For many people blogging is a way to express themselves online for the rest of the world to read. Usually it’s about a specific topic or if it’s a personal blog, then the blog posts could range from anything like your latest trip to Europe or how your dog just had puppies. Nevertheless, blogging is easy for anyone with a computer and internet access to use.

So for those who enjoy writing and spend lots of time doing it, why not make some extra money from it? It doesn’t cost you anything and only requires a little bit of time to setup but the return could be well worth it. That’s the beauty about online advertising programs — they work 24/7 even when you’re sleeping. Talk about a nice passive way to earn some extra money each day!

My first tip is probably the most popular method (and easiest) way to get started with making money from your blog. It’s a program called AdSense from a small company you’ve probably never heard of called Google. Knowingly or not, you’ve viewed hundreds of Google’s ads online and probably even clicked on a few since they were relevant to whatever topic or website you were reading at the time. That’s one of the great things about this program and I’ll talk more about it further down this post.

Use Google AdSense

Google’s advertising program is free to sign up and you can usually be online within an hour or so (assuming your application is approved quickly). Then adding AdSense to your blog is easy especially with Blogger’s new AdSense widget (it’s quite simple with WordPress as well but I’m going to assume WordPress users already know how to do this since it’s just cut and pasting html). Once your application is approved, just log into your account, customize your ad unit, and copy and paste a block of HTML code into your blog. I’ll give you a walkthru of this process.

Step #1 - Sign up for Google AdSense

First you need to create an AdSense account (Sign up) which doesn’t take more than a few minutes to do. Once you’ve got your account setup and approved, go on to step #2.

Step #2 - Add the AdSense Page Element to Your Blog

The nice thing about the new Blogger is you can easily add Google AdSense to your blog using their built in page elements. Login to your Blogger account, navigate to “Template” => “Page Elements” and then within the layout area, click on “Add a Page Element”. From there you’ll see this screen where you want to select the “AdSense” Page Element and click on “Add to Blog”.

Next you’ll see another screen where it will ask you to login (if it’s the first time you’ve tried to add this AdSense Page Element before). Just enter the email address and password you used when setting up your AdSense account. Once you successfully login, you’ll next see the ad configuration screen. This is where you select the ad format type (leaderboard, banner, text ad, etc) with many different sizes to choose from. Now remember to keep your site visitors in mind when selecting an ad format. You don’t want the ad to dominate your entire blog page which would annoy your readers. I’d recommend starting with a small rectangle or horizontal row format before going too crazy.

Don’t forget to also select a nice color scheme that matches your blog. Statistics show that the more blended in your blog ads are, the better change people will click on them. Remember to abide by the Google TOS though which I encourage you to read before breaking the rules by accident. Now once you’ve got the exact color scheme and ad format ready to go, click on the orange “Save Changes” button to add it to your blog.

Step #3 - Save and View Your New Ads

You should now save your Page layout and view your blog. The ad unit should be in place and ready to start making you money! Sometimes it takes a little while before ads start showing up and even a couple of days before relevant ads are displayed. This is usually the case if you’ve got a newer blog and Google isn’t familiar with your blog’s content yet. Google will then crawl your site and identify it’s general topic so it knows what ads to display. Pretty cool eh? Here’s a picture of the end result. Notice the red highlighted ad unit now displayed on my blog.

Bonus Tips

Now a few tips and a warning before you get too giddy about all this money you’re going to start making. First, never (and I mean never) click on your own ads. Google will know and they will ban you from the AdSense program. It’s not worth it! Secondly, don’t expect the big bucks to start rolling in right away. It’s a numbers game. The more traffic you get to your site, the better chances you have of somebody actually clicking your ad. Typically with ads, you can expect a 2% - 4% click thru rate (CTR) assuming your ad is in a good spot which means for every 100 page views you get, expect 2-4 ad clicks. Translation — keep writing great quality blog posts and your traffic will increase over time and so will the ad clicks which equals money in your pocket.

Other Reasons to Use Google Adsense

• It’s a very simple and proven solution that hundreds and thousands of blogs and websites across the world use today.
• AdSense is by Google which is reliable and trustworthy. Once you have earned money from Google, they will pay it to you.
• The ads will be contextual, which means they will be relevant to the content of your blog. Targeted ads = happier visitors, higher click thrus, and more money for you.
• You get paid on the click which is far better than on a conversion.
• Google provides free reports so you can see exactly how many clicks and how much you’ve earned! You’ll find yourself using that report every day just to see how much money you’re making.
• The ads are so well-matched to your site’s content that your readers will actually find them useful.

