Improve Your Google Rankings in One Easy Step

Posted: Friday, January 9th, 2009 | Author: David

seo your website Having a top rank in Google is the holy grail for anyone who has a website. Organic Google traffic is free advertising and how most bloggers (especially those just starting out) achieve visitors and traffic to their site. It all comes down to a simple numbers game. Essentially, more traffic = more money-making opportunities from your blog. The question is, how do you get ranked higher for my blog posts using Blogger?

Before I tell you how, let me give you a quick lesson is search engine optimization (aka SEO). There are two main components: “off-page” and “on-page” optimization. “Off-page” SEO refers to tactics such as link building. The more websites that point their links to your blog/website, the better. It’s a democratic way of showing Google that your site must be important if lots of people are pointing to it. Even more important with “off-page” inbound links is the actual link text (anchor text) that is used to point to your site.

Here’s my proof. If you search Google for the term “click here” you’ll see that Adobe Reader and Apple’s Quicktime software are in the top 3 results. Why? Because so many other sites are linking to these two sites with “click here” as the anchor text to download their software. That’s the power of “off-page” SEO which you as a blogger can’t do much about besides writing such great unique content that generates lots of links.

So with “on-page” SEO you have complete control over how well you’re optimized for Google. This includes keywords in your post titles, title tags, using header tags (h1, h2) and other tactics. Now the one we’re going to focus on in this article is the blog title tag.

Title tags are one of the most (if not the most) important “on-page” elements to ranking high in Google. Search engines such as Google weigh the importance of each word in the title from left to right. So ideally you want your blog post title all the way to the left and your actual blog name to the right. Below is a perfect example of how this should look. You can also check out our Premium Revolution Template which is currently using this technique as well.

blogger seo title

Blogger templates by default don’t come with search engine optimized (SEO) title tags meaning you aren’t maximizing your blog to rank better in Google. If you take a look at your existing Blogger title you’ll see that blogger displays the blog name first then followed by your post title. They have it backwards so let’s get your blog setup properly.

We’re going to have to make a quick edit to your Blogger template which might intimidate some of you but it’s very small and painless. All I ask you to do first is to backup your template just in case you make a boo boo. That makes it easy to revert back without much headache.

Step #1

In your Blogger dashboard, go to “Layout” => “Edit HTML”.

Step #2

In the template code, do a search for this: <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>. It’s usually in the first 5-10 lines of code in your template near the top.

Step #3

Replace that bit of code with the following code:
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "index"'> <title><data:blog.title/></title> <b:else/> <title><data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.title/></title> </b:if>

Step #4

Save your template and go back to your blog. Click into any individual post and look at the page title.

All your blogger posts are now much better optimized to rank higher in Google. I’m not going to promise you a night and day difference but you’ve taken a step in the right direction. Now just go post unique high quality content so people searching Google will find your blog first!

Ready to super charge your blog? Check out our professional premium blogger templates or make money by joining our blog affiliate program!

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526 Responses to “Improve Your Google Rankings in One Easy Step”

Siddharth on Apr 10, 2009, 5:00 am

Hi David,

Great tips.

My only concern is that it is compliant with the blogger (and adsense) TOS. I would appreciate if you could clarify on this point.

Thanks in advance.

exil0r on Apr 10, 2009, 9:22 am

Thank you very much. its working

segerbagio on Apr 12, 2009, 4:12 pm

Still,this site is my my favorite.

Make Money On The InternetZine.co.uk on Apr 13, 2009, 3:49 am

Will try it for our blogspot site. Thanks man.

Chris Michelle on Apr 13, 2009, 5:45 pm

Thanks for the tip!

lida diyet zayÄ±flama r10seoogle on Apr 14, 2009, 11:52 pm

Thanks

Tv Tarka on Apr 16, 2009, 10:57 am

Simple but nice & handy trick.

ajblade on Apr 17, 2009, 6:13 am

i used it in my blog i got page rank 1 in few days

thanks a lot

http://torrent-heaven.blogspot.com

Andri on Apr 17, 2009, 8:30 am

Nice tips, thank for sharing

Antonietta on Apr 17, 2009, 11:17 am

Thanks for the great tip!

