dig at this problem by making sure that if-and-when a link to your article is shared on Google+ publicly it will appear in the Comments sections with all its +1's and comments that were done on the original thread. Even though this is a small innovation yet it will help keep the conversation about your article either on the blog or social media in a single place

2. Privacy Conscious

The power of Circles from Google+ is used to make sure that your privacy is never compromised . May it be a comment on your favorite Technology blog while you are working in office or a comment directed towards the author alone for fixing that typo you should be rest assured that you will not be caught by your boss or shame the author publicly for that silly mistake of theirs respectively . Another aspect is the ability to see comments custom-tailored to you. So your Best Social Friends comments will be visible to you on the top irrespective of the fact that when they were posted

3. Mention People

Well its not new , Disqus and Livefyre have similar features but the thing here to consider is that you can easily send a notification to Google+ users without much hassles and get them involved in the conversation right away

4. Edit , Delete , Report Spam and Share on Google+

All the standard Moderation tools that every blog owner wants with a small yet impactful addition of social sharing right into the core of the comments structure. This small feature will increase exposure to your content on Google+ many folds and increase engagement with your readers and reader's friends exponentially. A sure shot way to effects those Social Signals and increasing your search engine ranking organically

5. Threaded Comments

Even though this is common place now and not a very big deal , but being able to reply to specify comments is always a great UX move. Considering just last year it was introduced in Blogger officially , its pretty big deal that its inherently present from start in this comment system. It gives more organized feel to your comments sections and makes it many times easier for you to manage the comments.

Bonus Reason : Migrate Comments

If you are a Blogger user , then you will not have to worry about losing all your previous comments that your blog received till now as all those comments will get automatically migrated as-and-when you choose to switch to Google+ Comments and reverse will also be possible soon if you think of switching back to the old comment system . One thing to note though is that the old comments cannot be marked as spam or deleted easily. (This bug will surely be fixed soon )

Still Not Convinced
Then check out this Hangout on Air from Google employees +Yonatan Zunger and +Dan Peterson

Conclusion
Active development is in full swing and lots of features might be coming out soon. If you have any feedback regarding any problems that you face while using G+ Comments , then without hesitation report it in the Blogger Product Forum.

So take the chance and Try Google+ Comments

Update
We have switched to G+ Comments but we have still allowed you to comment via the old comment box if you like that one more

Infinite Scrolling in Blogger

2013-04-26T11:17:00.001-07:00

Infinite Scrolling refers to the ability to continuously load new content on a page without refreshing it which gives an appearance of endlessness. It is used by major sites like Google+ , Facebook and Twitter and pretty successfully at that. The biggest benefit being exposure to more content and faster browsing . We will see how to integrate it into our Blogger blog by using Infinite Ajax Scroll jQuery plugin

See Demo

Features

1. Faster Loading
2. Content Exposure increase many fold
3. More intuitive for Touch devices
4. Best suited for image-heavy blogs
5. Simplified Navigation
6. Higher user Engagement

Adding it to your Blog

Across the Whole Blog
It will work on the Home Page , Label Pages , Archive Pages as well as Post Pages ( the previous post will be loaded in full )

Only Home Page, Label Pages and Archive Pages
It will not work in the Post Pages

Video Tutorial

Some Tips

+1 , Tweet and Like Buttons will be loaded after every AJAX request , so if you have these social sharing buttons beneath every post then don't worry about them not showing

When the new post is loaded beneath a post ( If you choose the first option ) , then the Threaded comments in the newly loaded post will not work

To replace the Loader image , just search for .gif in the Widget code and replace that whole URL with another Image

To change the number of times before the user is asked to load more pages , search for triggerPageThreshold: and replace the numeric value ahead of it , if for example you set the value as 4 then the plugin will load new content four times before it asks you weather you want to see more content or not

onRenderComplete:function() function is used to tell the plugin what to do after the page has been successfully loaded , Here I have added a snippet which tells Google Analytics that a new page is loaded so that GA registers every AJAX request as a New Page visit

loaderDelay: tell how much milliseconds to wait before the new content is actually added to the page

For information about all the other options available in this plugin visit IAS Options

If you face any troubles in implementing , feel free to ask me via comments

See Demo

Blogging , Fun and HPConnectedMusic

2013-04-25T10:01:00.001-07:00

This is my 3rd IndiBlogger Blogger Meet and it was nothing less exciting and fun-filled than any previous one. We reached the venue just when synchronized clapping and tapping had started , there were some awkward hiccups but it set the mood for the rest of the meet.