So go sign up for your AdSense account (Sign up) now and you’ll soon be able to start making money from your blog! If you’ve got any problems or questions while setting this up, please post a comment below. We will do our best to answer any questions you may have or at the least point you in the right direction.

Please make sure to click on the AdSense links provided in this article as the sign up referral helps support and offset our expenses for maintaining this site.

If you’re completely new to WordPress and you want to get your feet wet before attempting to install it on your own server, then you should sign up for a WordPress.com account.

The WordPress.com interface will give you a general overview of what to expect from WordPress although some features are disabled, such as custom themes and plugins, for security purposes.

To sign up for a WordPress.com account, simply follow the steps outlined below.

1. Head over to WordPress.com and in the right hand column, click on the Get a WordPress Blog now » link.
2. Next, you’ll need to choose a username, let WordPress know which e-mail to use for correspondence, and whether you agree to the legal terms. WordPress will give you the option of signing up for just the username or securing your own WordPress.com blog. Getting just the username is good if you want to get an Akismet API key or comment on blogs that only allow comments by logged in users. Otherwise, make sure that Gimme a blog! (Like username.wordpress.com) is selected before clicking next.
3. If you opted to get a blog, then on the next page, you’ll be able to select a sub-domain on WordPress.com for your blog.
   1. Choose a unique name to use as the sub-domain. By default, it will populate the area with your username, but you can change it if you wish. If the name is already taken, you will receive an error notice.
   2. Type the title you want to use for your blog (this can be changed later if you wish).
   3. Select your language.
   4. Privacy. If you do not want your WordPress.com blog to be indexed, like if you’re using it strictly for testing purposes or for family/friends, then make sure to remove the check mark, otherwise it may end up in the search engines.
   5. When you’re all set, make sure to click on Sign up.
4. If everything went smoothly, you’ll be presented with a confirmation screen and an activation e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address you listed during sign up. It’s important that you click on the confirmation link to fully activate your blog. If you don’t click on the link, your blog will not be live and will be up for grabs within two weeks.
5. After clicking on the confirmation link in your e-mail, you’ll be greeted with your new username as password. At this point, you can click the link to see your new blog or log in to start playing around with your new blog.

You’ve outgrown your current web host and it’s time for a move, however, you have an already established blog. You have a lot of content and comments that you don’t want to lose with the change and you want as little down time as possible, what do you do?

Using this process, you will have a mirror image of your blog set up on your new server. That means you don’t need to re-install WordPress, you and your users’ login information will remain unchanged, and you don’t need to worry about updating any settings.

The following walk through applies to small to medium sized blogs, however, large blogs can still use it as a guide (with additional care, especially concerning the database export/import). Make sure you undertake the task on a slow traffic day to avoid any missed comments and minimize potential problems.

Prepare for the Move

Before you do anything at all, you want to back up your files (including your database). Once you’ve backed up your files, then you’ll want to FTP your current WordPress files to your computer.

With your back up safely tucked away, it’s safe to start playing around with your database a little bit. This is a lesson I learned the hard way with a number of moves, but you’ll want to delete all the spam records from your database before you export it for the move. (If you have Akismet installed, it’s a matter of deleting all the spam in your moderation queue.)

Deleting Spam Comments from the Databases

1. After selecting your database, click on the SQL tab.
2. In the text area that appears, type the following SQL query and click on the ‘Go’ button:

   DELETE FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_approved='spam';

   If you changed your WordPress prefix, make sure you change wp_comments to match the change.

You can also use the above instructions to delete other unnecessary data from various tables that you don’t want to take with you. For instance, if you have the ShortStats plugin installed, you can empty the search tables by replacing the query with DELETE FROM wp_ss_search; and DELETE FROM wp_ss_stats.

(I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but please be careful when working with the database. A slight error and you could end up crippling your blog.)

After deleting the spam comments, you’re now free to optimize your database tables. This is fairly quick and easy using phpMyAdmin.

Optimize the Database Tables

Return to your database admin page and click on the link to Check All database tables. From the drop down menu, select Optimize Table.

Export Your Database for Transfer

One thing to be aware of when planning your database export is the total size of the database. If you have an especially large blog (more than 40MiB), you may need to export each table individually so they can be imported to the new host with greater ease and fewer time out errors. You can find out how large your database is by looking at the Size column from the database admin page.