Info on Apr 18, 2009, 1:26 pm

I tried just about all of the advice that people have left to try and get this to work. NO LUCK. I wanted it to work but it just wouldn’t.

You would think that they would have just made this standard in Blogger.

Antonietta on Apr 18, 2009, 7:12 pm

It does work for standard blogger…use this, which David posted in his 1.11 comment.

Info on Apr 18, 2009, 8:33 pm

I did exactly what was said on David’s 1.11 comment. It did not work on my blog.

michelle on Apr 19, 2009, 5:51 am

i tried
& I GIVE UP!!!

u have a great tip there but the instructions that is given for troubleshooting are not exact enough for me. sorry but i am a visual person. explaining in words just aren’t enough…

Info on Apr 19, 2009, 6:15 am

Somebody tell me what I did wrong. I tried doing this on a basic blogger blog and it didn’t work.

I found this bit of code and deleted it:

I then replaced it with this code from step 3:

It didn’t work. So I parsed the code. Still did not work. Blogger would not take it.

Gave up and came back here. HELP

nanung on Apr 21, 2009, 5:19 am

nanung

Thank you

Real Estate Leasing Software on Apr 27, 2009, 10:00 pm

Great post, thank you so much david. It works with me, thanks alot

Web Development on Apr 27, 2009, 10:31 pm

The advice is really fruitful, I implemented on few of my blogs and I am sure it will make a difference in the ranking of my blogs.

Web Development on Apr 27, 2009, 10:32 pm

The advice is really fruitful, I implemented on few of my blogs and I am sure it will make a difference in the ranking of my blogs.

——————————————–
SEO in Dubai

Mudassir Jalal on Apr 27, 2009, 10:32 pm

This method has always work for me and I advice my fellow bloggers to do the same as it is really good and innovative idea to work on.

Pakistan Politics on Apr 27, 2009, 10:35 pm

We all should advice our friends and send them the URL of this page as it is benefiting for all of us

Fahmi Reiz on May 2, 2009, 11:40 am

I got the same thing. Tried so many times. Never work.

redtaksaka on May 4, 2009, 6:02 pm

Thank you very much David. You’re the best. Been looking for this script. Already applied in my blog, and works like charm. Now, to the your next tips.. Have a great day.

jesus on May 5, 2009, 6:28 am

First and foremost thanks for the tip its highly appreciated, however it doesnt seem to quite work for me for some reason. I keep receiveing this message when i try to save my template:

Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: Open quote is expected for attribute “{1}” associated with an element type “cond”.

Can anyone please help?….thank you so much in advanced.

ike2yaskilo on May 7, 2009, 7:29 am

excuse me..i just wanna ask you. i can’t see
on my edit template HTML. but i just can see

it the same thing?
please help me..i’m confused..
i am a new blogger.please give me some tips for this.
thanks ya..

Court on May 8, 2009, 8:27 pm

Hello,

I am getting this error as well…Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: Open quote is expected for attribute “{1}” associated with an element type “cond”.

I have followed the steps in the article as well as follow up comments…here the section of code, please help me fix

Before:

<![CDATA[/*

After (and with error):

|

<![CDATA[/*

thanks

crisiboy on May 10, 2009, 1:17 am

For those who still encounter this error

Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.

XML error message: Open quote is expected for attribute “{1}” associated with an element type “cond”.

THIS IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO:

with the new Step # 3 code, Line 1, please replace the ' with the apostrophe symbol ‘ and replace the " with the index symbol ”

now making your first line…’data:blog.pageType == “index”‘

hope i could help to solve your problem.

pls do visit my blog at htt://jologsnayuppie.blogspot.com/

thank you so much. and have a nice day

chino on May 10, 2009, 10:30 am

I implemented the code in my page and it saved without a problem… but now when i view my blog i receive this message atthe very top of the blog on top of my dashboard….TEMPLATE ERROR: LHS of numeric is null before 0 in…… Does anyone knows what that means?…Any Help Will be Appreciated.