After that started the introductions and entertaining challenges moderated by our very own Prateek Shah or rather 'Prateeksha'

Then came the most awaited presentation explaining the features of HPConnectedMusic

Here is a brief overview of the Features

1. More than 1 Million Songs available to choose from

2. Ability to Download and Play Music Offline

3. Online Streaming and Internet Radio

4. Meridian Powered Desktop Application for HP laptops

5. Intelligent Playlists , Custom Filters and Constantly changing Album covers

6. Supports advanced playback technologies like Beats Audio

7. Extensive Search Features with Artists , Tracks and Albums Listings

8. Common Trivia and Latest News related to each artists integrated within the service

9. Take part in competitions and Win Tickets to concerts worldwide

10. Free for 1 year on selected HP Laptops

Sneak Peek for Non-HP Product owners

Artists

HomePage

Music Genres

Internet Radio

Hope this convinces you to check out the new HP laptops with support for HPConnectedMusic

In the end , we had a huge group photo and everybody had some goodies with them thanks to HP and IndiBlogger

Special Kudos to the IndiBlogger Team for this event ( couldn't find all pics of all members )

A Great Giveaway: Three Premium Themes from ThemeFuse

2013-04-23T04:44:00.000-07:00

The great crew over at ThemeFuse has decided to giveaway 3 WordPress themes licenses to our readers. So many blogs use WordPress, and that means that a good theme is essential. The lucky winners of this giveaway will be able to enjoy one premium WordPress theme, of their choice, and all at no cost! In the coming week we will be handing out 3 vouchers, and here's how you can get your chance at one:

Be Sure to Enter the Giveaway

Complete the tasks mentioned in the PunchTab widget at the end of the post

Winners will be announced in one week, so keep in touch!

Why You Should Participate

Within the world of WordPress themes, ThemeFuse is known as one of the premium names. It doesn't matter what type of site or blog you are operating, when you use a well-chosen ThemeFuse product you are ensuring success. This is because the firm is known for making good looking and easy to use themes. They are meant for optimal ease of use and come loaded with the latest and most sought after features. Just look at the examples of WordPress templates below, and see how ThemeFuse really does excel.

PixelWhiz - Designer WordPress Theme

Are you a designer looking to really highlight your work? This is the ideal theme for you...it won't interfere with your design and will provide the perfect setting.

Lifestyle - Magazine WordPress Theme

Whether you have an actual online magazine or you want your blog to have the same good looks of one, this WordPress theme will function with fashion, gossip, or news sites.

PhotoArtist - Photography WordPress Theme

Online portfolios are the way to go, and this WordPress theme lets you put a true emphasis on your work. Simple, minimal, and appealing.

Voyage - Travel WordPress Theme

Whether you are traveling as a professional or you blog about your adventures, this theme lets you add videos and photos, as well as links from mobile devices.

MobilityApp - Mobile WordPress Theme

Creating apps is a modern business and trade, and this WordPress theme is ideally suited to those who want to easily promote and market their new app designs.

Why not start your day with a free theme from ThemeFuse? You can use it to reach goals, have fun, or just run the best looking blog around!