Prepare the New Host

You’ve downloaded your files from your current blog and exported your database, now it’s time that you move all of that information over to your new hosting account.

Log in to your new hosting account and create a new database. Once the database is created, then you’ll need to import the database you exported from your old hosting account. (Remember, if you had an especially large database, then you’ll need to import it table by table.)

Before FTPing the WordPress files to your new hosting account, make sure you update the wp-config.php file with the new host’s MySQL database information (i.e. the database name, user, and password you created with the new host). Using the information provided in your new host’s confirmation e-mail, FTP the WordPress files to the new server, making sure the folder structure remains unchanged.

Flip the Switch

After you’ve moved your database and files over to the new hosting account, it’s just about time to flip the switch. Double check that everything is in order (i.e. all the database tables are intact, the files are in their proper locations, and the wp-config.php file has been updated).

If everything is as it should be, update your DNS information from your domain registrar account and wait for it to propagate. During this period, it’s a good idea to keep your old hosting account alive until you’re sure the process is completed and all traffic is being directed to your new host. I like to have about a 1-2 week overlap, but it generally only takes a few days. Once the shift has taken place, it’s now alright to cancel your old hosting.

Everyone and their dog (yes, there are a few dogs out there with their own blogs) have started up a blog these days, but many people just aren’t taking the steps needed to optimize their blogs for both readers and search engines. While blogs can be business related (another blog about mesothelioma anyone?) they can also be personal where you talk about the great ham sandwich you had for lunch today or the crappy service you had at that trendy restaurant last night.

Since the 2.x release of WordPress, the blogging platform has more and more been praised because of its versatility. Obviously, WordPress is mostly known as a blog platform, but depending on your creativity, you can do much more with the very flexible platform.

While Blogger may not be seen as the most powerful blog management system, it certainly has a loyal following. Beginners and advanced users alike appreciate the simplicity of Blogger, the free hosting and ease of customization.

I’ve always been a fan of the Google page designs(example) as they mean to me the right blend of usability and technicality. There are a lot of things young bloggers can copy from Google to make their blogs search engine friendly.(You can see my Google inclination in the posts very evidently). Here are a few points I managed to gather for you (These are applicable irrespective of whether you are on wordpress,blogger,typepad or not).

1. Simple navigation structure
   Google makes it a point to keep their navigational structure simple, text based and always evident. You cannot miss a page that might be relevant to you from the navigation structure. Bloggers should follow this idea - Keep your navigation structure simple, either text based or CSS based and not Ajax or Java or DHTML script based.
   Tip - Java/Flash/DHTML site navigation scripts are funky and catchy but that will keep the search engine crawlers from finding what your content is.
2. Related posts
   Google always have the related posts throwing to you 3-4 topics from their FAQ pages with the title - “You might also be interested in..”
   This enhances the user experience by always making sure the information hungry searcher is not deprived of quality content.
   Bloggers can make related posts to appear in their posts using the related posts plugin.
3. Less images
   Google does not use images extensively unless there is a real need to show things as diagrams or photos.
   Less images means fast loading pages and less clutter.
   Bloggers should use less images, (like for instance button states) instead use quick loading CSS enabled menus and colour effects.
4. Highlight content
   Google always make it a point that every single time the content should be the hero in their article pages. Never in a Google page can you see an image or any other element stealing the show. It’s always content..content and content.
   Bloggers should make sure that the template they use should be one that highlights content more than anything else.
5. Keep all the options at your finger tips
   In every google page you can see that whatever option you can think of is available with the minimum clicks possible. This could be any related content that is suggested along the right hand panel as you browse along the content rich pages.
   Bloggers should make it a point that their best posts and resources should be all delivered in uncluttered boxes/spaces around or near the articles. This helps the user to make good use of their time spent on your webpage, with minimum waste of time.
6. Print option on all information pages
   Google takes into consideration all sorts of people when writing content. They have a printer button handy in almost all the pages, that can be used by anyone who has trouble staring on to the screen for hours together. Especially when there is lot of content, users have to spent lot of time reading stuff on the screen which can be tedious. Instead printing out the pages that interests them is a good option and enhances the end-user experience.
7. Search button on all pages
   The idea is to utilize that “unknown entity” from users. It is quite possible that even with all the above options, a user needn’t necessarily find the information he is looking for in your pages. Hence, he can use the search button, which is available on all the pages. He doesn’t have to try too hard to find the search bar, it is more likely to be in the top left /right above the fold.
8. Open to feedback
   Google is always open to feedback or at least “looks that way”. It has all the feedback (poll) buttons, in all the FAQ pages asking for user’s feedback.
   Bloggers can use this on their blogs to get feedback from readers too by using this plugin.
9. Two column layout
   A two column template with the content on the left hand and elements on the right hand side is the most effective and accepted form of website structure.
   Bloggers may have to be unique and select unique templates but it will be great to use a theme that follows this basic principle.
10. Use of recognizable common fonts
    The font and textual elements used in the Google pages are always simple common ones like Arial. They are cross browser compliant and everyone will find it legible.
    Bloggers should make sure that fonts used in your blog are legible to all the readers.
11. No funky graphics
    The last time I saw a graphic extensive page on Google was it’s April fool prank. Avoid funky graphics as it increases your page load time and kills user experience unless you have a photography or painting based blog. For information and content related ones, it’s a good idea to refrain from using heavy graphics.
12. Loads on pages with rich content
    Blogs are all about content and that’s what makes them loveable to search engines. So have lots of pages with rich content and when you are tired writing them have a look at the Google pages and you will never quit writing. It’s about feeding food to your crawlers so keep them coming religiously lest the crawler should go unfed.
13. Links to other resources
    Never keep your pages deprived of quality links to resources like Wikipedia and other authoritative sites. They enrich the end-user experience and credibility to your pages. Google always gives you informative links related to the current topic in their pages. Let the same be with you on your blog articles.
14. Use of bullet points
    A structured layout for information is not always possible without use of bullet points. And Google does it sweet with capsule bullet points. It is a treat to browse through rich information on bullet points, without which the information had to be all over the place and a waste of time for the user.
15. Evident headers
    Who is more SEO friendly than Google? None can be (for obvious reasons). Google uses headers that are evident both for search engines(good use of H1 tags) and humans(good use of strong and bold attributes) simultaneously. Bloggers should chose templates that will do the same, by providing the right reading pleasure for humans as well as search engines.

