Blogger Magic - The "Robots.txt" File

Some new blog owners spend time examining the various settings provided by Blogger, in the dashboard.

Some dashboard settings inspire questions, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?. As helpers there, we know from experience that some questions, asked and answered there, will lead to later questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

The "Robots.Txt" file is one feature which inspires these types of questions.

I was updating my settings on Blogger, and I discovered some settings that I didn't understand. What do I add for "Custom robot text" and "Custom robot header tag"?

When I was young, my mother used to provide advice "That is a well enough!" - as the proper answer, to this question, is to "Leave well enough alone!".

The "Robots.txt" file is a collection of various settings - and the dashboard "Search preferences" wizard provides useful options, for Blogger blog owners.

You may edit "robots.txt", if you wish - but be mindful of possible consequences.

When used properly, "Robots.Txt" provides us several possibilities. That said, we should heed the warning.

Warning! Use with caution. Incorrect use of these features can result in your blog being ignored by search engines.

The section "Crawlers and indexing" is a dashboard feature which should probably be left alone by 99% of all Blogger blog owners - except in specific, documented examples.

All "robots.txt" entries are carefully designed, by Blogger / Google Engineers.

Some portions of "Robots.Txt" are maintained by various well documented Blogger and Webmaster Tools features.

• The Blogger label search exclusion is essential to preventing search engine penalties.
• The Blogger search engine options are essential to proper search engine activity.
• The Webmaster Tools maintained site feed may be essential to effective search engine access.

Other sections of "Search preferences" have similar value. Unless you understand "Robots.Txt" functionality, however, you should leave "Crawlers and indexing" alone.

If you are not familiar with the settings, it's best to not play with them.

Leave the magic spells, to the magicians and wizards. See Google Developers - Webmasters: Robots.txt Specifications, for details.

Getting Out Of Draft Blogger

Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see a plaintive query

How do I remove my blog from using Draft Blogger?

Some blog owners use Draft Blogger because of a specific problem - then discover later, that use of Draft Blogger, in general, is not a good idea.

Generally, one simply logs out of Blogger, then logs into Blogger using the normal Blogger login.

Simply logging out, from Draft Blogger, won't always fix the problem.

Sometimes, though, simply logging out of Draft Blogger won't return the browser to normal.

In the latter case, one must first clear the Draft Blogger Redirect, using the Blogger: Edit User Settings wizard - where we see the key setting

Use Blogger Draft

De select that option, then clear cache, cookies, and sessions, and restart the browser, to remove all residual components of Draft Blogger.

Use "Edit User Settings", for your Blogger account.


Use the Blogger "Edit User Settings" wizard.



Clear the check for "Use Blogger Draft".

Then, hit "Save".


Finally, login to Blogger, properly.

Finally, log into Blogger, using a normal Blogger login. Avoid any bookmarks, favorites, or other saved access URLs. And, be sure to login properly.

Google+ Comments Generates Redundant Comments

We're seeing some confusion in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, mentioning mysterious comments, published against new blog posts.

Each time I publish a new post, there is one comment immediately published against the post, which is just a repeat of the post!

This blog owner is using both automatic post shares, and Google+ comments.

Recently, Blogger took us closer towards automatically connecting our new blog posts and our Google+ streams.

All blogs, currently connected to a Google+ profile, were recently tweaked, to automatically share each new post to Google+ - unless the option is de selected.

This has caused confusion from some blog owners, who are currently using Google+ Comments, on their blogs. Look at the dashboard Google+ settings.

• Automatically share after posting
• Use Google+ Comments on this blog

It's simple, and obvious.

1. With the first option selected, a new blog post generates a new Google+ post.
2. With the second option selected, the new Google+ post, which mentions the new blog post, is then published as a comment to the new blog post.
3. Some blog owners will see duplicate posts, in their Google+ stream. One post from Step #1, another from Step #2.

This is monolithically logical, yet a bit annoying.

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(Update 3/20): Blogger Support has informed us that it is working as intended.

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There are only 3 options, here - none terribly satisfying.

1. Disable Google+ comments. De select "Use Google+ Comments on this blog".
2. Disable Google+ post auto share. De select "Automatically share after posting".
3. Learn to live with it.