The New Blogger Template Editor

2013-04-10T02:08:00.001-07:00

The first major update to the Blogger Template Editor since 2006 . Loosely referred to as Edit HTML , it has gone though a complete makeover. The previous Editor appeared as a lightbox-style window and was pretty similar to the version available before Blogger switched to the new look back in October 2011. This update is a full-blown overhaul with build from scratch approach bringing a whole new set of features to the table

The Technology Behind the Editor

The New Template Editor is using CodeMirror , a JavaScript component which provides an in-browser Code Editor. It has been modified a bit to add some Blogger specific functionalities ( Preview Template & Jump To Widget ) but the core appears to be same. Shifting to CodeMirror , which is open source and has a active development community around it ( Check it on Github ) is surely nothing less than awesome. It is used by sites like CodePen , CodeSchool , CSSDeck , JSBin as well as Google Apps Script just confirms the fact that it is ready for big-time use.

Update : After a mail from us pointing out this change , Marijn Haverbeke ( The person behind CodeMirror ) has added Blogger to the list of Real World Use Cases of CodeMirror.

The New Features

The New Editor is aimed at making Creation & Editing Blogger Template a lot easier for user with less experience in coding HTML/CSS/JS . Some of the specific additions are

1. Jump To Widget

Finding code related to a specific widget has become very easy , Just open the Jump To Widget Dropdown and select the widget of your choice. By making jumping to specific Widget Code block, it becomes easier for users to add code to render widget on specific page (Earlier it was a bit overwhelming to go through a lot of code to add those conditional tags )

2. Expandable Code Segments

The ability to exapand code makes the Template Editor look less cluttered and more clean. ~~Current once you expand the code , there is no ability to collapse it again . May be they will add that in the future~~

Update : As Samantha Schaffer , one of the Google Intern responsible for creating this new Editor has mentioned in the comments , after expanding the code block ,the triangle disappears but if that specific area is clicked again then the code collapses and the triangle reappears

3. Inline Preview Template

Giving a option to preview the template in the same window is well thought UX move , keeping the continuity of the Google UI and not at all compromising with the testing of the template. It will surely improve the workflow of many template designers.

4. Format Template

If you are like me , trying to squish every whitespace out of your template to hyper-optimize for the smallest HTTP request size , then this might not be a feature for you. Jokes apart as you can see in the above image it can be a nightmare to edit a Template like that. A click of Format Template will indent your code in the most human readable form as seen in the image below . Just a word of caution though , for heavily modified template this might cause some problems , so Preview before saving any changes.

5. Find , Replace and Replace All functions

The Editor has its own Find , Replace and Replace All functions. This might seem a little off in the beginning as the Browsers Own Search will not work in the Editor but once you get used to it , it will come naturally. Especially the addition of Replace (CTRL+SHIFT+F) and Replace All (CTRL+SHIFT+R) , a must in code editors, will come really handy if you fiddling with the template a lot ( Especially with multiple similar items ) .

Here is a video demonstrating all the features (No sound but background music)

Conclusion

This will give many people a reason to shift their Blog on Blogger and make editing templates for current users much easier and more welcoming. This also fizzles out all the rumors going around after Google's Readers close-down about Blogger being next in the line to be closed down - HELL , if that was the case then these array of new developments would not be happening. Blogger is one of the oldest blogging platform and is here to stay for a long time. Also don't forget to check the official announcement

Update : This update appears to be rolled out for all the users and there seems to be no option to revert back to the old Template Editor

Leaked : Contact Form Widget coming to Blogger

2013-04-02T11:41:00.001-07:00

While creating my new template , I came across some interesting piece of code in the official CSS and JavaScript files which are included automatically by Blogger on each page of a blog. Its presence is a sure shot indication of a Contact Form Widget that is being developed by Blogger. Read on to find more details

Update - The Contact Form Gadget has been released

Proof

The proof can be simply found by simply by seeing the View Source of any of your blog pages.

In the Source of the page, search for widget_css_2_bundle.css and -widgets.js

Open these files and search for the keyword "contact" and you will see something like this (click image to enlarge)

Check out these example CSS and JavaScript File URL's
http://www.blogger.com/static/v1/widgets/3934819169-widgets.js
http://www.blogger.com/static/v1/widgets/3441929121-widget_css_2_bundle.css

I went a step further and applied the CSS to a standard Form and the result was something like

Demo

This pretty much explains everything and I suppose we can expect it to be released soon to the public . This was a much needed step as all the Blogger users were dependent on third party contact forms . On a positive note , this is a sign that active development is still ON in Blogger and closing it down is not happening in the near future atleast . The Official Google+ Stream gadget for Blogger was also found out by us but its still not implemented yet

Want to get these Updates straight to your Inbox , Then Subscribe !

