What's all this mean, why do I need this?
The old way of creating Meta Tags for a Blogger Template, will only let us set the Meta Tag content for all of our Blogger blogs, as single Meta Tags, that shows the same content on every single blog page.
My new improved code will automatically write this dynamic content to the Blogger template for each individual blog page:
- TITLE
- Description Meta Tag
- Keywords Meta Tag
1) Title Tag = Blog Post Title + Blog Post Labels + Blog Title
2) Description Meta Tag = Blog Post Title + Blog Post Labels + Blog Description
3) Keywords Meta Tag = Blog Post Labels
The Blog Title pulls it’s content from Blogger Control Panel –> Settings –> Title. The Blog Description in the Meta Tag Description pulls it’s content from the Blogger Control Panel –> Settings –> Description. All the Label content pulls it’s content from each individual blog posts labels, so we use those Labels as Keywords inside the Meta Tags.
What all this does is provide Google our own unique content & keywords, that have a very good chance of showing up inside the Google Search results Pages description, just below the Title. The reason I say a very good chance of showing up is, it’s impossible for any website on the net to force Google to use content. With the Meta Tag Description, Google most times will look for that tag & use it in the SERP.
I’ve had my new Dynamic Meta Tags crawled by Google & already showing up in the Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page), after only a few hours of testing.
The image below, you can see a screenshot of my new Meta Tag content, from my last blog post
My intention is to have Google notice my blog for a wider dynamic selection of keywords & phrases, than my old static template. I’ll wait about a month & keep monitoring how Google Search handles the content in my SERP results, before I post any code for others to use on their own blogs, I want the code to be 100% up & running with results to show everyone.
Keep an eye out for related future blog post.
While I’m tweaking the code, have a look thru this blogs source code, to check out how every single page on this blog has dynamic Meta Tags & Page Titles (no two pages are the same).
16 comments:
David Bergeron on October 9, 2009 3:09 PM said...
Awesome! Does google really use meta tags on searches? Someone told me google doesn't anymore because there was a lot of spam websites misusing the tags.
Switcher on October 9, 2009 5:41 PM said...
David Bergeron,
Good to hear from you again. :)
Google has said themselves that they no longer use the Keywords-Meta-Tag for any SERP (search engine results pages). So you are correct.
I thru the keywords meta tag in the mix, really because the code I wrote is setup the same with only a little bit of tweaking, so that's why it's being included here. Also you never know what other odd-ball search engine might still pick-up on the keywords tag.
We still have the Description-Meta-Tag to work with, along with the webpage Title-Tag to use. Those two html tags are VERY active in the Google SERP. So, we can tweak our blogger templates a bit, to get the Google SERP Title & Descriptions tweaked the way we want them to show up, to allow folks searching Google to find relevent info to our blogs.
I already have one of my blog post showing up in the Google SERP that shows everything I've tweaked already here on this blog.
The SERP Title & the SERP Description all have my dynamic blogger/blog content. :)
Have a look, do a Google search for one of my blog Page Titles:
Blogger - Increase Your Label Limit Per Page
Everything in that Google search in the first results, is all dynamic content (Page Title, Labels, Blog Description, Blog Title, etc...), & I can change anything about this, it's not set in stone!
I could go on & on about what's possible, by tweaking the Title & Meta-Tag. :)
I don't want to post any actual code until I see some longer term results from Google, I try & do my best to get everything 101% running before ever posting code, etc...
Everything so far has been very positive, with the new Meta-Tag code.
Any other ?'s, I'll try & answer the best I can.
Thanks, & keep an eye out for my future blog post about this new code. :)
David Bergeron on October 21, 2009 5:00 AM said...
Switcher, sry about the late reply, forgot to subscribe to comments:)
You're right, it's better to have meta tags for other search engines and who knows, maybe google does factor meta tags in a little.
So, how is it working? I tried searching for your post title and it seems to be working. I think it's a really good idea:)
By the way, is it possible to change blogger 404 page?
Switcher on October 21, 2009 10:22 AM said...
David,
Well, this post is showing up with only the Date, in the Google SERP(kinda odd). My post before this, is working 100% in the Google SERP.
Anyway, I might do another blog post, & see If the Date issue changes in the SERP.