There are many useful widgets and scripts which you could use to add interactivity to your Blogger powered blog. Ranging from lists of your most popular posts to a table of contents which loads above your posts, this article contains 20 of the most useful widgets and scripts you could install own blogs.

Easy Install Widgets

All of the widgets int his section can be added easily to your blog using widget installers.

Recent Posts

This widget will display a list of your most recent posts, with links to their relevant pages. This widget is easy to add using the widget installer, where you simply input your blog’s URL and change the settings to suit your preferences.

Add a recent posts widget to your blog (Script by Hans of Beautiful Beta)

Recent Comments

Show recent discussions to your articles by displaying a list of recent comments in your sidebar. You can choose how many comments to display, and add an optional excerpt of each comment too.

Add a recent comments widget to your blog

Top Commentators

Reward your regular contributors by adding this widget which displays a list of the ten most active commentators. You can filter your own name from the list and add this easily using the widget installer.

Add Top Commentators widget to your blog (Originally constructed by GoogleSystem and widgetized by Blogger Buster)

Popular Posts/Most Commented

This widget uses your blog’s comment feed to determine the most popular posts based on the number of comments each post has received. It will then display a list of the ten most popular (or most commented) posts in order of authority.

Add Popular Posts/Most Commented widget to your blog

Random Posts

Phydeaux3’s widget allows to to create a link to a random post from your sidebar (or wherever you decide to add this widget in your blog). This is another easy widget to install using the one-click installer on Phydeaux’s site.

Add a random post link to your blog (by Phydeaux3)

Picasa Web Albums

This widget allows you to display recent images from your Picasa web albums account in your sidebar. All you need to do is insert your Picasa username into the input box and click submit to add this to your blog.

Install Picasa web albums widget in your blog

Simple Search Widget

This is a simple search widget which uses the same functions as the search box in the Blogger nav-bar. Unlike Google searches, this is a simple widget which will display all posts matching the queried term in the main posts section of your blog, and can be installed using the one-click widget installer.

Install a simple search form in your blog

Random Messages

Ramani of Hackosphere created this widget which can be used to display one of ten random messages in your Blogger blog. One possible use for this would be to display random testimonials in a business blog, while another would be as a display of random quotes.

There is no need to edit your blog’s template when adding this widget: you can add your own quotes and install this easily in your sidebar using Ramani’s widget installer.