New Blogger Template : FlatUI

2013-04-01T00:33:00.000-07:00

Inspired from the the recently released Flat UI Kit from DesignModo FlatUI Blogger Template is a fully responsive and feature-rich template. One of its main advantages over other Blogger templates is the ease with which you can customize the various components via the Blogger Template Designer. Many custom options have been added to the Template Designer to make it simpler to modify from a single location.

Download Demo

Features

Responsive

Blogger Template Designer

You can easily change the Color and Fonts of Buttons , Tags , etc from the Template Designer itself

Load Time

With a Google Page Speed Score of 95% and a Page Size in 200KB range, FlatUI Blogger Template is optimized for fast browsing and makes the less than 20 HTTP Requests

Infinite Post Scrolling

Using jQuery and AJAX , an unending number of Posts can be loaded without leaving the page. This is by default functional on the HomePage as well as the Label Pages.

Read More Hack

The Read More hack is by default enabled and gives a more pro look to the blog.

Tags

The label/tags style is inbuilt , just make sure that the Cloud option is selected in the Blogger Label Widget Options.

Share Privacy Buttons

Scripts from respective social networks are loaded only when when you toggle it to load

These were some of the features , install it into your blog and explore all the other features . If you face any problems then feel free to ask in the comments.

Download Demo

How to Recover From a Google Penalty

2013-02-28T04:29:00.000-08:00

Image credit: bizoon / 123RF Stock Photo

Google is known for launching updates like the Panda Update and the Penguin Update, where sites with poor quality content and links get penalized. But being penalized doesn’t mean the end of the world. You don’t have to drop SEO altogether just because you suffered a Google penalty. You can begin by improving your online reputation by using a reputation management service like @Reputation_com and also by taking the following steps towards full recovery...

Purchase a New Domain Name

Image credit: yeyen123rf / 123RF Stock Photo

If you want to get rid of the penalty, then you’ll have to scrape off your domain name and buy a new one to replace it. Transferring your old domain name to a new one is the best possible start you can take to gaining back your rankings. The key here is to buy a user-friendly domain name instead of an “exact match one”. Why? Because after the Panda Update, exact match domain names are being penalized since the Big G knows most such sites carry bad, useless content.

Take Care of the Registration/Hosting

Image credit: kbuntu / 123RF Stock Photo

Register your domain name privately so that your whois details are hidden from the search engines. Once you’re done with the private registration, the next step is host it on its “own dedicated” IP address since it’s safer. Gone are the days when you could host a number of sites of sites on the same IP address. Today you can have all your sites de-indexed if even one goes down.

Clean Up Your Site

Image credit: jiggo / 123RF Stock Photo

Your aim now is to make the new domain look squeaky clean. You don’t want Google to have the slightest doubt about the new site. Start by de-optimizing the content and improving its quality . Buy and use a new theme (if you’re using something like WordPress). Basically, try and make it look as different as possible without compromising on the quality.

Use 301 Wildcard Redirect

Image credit: konstantinos / 123RF Stock Photo

This is when you redirect the pages resting on your old domain name to their respective counterparts on this new domain name. This can be easily done by logging into the cPanel area and visiting the “redirects” page in order to set up a ‘new’ wildcard redirect. As far as SEO goes, you get almost all the link juice is passed on to the new domain from the old. It lets you rank almost instantly for all the keywords that you were previously ranking for. So in a way, all the links you built to your old domain name get transferred to the new one.

All in all, recovering from a Google Penalty is very much possible. As time goes by, work on consistently building quality links to your new domain name using whitehat methods so that you’re able to grow and retain your rankings.