Blogger SEO SUCKS: The Jury Is Out?
Buzz it
SEO for Blogger sucks, at least according to the verdict of Stephan Spencer, the President of Netconcepts. He makes no bones about the fact that Blogger is at the bottom of the SEO scrum for blog platforms.
This confirms what I’ve been saying for some time now in my ongoing series on SEO for blogs. There’s no new news here, but what I found interesting about the article is the question that he was asked by Chris Crum:
”Why would a blog platform owned by Google itself carry a greater burden for getting good rankings on the very search engine that everyone strives to rank well in?”
That’s a fair question and one that I’ve asked myself. Here was his answer:
”I don’t think it is intentional on Google’s part,” says Spencer. “The developers of Blogger designed it for simplicity and usability (the “KISS” principle).
Well, I’m not sure if I would completely agree with that statement. I agree that they are probably trying to make Blogger more user friendly, and if keeping Blogger’s entire template in just one document and making it’s code more unconventional is “simpler” then I guess he could be right.
But my experience has found quite the opposite. Blogger tends to be more confusing trying to tweak one long document (i.e the template) instead of breaking it up into more manageable components like Wordpress does.
I also prefer conventional HTML and CSS like Wordpress has instead of the “New” Blogger’s proprietary code. Don’t believe me? Then take a look here.
Conventional code also happens to make Wordpress more XHTML compliant and SEO friendly. So in some ways it could be argued New Blogger is worse for SEO than the previous version.
What else could be considered simpler? Oh yes, Blogger has drag and drop widgets. But then again so does Wordpress, and with it’s plethora of plugins Wordpress leaves Blogger in the dust.
But some would say with javascript you can make a Blogger pig out of a sow’s ear. Well I’m not even going to go there except to say java can make a page load slower and doesn’t hold a candle to PHP for raw horsepower and SEO.
Confessional:
On a personal note I have to admit I got suckered into spending more time on Blogger than I should have. I thought (or should I say hoped) Google would some day make (New) Blogger into the premier blog platform. That was a big mistake on my part and one that I sorely regretted.
I bet on Google and lost. I reasoned (at the time) with Google’s capital they could have easily developed the best blog platform, especially better than any open source project … like Wordpress for example.
In retrospect we now know that Google had no intention (nor ever will by the look of it) to make Blogger anything more than it is now — a mediocre personal blogging platform.
There’s no money in improving it as far as Google is concerned. Google is quite happy with Blogger being a cash-cow for adsense, even if that also means at the expense of becoming a sploggers’ paradise.
Stephan Spencer also mentions search engines are not SEO experts:
They didn’t know what they didn’t know’ — and that unfortunately included SEO. “Believe it or not, the search engines are not expert at SEO,” Spencer continued…”
So true. Search Engines make the rules (algorithms) and the SEO guys figure out how to game it.
But wouldn’t you think the guys who make the rules should also know it’s inherent weaknesses in the first place? Well all I can say to that is think of it these terms.
If our law makers realized all of the loopholes in the laws (rules) that they’re making, then wouldn’t you think they would fix it before passing it into law? But if that were the case then Government would become paralysed and no laws would ever be passed!
The bottom line is nothing is perfect and bad laws are passed every day. Law makers can only try to foresee problems down the road as best they can. Finding loopholes in the law is why we have lawyers and what separates the great ones from the mediocre. (I’m not necessarily saying that’s a good thing either).
It may seem like I’m getting off topic here but I hope you understand the metaphor I’m trying to make. To err is to be human, and the same thing goes for search engines, SEO and technology because it is created by humans. The problem with technology is that it compounds the issue because it evolves so fast it’s almost impossible to predict.
This comment also made me chuckle:
“BTW, this one takes the cake… the tag pages on Blogger (actually referred to as “labels” by Blogger) are disallowed by the robots.txt file! They are within the search directory, which is disallowed”. Source
Ha! The joke is on us .. thanks muchly Blogger.
While this is all true, it’s been my experience that most Blogger users are personal bloggers and don’t really care about statistics, traffic or pagerank. That is the response I’ve received overwhelmingly here at Blog Bloke Central (so far).
But maybe that was just bravado or denial in the face of overwhelming odds (notice the tongue on my cheek). What do you think?