Install a random message widget in your Blogger blog

Useful Scripts (Require Editing of your Blogger Template)

The scripts and customizations referenced in this section will require you to edit your blog’s HTML code. Although they are a little more complicated than the previous set, they are all undoubtedly useful additions to your Blogger powered blog.

Table of Contents

This highly useful widget will load a table of your blog’s contents above the main posts section. You can then rearrange this list to sort posts by category, posting date or post title.

It is a little more complicated to install than other widgets as it requires editing some aspects of your template, but Hans offers full and detailed instructions for you to add this easily to your blog.

Read more and install Table of Contents widget

Tab View Widget

This widget allows you to display your recent posts/comments or posts from specified categories using a “tab-view” widget, like this:

This widget will allow you to save space in your sidebar by adding these important elements in one place and is now becoming a popular feature of Wordpress powered blog designs.

You will need to edit your Blogger template to install this widget, but it’s certainly a useful and functional addition for your Blogger blog. Hoctro offers full instructions for installation and customization in hos explanatory posts.

Learn more and install a tab-view widget in your blog (Created by Hoctro)

Tag Cloud (Based on Blogger Labels)

A tag cloud displays a list of your post labels (categories) in a cloud like format, where the labels which have the most posts filed under them are highlighted in a bolder, larger font.

To install this in your Blogger blog, you will need to edit your existing label widget and add some Javascript code to your blog header.

Read more and install Blogger tag/label cloud in your blog (Created by Phydeaux3)

Random Rotating Banner/Header Image

Have you ever wanted to add a random banner to your blog’s header? If so, this script will be undoubtedly useful for you!

Unlike other random banner techniques, this technique does not require you to host Javascript files externally. Instead you can achieve this by adding some JavaScript code to your Blogger template and simply link to your banner images (hosted on Flickr or Picassa for example).

Read more and install random banner images (by Freeyasoul Adventure)

Related Posts

This script will display a list of related articles (organized by category) below your posts on item pages. I’ve found this to be a really useful script in my own Blogger blogs as this directs readers to other articles of interest once they have read the current post.

There are two versions of this widget: the first was created by Hoctro but most people find Jackbook’s updated version much easier to use and install.

Read more and install related posts for your Blogger blog (Jackbook version)

Display your Post Dates as a Calendar Page

This customization allows you to use a calendar page instead of your regular post date, like this:

This is quite a simple customization to install using JavaScript and some minor changes to your template.

Read more and install a post-date calendar in your blog

Archive Calendar

Here is another feature commonly found in Wordpress blogs which has been customized for Blogger. Phydeaux3 has created a useful archive calendar widget which readers can use to skip to posts made on a certain date. Dates where posts have been made are highlighted in the calendar, and readers can skip to different months using the easy drop-down selector.

Read more and install the Blogger Archive Calendar in your blog (by Phydeaux3)

I hope you have found this list of Blogger widgets and scripts to be useful for customizing your own Blogger templates. If you have found other widgets which are particularly useful for Blogger users, please let us know by leaving your comments below.

Blogger is from the Google stable, still blogspot users or their blogs does not have any preference in Google SERPS over other blogs or platforms. Yes, it has some cool pre-built inventories but considering that you have great content and information, only great Search Engine optimization can bring it up the SERPS(or if you have been doing it unknowingly.)

Changing your domain name can really hit your search engine rankings and therefore traffic to your website. I know: I've been there, and certainly had that done to my blog.

Here's a strong suggestion - as long as you plan to keep blogging or updating your website regularly afterwards, if you can afford to buy and keep paying for your own domain name (and it now generally costs only £10 a year or less), then you really should switch to your intended long permanent domain name as soon as you can. Preferably, if you're creating a new blog or website, even before you start building it up in earnest.

Regular readers may have noticed that I bit the bullet and switched from Blogger's free domain Blogspot.com to my own domain name, www.consumingexperience.com, on 15 and 16 April 2007, via a 2-step process (I know Amit noticed!). Well it was certainly an experience, and here are some of the things I learned from it.

Why use your own domain name?

Having your own domain name is generally considered a good thing. It comes across as more professional and is normally more memorable than http://yourISPname.com/~someweirdcombo, or http://yourfreewebspaceprovider.com/ditto.

Notably, it's also a lot more permanent - if you switch ISPs or free webspace providers, you can still keep your own domain name, you just need to move your files to a different host and "point" the domain name behind the scenes to the different location so that anyone trying to go to your URL won't notice the difference.