Most owners opt for #3. Should you choose #1 or #2, use the appropriate option, in the dashboard Google+ page.

The "Create a Blog" Wizard Now Has A Daily Limit

Recently, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, we've seen reports of problems using "Create a new blog".

I can't create another blog! It worked fine, earlier today - but now, it tells me that I'm not allowed!!

Some would be blog owners are apparently running into a new Blogger limit - daily blog creation.

Apparently, Blogger is now limiting creation of new blogs. Similar to the legendary daily posting limit in our blogs, the daily new blog limit appears to be fuzzy - possibly, intentionally so, to adjust for ongoing spam activity.

To interfere with abusive mass blog creation activity, Blogger appears to have recently added a daily new blog creation limit, to the "Create a new blog" wizard.

It appears that the limit is fuzzy - possibly adjusting, as necessary, to the current volume of abusive activity.

• We don't know what the precise limit is.
• We are not sure exactly when the "24 hour" period actually starts and ends.
• We have seen reports suggesting both a "per account", and "per computer", limit.

In one case, the limit appeared to affect a school class, where each class member was required to setup a new blog as a classroom assignment. The students trying to use the school network (which shared a single public IP address) to connect to Blogger, and setup their blogs during class time, were seeing the limit advice.

All that we can advise, right now, if you see advice mentioning a limit, when using the "Create a blog" / "Create a new blog" wizard, is to try a differential technique.

• Try again, tomorrow (and be flexible, in definition of "tomorrow").
• Try using a different Blogger account.
• Try using a different computer, on a different network.

Of course, if you actually are a self aware spammer, we'll wish you farewell - and better luck with WordPress, Tumblr, or whatever non Google service you wish to infest next.

Renaming The Home Page, Using The New Pages Gadget

The recent Blogger redesign of the Pages list / Pages gadget has caused some confusion.

How do I create a "Web address" page?

and

How do I hide a page?

and even

How do I edit a "Web address" page?

Once you understand how to use the newly designed Pages gadget, it's not complicated do each of the above.

Then there are those who want to rename the Home page - which used to be obvious. Just use the Pages gadget.

• Look under “Pages to show”.
• There’s the box, containing “Home” (in the language of the blog).
• Type a new value for “Home”.
• Hit “Save”.
• Done.

That's how it used to work.

Now, you can hit "Save" all that you want. It just won't accomplish anything.

Fortunately, this simple omission by Blogger Engineering is not difficult to work around, using "Configure Page List".

• Use “Add external link”, and create a dynamic page, with “Web address” of the blog Home page.
• Use “Pages to show”, and de select the default “Home” page.
• Use “Page order”, and position the newly renamed “Home” page as desired.
• Hit "Save".
• Done.

It's a 60 second effort, instead of 30 seconds.

Eventually, Blogger Engineering will fix their mistake. Until then, just do it - then get back to work on your blog.

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Copy And Paste The Ownership Verification Details

The Custom Domain Ownership Verification requirement has been with us for over a year - and we still see confusion, and easily corrected mistakes.

One of the most frustrating mistakes involves mistyping of the details.

I keep getting an "Error 12". My registrar insists that the DNS addresses are right.

But, the registrar must be wrong, since the blog just can't be published!

When you type the base domain DNS addresses, into the registrar's zone editor, eyeballing what you type is somewhat obvious. Either you get it right - or you don't. Typing the domain ownership verification details, on the other hand, is not so simple.

When you setup your domain, you know the domain name. Who's buried, in Grant's Tomb, anyway?

You probably spent hours, choosing just the right domain name. Choosing an available, yet memorable, domain name is not a simple task. Some consultants make the domain name an essential, initial choice, in setting up a company.

Since you know the domain, when you setup the base DNS addresses, it's reasonably easy to get that right. Having gotten the base DNS addresses setup just right, you try to publish the blog to the domain - and now you get the infamous "Error 12".


An example of the "Error 12" display.

See the short, and long, tokens?


The problem with the "Error 12" is not just having to setup one more DNS address. You already setup 2 - or maybe 5 - to get the base DNS addresses. The big problem here is the content of this second "CNAME".