Blog Tip: If you are thinking of switching over to Wordpress (or another blogging platform) then I recommend doing it NOW instead of later. You will save yourself a ton of headaches.
Here is the best way to go about that if you are so inclined 
Migrating-Redirecting Blogger to Wordpress: The Complete Guide!
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Opinions? (click here to jump to the comments form)
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Thanks to everyone for Stumbling this post!
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Just one correction. A jury is “out” when it has not rendered a decision. In this instance, the verdict is in — and Blogger sucks, as many of us have long know. You might want to change your headline to reflect your actual intent because, as drafted, it is misleading.
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It was done intentionally. Despite what you and I know there are still many out there who believe differently. It’s a play on words so to speak on the ambiguity of opinions out there. That’s why there’s always a plaintiff and a defendant as you probably know
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on January 12th, 2009 2:39 am:
Yeah - Blogger is of no real use for SEO anymore - hasn’t been for a long time IMO.
Wordpress has faults, but it still pounds Blogger big time.
Scottf
Scott Farleys last blog post…Making Time for My Design Hobby
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You didn’t provide link to the article, but I disagree with him. It depends on what he defines SEO. If it is getting backlinks blogger doesn’t suck. Blogger is just like any other blogging platform to me. You just have to build your backlinks to rank high on search engine.
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The link is under the last quote — “Source”.
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Now I see it.
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Thanks for dropping by Dalirin.
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on January 19th, 2009 5:41 pm:
Dalirin (@blogbloketips) reply on January 19th, 2009 5:30 pm:
Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on January 19th, 2009 4:04 pm:
ya definatly SEO is difficult ,but google index blogger pages very fast then wordpress….
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Despite Blogger being operated by Google, I think that there is no question that Wordpress is the leader in blog platforms. From an SEO standpoint I think some great SEO plug-ins have been created to help novice SEO’s build a better optimized blog.
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I have been blogging now for 6 months and realise blogger is far behind WP. I am serious about rankings so don’t wanna take a chance. Wd migrate after the next page rank update. Thanx a lot for the thoughtful post and the link on how to migrate to WP.
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It is my pleasure Jhangora.
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on March 3rd, 2009 9:24 pm:
Never liked Blogger to be honest. Probably because too many newbs are using it. Better to buy some .info domain for $1 already and be independent.
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@CashMakers, Oh I dunno about that. I wouldn’t be so quick to judge.
Yes most newbies start on Blogger but there are still a lot of good bloggers on Blogger. In the hands of a clever coder New Blogger can be made quite powerful.
I myself was on Blogger until a couple of years ago and I’ve been around more than most. I left because it was apparent they had no inclination to take it to the next level. I got tired of waiting.
For professional users I would agree that Wordpress is definitely the way to. Especially for scalability and SEO purposes.
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Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on March 6th, 2009 5:31 pm:
According to me wordpress is the best with ‘N’ plugins available its even more powerful…!
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I really dislike blogger. the thing is i cant nock it though. its where i got started. i was able to make a blog and start writing in under an hour. that is why it is so popular. it is pretty simple if you have no computer skills and never plan to edit the template. once you start learning some skills, you have to go to wordpress, imo there is nothing better.
Nicks last blog post…DoFollow Blog Search Engines
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Wordpress is by far superior.
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I have to agree with you completely. I just tried blogger for the first time a few months ago, mainly hoping I could modify it a little bit for backlinks. I found it too restraining. Having used wordpress for a few years it was like trading in my cadillac for a yugo. I like the new layout on your site. Thanks for sharing.
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That was a very interesting read.
I’ve never really been into blogger and have always gone with wordpress.
I have to admit that I have used blogger for backlink building and a few ‘tryout’ and personal sites, but that’s about as far as our relationship went.
Thank you for the good read,
-Aidan Kerslake.
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I think both blogger and wordpress are good in their own way. Blogger is quite simple and easy for beginners, and I also admit that wordpress is more experienced and has more documentation.
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Nice blog. In my blogging experience Blogger is better than Wordpress. Blogger is easier to handle.
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Blogger SEO SUCKS: The Jury Is Out?: SEO for Blogger sucks, at least according to the verdict of Stephan Spence.. http://bit.ly/7pyJ8W