These days it's relatively inexpensive to have your own domain name too. For popular domain name sellers see e.g. Blogger's list, you can buy online. I use GoDaddy myself not just because it's cheap but because they offer a private domain registration service - I can be unlisted or ex-directory online, in effect. I blog anonymously or rather pseudonymously for all sorts of reasons, and it would rather defeat the object if anyone could look up who's behind my domain name and find out my real identity that way. With private domain registration they only see GoDaddy's details, and given the key selling point of private domain registration I trust that GoDaddy will keep my personal info confidential, unless of course they have to reveal anything because they're made to by law.

Blogger custom domains

If you blog via Blogger, you've been able since January 2007 to use your own domain name i.e. yourblogname.com instead of yourblogname.blogspot.com, but still store your files for free on Blogger's servers. I'd suggest strongly that you do this if you can.

Google calls this the "custom domain" feature (where to buy domain names, how to switch to custom domains, how to create a CNAME record for your custom domain, what happens to your images, how to use missing file hosts if you've switched from FTP (missing file hosts explanation)).

The yourdomainname.blogspot.com URL still works, but URL forwarding is applied so that anyone trying to go there is automatically redirected permanently (what's called a 301 permanent redirect) to the matching page on your custom domain, e.g. for my blog anyone typing this in their browser address bar:
http://consumingexperience.blogspot.com/2005/02/technorati-tags-introduction.html
will be sent to
http://www.consumingexperience.com/2005/02/technorati-tags-introduction.html
and similarly if they click links to the old Blogspot address - just try the link and see.

(A note for beginners: Google's Blogger is a free software system designed for blogging. Like other blogging platforms it facilitates creating and organising new blog posts, automatically creating newsfeeds (what are newsfeeds?), archive pages and the like. What's more, Google lets you store (host), on their own servers, all your blog webpages and associated pics and now even videos for podcasts, via Blogger in Draft (video uploading overview, trick for uploading MP3s, podcasting howto) - again for free. And they'll not only provide the blogging software and host your blog files, but also let you use your own domain name as well. This "custom domain" feature isn't the same as Blogger via FTP, which is a historical feature where users blog using Blogger but host their webpages on their own servers or servers rented from a third party who provides webspace.

I'd recommend that you use custom domains instead of FTP if you have a choice. Why? Because the now feature complete fancy New Blogger, formerly known as Blogger Beta, has a very helpful feature, especially for non-geeks, known as Layouts. This allows drag 'n drop of elements around the page, easy changing of fonts and colours, plus the use of "widgets" which anyone can make and easily share (e.g. these widgets). However, you can't get Layouts features if you use FTP for your blog; only if you use Blogspot.com for your host. This is down to Layouts using what's known as "dynamic serving", and it would be inordinately difficult for Team Blogger to get everything to work on FTP blogs hosted on servers not within Google's control.)

Domain name and search engine cred

Now, why should I suggest using your planned permanent domain name ASAP?

The most important reason is your site or blog's search engine cred.

Most people know that search engines go by a number of things in deciding whether to crawl your blog, and how high to rank your pages in search results.The details as to exactly what and how are closely guarded secrets, although the SEO (search engine optimization) experts certainly try to figure them out (check out Google's own guidelines).

Links - but to which domain name?

Links to your pages from authoritative websites are the most well known factor which search engines seem to set store by.

But the thing is, search engines go by domain name as much as links. There are lots of links to my old domain name http://consumingexperience.blogspot.com/ - but that doesn't help the search engine ranking of pages on my new domain http://www.consumingexperience.com/ much, even though my content is exactly the same as it was.

Sure, you could ask people who've linked to your old domain name to change their links to point to the new one instead. But that's a lot of time and work, for both you and them, and I don't want to use up my goodwill with the sites that have been generous enough to link to me.

Oldies are goodies

Similarly, another issue that counts with search engines is how long your domain name has been active. Not how long your content has been up on the Web: how long your content has been up under that particular domain name.

Again, it doesn't seem to matter that the content of your webpages hasn't changed - switching to a brand new, previously-unused domain name will automatically reduce your blog or site in the eyes of search engines.

Conversely, the longer a domain name has been in active operation (yes, even a used or dare I say "pre-loved" name that you got from someone else second-hand!), the better the view the search engines will take of it. A newer name simply has had less time to build up search engine cred.