You know every character of the base DNS addresses. You've typed all of that, over and over. Then, you look at the second "CNAME" - which contains pure random garbage.

Pure random garbage that is essential, on a character by character basis. Get just one character wrong - or omitted - or reverse any characters, in sequence - and the "Error 12" never goes away.

• The “Name / Label / Host” value ("short token") is exactly 12 characters.
• The Destination / Target / Points To” random value ("long token") is exactly 14 characters.
• Do not confuse a “O” / “o” (alphabetic characters) with a “0” (numeric character).
• Do not confuse an “l” or "t" (alphabetic characters) or a “1” (numeric character).
• Do not confuse a "w" (single, alphabetic character) with a "vv" (two alphabetic characters).

Do you have a good quality magnifying glass handy? Use it - and look at the differences and similarities, in the above 5 cases used above, as examples.

When you get an "Error 12" or similar, and the message includes a section

Name, Label or Host field Destination, Target or Points To field

The only proper procedure here involves use of the clipboard. Copy / paste the short token, then copy / paste the long token.

Don't type by hand. Please.

Should I Move Forward?

We see this question, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, a couple times / year.

Can I keep using a Classic template on my blog - or must I upgrade?

Right now, Blogger won't require anybody to upgrade. You can stay with a Classic template, if you want.

That said, there is no guarantee that the next major Blogger problem will not leave Blogger Engineering deciding to cut their losses, and move forward.

If we can get Blogger back online with Layout and better today - as opposed to Classic templates, next week - let's drop Classic templates, and bring it back, today.

They've moved forward, this way, in the past - and next week, they could, again.

Eventually, this will happen. One day, Blogger will come back online - but without your blog.

Eventually, you will have to move forward.

• The longer you go with a classic template, the harder it will be, to move forward.
• The longer you go with a classic template, the less other blogs there will be, using classic templates.
• The longer you go with a classic template, the less classic template related problems there will be.
• The longer you go with a classic template, the less helpers there will be, who remember classic templates.
• The longer you go with a classic template, the less help you may get.
• The longer you go with a classic template, the less your readers will enjoy the blog, lacking features not available on classic templates.

Pick one - it's going to be easier than you think!

The dashboard Template page is where you go, to get it done. There's more to choose from, than what you see here!


The longer you go with a classic template, the harder it will be, to move forward. Moving forward is never easy. The longer you wait to move forward, the more migration related work will be involved. This will force you to wait, until it's convenient. In some cases, you'll move forward, even if it's not convenient - and even thogh you can't do it, properly.

The longer you go with a classic template, the less other blogs there will be, using classic templates. Every month, some other blog owners will follow this advice, and move forward.

The longer you go with a classic template, the less classic template related problems there will be. The less blogs that have classic templates, the less blogs there will be to cause problems.

The longer you go with a classic template, the less helpers there will be, who remember classic templates. The less problems with classic templates, the more helpers will forget - and move forward.

The longer you go with a classic template, the less help you may get. The less helpers who remember classic template problems - and solutions - the less people will step forward to help you.

The longer you go with a classic template, the less your readers will enjoy the blog, lacking features not available on classic templates. Many Blogger features are written in XML, and won't work, with HTML only templates.

If you have custom code in the current template, you may have to upgrade by hand - but you will still get the choice of new, exciting Designer / Layout templates, in the dashboard Template page.

Move forward. Upgrade to a Designer, Dynamic, or Layouts template. Today.

Confusion From The Blogger Blind Login Policy

We've known, for a while, the dangers of logging in with the wrong Blogger account.

My dashboard has no blogs!!

or

My Reading List is empty!

Blog owners and readers, alike, have been reporting this problem, for years.

With the new Google multi account login, this problem has become more noticeable, for some blog owners and readers.

My Blogger account was merged, to an an account with an empty dashboard.

Sometimes, the dashboard lacks blogs - at other times, it lacks menu items, or reading list entries. In either case, the account owner needs to login to a different Blogger account.

With Blogger blogs, wrong account login frequently starts with the "Sign In" - or maybe "Sign Out" - link in the navbar.