VERTEXROLL on May 10, 2009, 6:19 pm

wow ! lov it !
now gettin more traffik to my blog !
thanka a lot !
any other more trix to increase traffic 🙂 ?

Adrie on May 10, 2009, 6:30 pm

I’ve tried to use it in my blog, I’m using Blogger.
but, when I tried to save, always failed.
I’m confusing, don’t know what should I do..!
Could anybody help me..???
Pleaseeeeeeeee

adrie on May 10, 2009, 7:03 pm

I don’t understand what you mean.
I did it, but not work, never..still failed to save.
Help me..

prinrep on May 11, 2009, 5:59 pm

very nice post… i like it. Now I know how to improve my pagerank and drive me more visitors. Thank’s…

Zain on May 11, 2009, 7:40 pm

Little old but…Definitely helpful!!

My visitors counts increased noticeably after applying this little trick to my blog’s template.

Technology Blog on May 11, 2009, 9:29 pm

I have been using this trick for a long time, all my blogger blogs use this trick although the code is somewhat different. Four of my blogs gets a few thousand hits a day because the posts in them usually land on the first page of the SERP. But I am not saying that it is because solely of the code, the proper use of keywords helps a lot, the anchor text and things like that.

sex shop on May 11, 2009, 11:39 pm

I’m confusing, don’t know what should I do..!

mukri on May 12, 2009, 5:32 am

thank for all information Hide IP

azureflower on May 12, 2009, 8:23 am

i’ve tried it on my blog(www.azure-flower.blogspot.com) and it works! thanks!

anil on May 12, 2009, 10:39 pm

thanx for this info, work great……….

irtiza104 on May 13, 2009, 12:04 pm

thanks for this tip. i have made the changes in my blog.

Thamil on May 14, 2009, 4:44 am

I did it, but not work, never..still failed to save.
Help me..

I got this error.

We were unable to save your template

Please correct the error below, and submit your template again.
Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: Open quote is expected for attribute “{1}” associated with an element type “cond”.

Steve on May 14, 2009, 1:55 pm

WOw this works, will check my analytics to see the increase in visitors.

Sunny on May 17, 2009, 9:10 pm

When I try to applied the code, I have the following:

How can I make it work? I blog via Blogger Google.

Many thanks

Sunny on May 17, 2009, 9:11 pm

I had a:
XML error message: Open quote is expected for attribute “{1}” associated with an element type “cond”.

Can someone help me?

Technology Blog on May 18, 2009, 2:05 am

This is the code I use and it never fails. The code to replace is near the top of your page.

Sunny on May 18, 2009, 9:13 am

Hi there,

I am able to find it, it’s right on top. But when I replace the lign by the other codes… I got the message I told earlier… Too bad, it’s not working for me!

ed on May 19, 2009, 9:23 am

sir,
my blog http://makemoney4lyf.blogspot.com, it is about make money online and i got an xml error, is there any other code you can give or u can share, because my blog is not being crawled by google..
thanks and God bless..

free poker training videos on May 20, 2009, 12:40 am

I’ve tried a few times to add this code and I keep getting this error message:

Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure that all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: Open quote is expected for attribute “{1}” associated with an element type “cond”.

I have no idea how to fix it or get around it, anyone have any ideas?

Dominic

free poker training videos on May 20, 2009, 12:57 am

I have done everything that has been posted, I’ve taken away and tags, no good, I’ve tried copy and pasting the code, no good.

I’m using blogger but none of this is working for me I just keep getting the same error message, no matter what I do…

ed on May 20, 2009, 4:44 am

wow great nice tips i used this tips for blogs best SEO.

Sunny on May 20, 2009, 9:08 am

I have the same problems as you. I think this rick might not work for some templates. Maybe it’s only working for the template who are but on sale for download in this blog… And BTW, did you notice, the author of the article did not answer no any complaint… If it’s work, goog, if not, too bad! And it’s not working for me either…