Put another way, all other things being equal, content posted under a domain that's been round the block a few times will fare much better in search results than the exact same content posted under a brand new, totally wet behind the ears domain name.

And that's one reason why you should keep blogging or otherwise updating the site frequently after a domain name change - in order to build up content under the new domain name, and hence help build up the search engine ranking of web pages on that domain. (Also, update frequency is another matter known to be factored in by the search engines when creating their rankings - they prefer sites which are updated more frequently).

Practical impact of domain name change

To give a concrete illustration, my blog used to average 1500 unique visitors a day on weekdays (fewer at weekends). After the domain name change, for whatever reason that figure dipped by as much as a third, to an average of under 1000 visitors a day - it took about a week to suddenly dip, but fall it did, and it stayed down for months:


Here's a longer term view showing the change after the domain name switch, the scrabbling around at the lower end, then a recent upswing (phew! but who knows how long it'll last...):


It was only last week that my statistics started going back up to over 1000 visitors a day on weekdays, and indeed since last Friday it's almost been back to my previous "normal" average (though that might be a fleeting thing, because of a combo of the recent launch of BBC iPlayer in public beta and a chance link on I Am Bored, so I'm keeping fingers, toes and eyes crossed for at least another week). If it is a true recovery from the plunge, it still took over 3 months to happen, and I really can't predict whether after the iPlayer spike it'll get back to 1500 a day on average again. (You can see my stats showing the number of unique visitors at the bottom of my blog webpages, the bottom figure is the number of unique visitors since the domain name change.)

In the case of my blog the problem was exacerbated by the fact that about 95% of visitors to my site come via Google, rather than through links from other blogs or sites or indeed other search engines (which is why I'm only covering Google in this post). So when my Google cred decreased, so did my visitors, to a huge degree. It shows how very dependent on Google my blog and many other sites are (one site SearchKing even started a lawsuit against Google when their traffic fell massively after Google reduced their "PageRank", as to which see below - but they lost; another site Kinderstart similarly sued because of a drop in their PageRank ranking to zero, but also lost).

"Relevant results" vs. "supplemental results", and Google's supplemental index

Maybe it was just a coincidence that my stats plummeted so much after the domain change.

One possible theory, put forward by my pal and sometime pardner Kirk, is that for some reason Google started, at about the same time as my domain name changed, consigning webpages from my blog to their "supplemental index".

With searches via Google, when you get to the very last search results page you often get at the bottom of the page a paragraph saying:

"In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the [number] already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included."

Those "omitted results" are normally hidden from view by Google, and people only get to those "supplemental results" if they persist to the end. So if webpages from my blog had got themselves bunged in the "supplemental results", it's no wonder that I was getting far fewer visitors.

What is a "supplemental result"?

What is Google's supplemental index anyway? I've not found it easy to get definitive comprehensible info on Google's supplemental index (that index supposedly contains duplicate search results, for instance, though even "duplicate" isn't necessarily straightforward), although the references in the notes in the Wikipedia entry are pretty good.

Oddly enough, the Google help page on the supplemental index / supplemental results can no longer be found, though it's referenced e.g. by Googler Adam Lasnik here, and indeed elsewhere in Google's help, as http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34473 (the page is not there so there's no point making that text a clickable link). I did manage to locate a cached version from 14 May 2007 however:


- so, in case it disappears, I'm pasting the full text of what was at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34473 below:

What is a "supplemental result"?

A supplemental result is just like a regular web result, except that it is pulled from our supplemental index. We are able to place fewer restraints on sites that we crawl for this supplemental index than we do on sites that are crawled for our main index. For example, the number of parameters in a URL might exclude a site from being crawled for inclusion in our main index; however, it could still be crawled and added to our supplemental index.

If you are a webmaster, please note that the index in which a site is included is completely automated; there is no way to select or change the index in which a site appears. Please also be assured that the index in which a site is included does not affect its PageRank. For tips on maintaining a crawler-friendly site, please visit our webmaster guidelines.

Here's another post explaining supplemental results and how to search Google in such a way as to view only your supplemental results (supposedly, in the search box you type site:www.yoursitename.com *** -sljktf changing the domain name to your own domain name of course. I'm not sure it works, myself, as when I tried it the first search result was my main blog homepage - which is the only page I'm pretty sure is not in the supplemental index! Anyone got the full low down on this, I'd be grateful to know).