Clicking on "Login", the blog owner (or reader) is presented with the Google login screen. If this is the first login since the browser was restarted or cookies were cleared, the login display will resemble the login wizard, before the latest change. The Blogger has to simply enter the right account name and password.

If this browser has been used previously, the Google account(s) previously used will be offered, in a menu list, for login. Blog owners and readers, not realising the effects of Blogger blind login, or of inadvertently created Blogger accounts will occasionally use the wrong account - and will find the wrong dashboard.

This story becomes more confusing, with either a locked account / blog - or with a team blog. Ownership diagnostics, for deleted / locked accounts and blogs are very limited. With the blog in question offline

Blog has been removed.

It's simply not possible to identify the Blogger profile used by the owning Blogger account.

When we advise about blog deletions, it's always useful to know whether the blog was deleted because the owning account was deleted or locked - or because the blog itself was deleted for a TOS violation. Without the ability to identify the blog owner, we can only suspect that the blogger might be logged in to the wrong account.

We also see confusion when Google Apps based email domains are involved.

Until all Blogger account owners learn to add accounts to the Google login wizard, using "Add additional account", "Manage accounts", or "Sign in with a different account", the Blogger blind login policy will continue to cause confusion.

Confusion Over The New Blogger Dashboard Pages Wizards

A week ago, Blogger redesigned the dashboard wizards, that are used to setup and maintain pages.

The most visible change involved a complete redesign of the Pages wizard. Now, mirroring the look and feel of the Posts wizard, the Pages wizard has a pages index / menu - with layout, button / link set, and similar features resembling the Posts wizard.

To make the new Pages wizard design fit in, the Pages wizard now only indexes and maintains "static" pages. Conversely, "dynamic" pages are maintained using the Layout "Pages" gadget.

• Archive retrievals.
• External links.
• Label searches.

Additionally, all other Pages functions have been relocated, and are also provided under the Pages gadget, in the Layout wizard.

This redesign did not go unnoticed, among the blog owners.

Both the Pages wizard, and the Layout Pages gadget, have been significantly redesigned.

The redesign has caused significant confusion, being expressed in various conversations.

• Some blog owners do not understand why their newly created "static" pages are not, automatically, added to the PageList.
• Some blog owners are unaware how to create and maintain "dynamic" pages.
• Some blog owners are unsure how to resequence the various pages, as displayed.
• Some blog owners are unhappy because they cannot edit or hide "dynamic" pages.

The original Pages wizard was used to setup and maintain both dynamic pages ("archive retrievals", "external links", or "label searches"), and static pages (articles, which resembled posts). Dynamic pages were selected as "web address", and static pages as "blank page", under the "Create page" portion of the original wizard - and this led to occasional confusion, with people not realising the differences between dynamic and static pages.

The original Pages wizard, with each new static page, automatically added a new entry to the Pages index (aka "PageList"). This was a problem for some blog owners, who intentionally setup static pages to be hidden - and who had to edit the PageList, each time they created a new page, and remove the new page from the PageList.

The new Pages wizard simply adds a new static page to the blog. After a new static page is added, you have to use "Configure Page List", and select the new page to display - if you want the new static page listed.

The new Pages wizard is only used to setup and maintain static pages. Dynamic pages are now setup and maintained from the Layout Pages gadget. The gadget lacks two key features, with respect to dynamic pages.

• It is not possible to edit a dynamic page - you must delete the page in question (by clicking on the "X"), then add it, with new values, again.
• It is not possible to hide a dynamic page - you must now delete the page in question.

Both of these omissions - accompanied by the confusion over dynamic vs static pages, and relocation of dynamic pages to the Pages gadget - are causing significant confusion.

Accompanying the confusion over dynamic pages setup and maintenance, we also see misunderstanding about the ability to hide pages, and to resequence the display of the pages. Both of these functions - formerly part of the Pages wizard - are now found under the Pages gadget. And as noted, it is not possible to edit or hide a dynamic page. Dynamic pages can only be deleted.

Finally, these changes may create still more opportunity for problems with dynamic templates, with Pages indexed in the template header bar.

You may find alternate description about this change, in Blogger Buzz: Making it easier to manage pages on your blog, and Blogger Help: Create a new page on your blog.

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