Optimizing Your Blogger.com Blog with SEO and Robots.txt Settings

Introduction:

Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key to enhancing your website's visibility, and among the crucial settings lies the 'robots.txt' file and 'custom robots header tags.' If you're a Blogger.com user, understanding these settings is essential as they determine how Google's search bot interacts with your content, ultimately influencing your content's ranking on Google's pages.

What is Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

SEO is a strategic process aimed at boosting your website's visibility to search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. It involves various techniques and practices to make your content and links more visible.

Robots.txt and Custom Robots Header Tags:

The 'robots.txt' file and 'custom robots header tags' settings play a vital role in guiding search engines on how to navigate specific sections of your blog. These settings act as directives, instructing search engine bots on what actions to take regarding your content.

How to Setting up robots.txt on Blogger.com?

For Blogger.com users, knowing how to configure 'robots.txt' is crucial because Google's search bot communicates with your website through this file, impacting how your content gets ranked on Google's pages. Following steps will help you :

 Enabling Custom Robots Header Tags

 Step 1: First Log in to your Blogger.com website . You will see Settings option on the left side of your blogger dashboard. click on Settings tab. 

If you are using PC press Ctrl+F. Then type »Crawl, then press Enter. You will see Highlighted "Crawlers and indexing". For Mobile users, they symply scroll down and find "Crawlers and indexing".  Below this Heading you will see "Enable custom robot header tags" press the toggle switch to enable it. (Fig-01)

(Fig-01) Enable toggle switch

Step 2: Then Click Home page tags . A pop-up window with open. (Fig-1.1) » enable 'all' & 'noodp' toggle switches. » Press "Save".

fig: 1.1

`noodp` directive in the `robots.txt` file or meta tags of your webpage instructs search engines not to use Open Directory Project (ODP) descriptions for your page's snippet in search results. This can be useful if you want more control over how your page's information is presented in search results. 

To implement `noodp` in the `robots.txt` file. `noodp` helps tailor your search result snippets according to your page content, providing a more accurate representation to users.

 In the HTML meta tags:

    <meta name="robots" content="noodp">

Step 3: same as previous one. Just follow the instructions given in the fig: 1.2&1.3

fig: 1.2

fig: 1.3

Congratulations! 🎉 you are done the first step. Now configure robot.txt file.

Configuring Custom Robots.txt

 Click on "Enable custom robots.txt" > Copy the code and and paste.

    
    User-agent: Mediapartners-Google

    Disallow:

    User-agent: *

    Disallow: /search

    Allow: /

    Sitemap: "https://your-websiteurl.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500

Replace "https://your-websiteurl.com" with your website url. Click on Save. And it's all done.

Conclusion:

Understanding and configuring 'robots.txt' and 'custom robots header tags' on Blogger.com is pivotal for bloggers aiming to optimize their content for search engines. These settings directly influence how Google's search bot interacts with your blog, impacting the visibility and ranking of your content on Google's search results. Stay informed, implement best practices, and watch your blog climb the ranks on search engine result pages. Happy blogging!