The supplemental index is also known as Google Hell or supplemental hell (article on one site's experiences) - though Google search guru Matt Cutts has rejoindered on that, and also said previously that "supplemental results aren't something to be afraid of; I've got pages from my site in the supplemental results, for example" (but there are certainly some issues on supplemental results which seem to have been sorted).

There are meant to be possible ways to get out of supplemental hell, but I've not tried them. I have no idea what changed this last week or so which somehow got my hits back up again, but Google has been indexing my site better again this last week, for whatever reason, so that definitely will have helped.

There are suggestions that Google has recently got rid of the supplemental index altogether, or is planning to. I'm not sure if that's right as I tried that "supplemental pages only search" mentioned above and got back lots of pages, plus even tonight I found there were pages from Google's own site in the supplemental results (see the bottom):


And if you go to Search Engine Land's own supposed supplemental results, there's a link to show "omitted results" at the bottom (supplemental results for supplemental results - huuuh??!). But maybe the disappearance of the official Google help page on supplemental results means they are getting rid of the supplemental index. Who knows.

UPDATE 1 August (completely missed this before somehow - probably because it was being posted about the same time as this post, or just after, me & my timing... - thanks Kirk!): Google are getting rid of the supplemental index, according to this Google Webmaster Central post. They've still got a supplemental index, but the distinction between the main and supplemental index is "continuing to narrow", and they don't use the "Supplemental Results" label anymore.

So, I've no idea exactly what happened and why my stats are improving now, but I'm not complaining (UPDATE: maybe it's because of Google's changes on the supplemental index front). Kirk is one of the smartest people I've ever known, if he said the moon was made of blue cheese I'd seriously think about getting a fondue maker, so if he thinks the issue was supplemental hell he's probably right - whether that came about because of my domain name change or not, though, I don't know.

Google PageRank & impact of domain name change

There's another, possibly related, issue. At one point I'd managed to work my way up to a Google PageRank (see Wikipedia and this excellent post on Google PageRank) of 7 for this blog - the bigger the better in terms of your search results positioning, 10 is tops.

Now, however, because of the relative newness of this domain name, it's 0, zero, nil point - just check my blog via the Page Rank display feature of Google Toolbar () or a page rank checker.

Sadly for me Google seems to have updated their public PageRanks (more on PageRank & index updates) shortly after my domain name change, so the 0 ranking for the new domain has carried through to everywhere else - not just the Google Toolbar. Even the crawl stats on Google Webmaster Tools show that most of my pages have low rankings now, and not a single one is ranked high, boo hoo:


The good news, for what it's worth, is that apparently that Google's internal PageRank (see this too on internal PageRank) for your blog doesn't change - at least, when you move to a custom domain on Blogger; I can't say what the position is if you switch domains hosted elsewhere, but a 301 redirect always seems to help (more on changing to custom domains on Blogger, possible impact on PageRank and 301 permanent redirects).

So, for searches where my blog previously ranked quite high (e.g. Gmail alias, Gmail username, Technorati tags, Freetube), my pages seem not to have lost their position on the Google search results page, and they're clearly shown as being from my new domain. Which is a relief, to say the least.

I just hope Google's next public update of Page Rank catches me up again soon, though I will still have to do more blogging to build up the track record of this particular domain name so that the search engines will take my blog more seriously again.

Tips on changing domain name

I'll be posting specific practical tips relating to the change to custom domains on Blogger soon, but as basic preliminary points I'd suggest:

• grit your teeth and make the change ASAP - the longer you leave it, the harder it will be and the longer it will take to build your search engine cred back up under the new domain name
• take a deep, deep breath and fortify yourself first with plentiful supplies of ice cream, chocolate, cake and whipped cream or your alternative de-stresser of choice - you may need 'em to keep you sane, watching your stats take a deep dive and stay down for months can be a "nerve-wrecking" experience!
• make sure there's a 301 permanent redirect on the old domain name to the new one - Blogger seems to do this automatically for custom domains, redirecting anyone who tries to go to http://olddomain.blogspot.com/year/day/whatever.html to http://www.newdomain.com/year/day/whatever.html (sort of - where it doesn't do that it could cause more problems, but that's for a different post)
• do keep adding to your site or blogging after the change, as much and as often as you can - both to produce more quality content to hook in the search engines, and also because more frequent updates of your site or blog should help you build up the new domain name's ranking.

More specific howtos, dos and don'ts etc when changing to custom domains will follow, so stay tuned.