As far as your 404 ?'s, I see that your running your own domain name, & it's hosted on GoDaddy, will GoDaddy allow you to setup a 301 redirect? From what I've looked at on GoDaddy, they allow you to create a starter webpage, that might be another option If you have control of the .htaccess file? Then use that starter webpage as a custom 404 page, then maybe redirect back to your blogs homepage?
Might be a couple options, working with GoDaddy. I can't do any testing since I don't have a custom domain name of my own.
That would make for a good blog post, If the 301 redirect would work. :)
David Bergeron on October 21, 2009 3:36 PM said...
That is odd that the date is now the post title. I don't know why. I guess more tests are needed.
You're right, godaddy has 301 redirects and a free starter page. I'm just not sure if blogger allows to edit the .htaccess file. I will have to try it out. Would make an awesome post if it works :)
Btw, you should get the domain soswitcher.com. I pay about $7.50 a year at GoDaddy which is not too bad. Hosting is like 10 times that which totally sucks but luckily blogger hosts for free.
Dave Price said...
Switcher,
Thanks for such an interesting post - and so relevant to what I've been searching for all day!
I created unique meta-tags and descriptions for each of my blogger posts about 3 weeks ago now - but google still hasn't "seen" them.
On webmaster it tells me that I have duplicate meta tags and duplicate descriptions.
With a Site: search on google, all the pages on my site are indexed exactly the same (i.e. all the snippets read the same)
Any ideas would be amazing.
Cheers again,
Dave
Switcher on October 23, 2009 6:17 AM said...
Dave Price,
Welcome to SoSwitcher. :)
I'm still doing some testing/watching my Google SERP for this blog, before I release the code for Dynamic Meta Tags for Blogger.
I think I know why the date is showing for this blog post in my Google SERP, in the SERP Title.
I didn't add any code to handle the Archive pages (Doh...), so I'll add that soon, that should deal with the date being displayed in my SERP.
Switcher,
Switcher on October 25, 2009 5:35 PM said...
All fixed! :)
That's what the Date issue was in this blogs Google SERP.
I didn't have any code for the archive, that caused the Date to show up instead of the blog post Title.
Anyway, it's all working correct now, I just did a search for this blog post title, & the Google SERP is perfect!
Since I did a new blog post, Google crawled my blog again, & updated this blog post to the correct blog title.
wajira said...
<title><data:blog.pageName/> <data:blog.title/></title>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.pageName' name='Description'/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.pageName + data:blog.title +data:blog.pageTitle' name='Keywords'/>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
So what about this dynamic meta tags???
without labels..
I have seen yesterday google index breadcrumbs as url in serp.....
wajiras@gmail.com
Switcher on November 19, 2009 8:17 PM said...
wajira,
Looking at your code, that should work ok, If you don't need Labels included in your blogs Meta Tags.
Thanks,
wajira said...
hello switcher.
how did you put labels to meta description.
Pls can you send me the seo title you are currently using. I m doing a some experiment. Now my blog going up and down day by day from google serp :(
wajitas@gmail.com
Tim on January 5, 2010 9:06 AM said...
Switcher,
This is just what I'm looking for. Any chance of posting the code soon?
Switcher on January 5, 2010 9:38 AM said...
Tim,
I'll try & get a new blog post soon.
I've been very busy with another CMS site (4k - web pages).
I'll try & have the code posted this week.
The new dynamic Meta Tags have been working great, here on SoSwitcher.blogspot.com
It does take some time to setup (1/2 hour), after it's setup all the Meta Tag content is automatic (per blog post), no two webpages will ever have the same Meta Tags. :)
This is one of the best Blogger SEO hacks I've done, & trust me you won't find this code on any other blog!
Thanks,
David Bergeron on February 3, 2010 12:41 AM said...
Hey Switcher,
Did you find any bugs? And when are you going to release it soon? Btw, what do you think about h1 tags in blogger, does it make a difference for seo?
lifeemr on February 20, 2010 11:37 PM said...
Hi Switcher
dear you are doing a nice job. Can you tell me that label and categories can be mentioned in blog title.
Dave on March 20, 2011 3:11 PM said...
Hi Switcher - did you ever post the code for this? I can't find it anywhere.
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