Everything Typepad

Add Meta Keywords and a Description to Your Post

When you need to know something, what's the first thing you do? You Google it! But how does Google know what sites to bring up? Along with a complex algorithm, they use your Metadata. Let's talk about Metadata and how you can add it to your blog.

What Is Metadata 

Metadata is data about your site. Each page and post on your blog has data that tells Search Engines what's on your page. When someone searches, Google uses this data (and much more) to bring up the most reliable pages to answer the search query. You can add Meta Keywords and Meta Description to your post to help Google bring up the right information for the person searching.

Meta Keywords

Google had devalued keywords recently. Some bad apples would stuff their site with valuable keywords to help their site rank higher in search results. It is unclear what weight keywords have in Google’s algorithm but it is still good to have them. We recommend long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are more like sentences about your blog post. They include things like “How to create a get well card” or “How to cook a steak”. Long tail keywords are helpful because more and more people are using Google Voice Search to find information instead of typing it in. (Hey Google!)

Meta Description

This is the description that shows under your post title and URL in Google. It shows a brief description of what the page is about. If the keywords searched for are in the post, Google will highlight it here. This can be generic for you whole blog and detailed for each blog post and page. 

Add Metadata To Your Blog

There are two different places in Typepad you can add Metadata. The first is an overview of the blog itself and the second is for each post or page.

Add To Your Whole Blog 

Search Engines want to know what your blog is about. This Metadata shares with them the keywords and description for your blog on a whole. You can update this as your blog evolves.

From the Settings tab, click on the SEO tab on the left. Here you can add Meta Keywords and Meta Description for your whole blog.

Add To Your Individual Blog Posts and Pages

When you create a post or a page, you can add more customized Metadata that drills down what the particular post or page is about. Make sure to use keywords and phrases that show up in the post.
From the Compose page, scroll down to Keywords. Here you will enter your Keywords for the post. The Excerpt is where you will put a brief description about the post. Make sure to use as many of the keywords you can but sound natural as well.

A Quick Word About Google

You may spend some time crafting the perfect description for your blog, blog post, or page. You use the correct keywords and your readers can easily understand the description. Then you do a quick Google search and that doesn’t come up. Well, Google will do what it wants to sometimes.

First, if you recently published the page, Google may not have crawled it yet. They will use the first paragraph on the post or your blog description. You will need to wait for Google to crawl your page and update their information. If you are updating older posts or pages, you can ask Google to recrawl your page through Google Search Console.

Second, Google wants to showcase the search terms used. If your meta description does't have it, they will use text in the post that does have it. This is to show the searcher your post has the keywords they are looking for.

A great way to view what Google shares is to just search your site. To search just your site add site: before your domain.

Example: site:everything.typepad.com

Tip: You don’t need to add https or www.

Not sure which posts are popular or not? Add Google Analytics to your blog and let them do the tracking.

Here you'll see the description that shows when your post comes up without keywords. If your blog is older, you may have a few pages to review. We recommend starting with your least popular posts. If you add Keywords and a Description does it impove the page views? 

 

Quick Tip: Move Date Above Blog Post Title

Today we're here to bring you a quick CSS trick in customizing your blog's design.  In order to take advantage of the Custom CSS feature, you need to have an Unlimited plan or higher.  

By default, the post date appears under the blog post title: 

Some bloggers prefer the date to appear above the post title.  This can be achieved by inserting the following CSS code at Design > Custom CSS: 

.post { position: relative; }
.date-header.font-dateheader {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
}
.individual-post h5.date-header, .post h5.date-header {
margin: -19px 0 10px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
}

After saving your changes, the date will appear on top

You may need to adjust the measurement for the bottom spacing (in this example, it is set to -19px). 

What ways do you use Custom CSS to customize your blog's appearance? Let us know in the comments!

Blog as Personal Archive

Written by Murray Browne from The Book Shopper.  

As one who has been blogging for over a decade, musing about books and book culture to a handful of readers, several beneficial aspects have emerged over the years. No, it’s not riches or fame, but I’ve discovered that personal blogging has provided me with a diary of what I have been reading and thinking about since 2008.

The blog has evolved over the years. It began as a promotional tool for my book of essays, The Book Shopper: A Life in Review published by Paul Dry Books in 2009. For a while I even kept a calendar of book activities and did some reportage of author events here in the Atlanta area where I live. I saw some good authors over the years, but then my interests shifted. I broadened my scope to the current musings format, which gives me more leeway to come up with various topics to write for my biweekly postings.

Some of the postings fall into categories like book reviews or bookstores, or some of my favorite subjects like baseball and military history. I also prefer to read older books and lesser-known titles. (Who needs another spin on a bestseller?) Other noteworthy categories are Books-as-Art-as-Books and the MARTA Book Club – a series of 34 postings where on my daily commute I logged the titles of books that people were reading while on the trains of the city’s Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.

Using the Typelist feature on Typepad, I also keep a running list of what I have been reading throughout the year and display it on the sidebar. I have recently added a new page of “Suggested Readings” so I can keep track of what bookish friends have recommended. (If nothing else, the blog provides a handy jog to my memory, which I can access through my phone on a moment’s notice.)

Because the blog has more of personal take on subjects instead an authoritative one, I have been able to combine events – such as vacations and trips – into postings and travelogues. For example, over the years I have visited bookstores in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Oaxaca, Amsterdam, Nova Scotia, Prague, and the Greek isle of Santorini to name but a few. Accompanying on these excursions is my longtime partner Denise who is always willing to pose as a book browser or snap an “action” picture of me standing in front of a bookstore.

Blog subjects sometimes include other family members too. For example, I wrote about going with my younger daughter Bonnie to the Rickwood Baseball Classic in Birmingham, Alabama to honor the Willie Mays biography I was reading (Mays played for the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro Leagues in 1948). When the Kansas City Royals played in the World Series in 2014, I wrote about the Kansas native, baseball writer Bill James, reminiscing about the time I lived in the Sunflower State. It included a photograph of my mother pushing my older daughter Cynthia in a swing wearing a toddler-sized George Brett uniform (a future Hall of Famer). Thoughts about my father have been included in numerous postings as well, particularly as I reflected on his service in World War II. All this flooded back to me after I chatted briefly with historian Rick Atkinson, the author of The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 at a small reading at my local library.

While flipping through my 450+ musings, I noticed that I should be a little more diligent about assigning categories to these postings. This can go a long way to help me find specific things I wrote about. Moreover, it has made me more aware of how topics like certain writers or themes have reoccurred and how my thinking has evolved over the past decade. This digital “paper trail” is like a diary of sorts, but with the added challenge of making it interesting, since I know others are going to be reading it.

A final advantage of the blog archive is that once I’ve taken the time to record my thoughts and observations and add some photos and artwork, I will sometimes stumble upon new opportunities to send that link out to connect with others. An informal conversation or a serendipitous article I’ve come across online reminds me of something I’ve already thought and written about. A quick follow-up is a convenient cut-and -paste away.

While there are rarely riches and fame in blogging, connecting to friends, family members, subscribers, and even oneself can be reward enough.

Do you want to share your experience blogging with Typepad? Learn more about becoming a guest blogger.

3 Ways To Display Social Media Links

Social media is where you share your latest posts and converse with your readers. It's important the social media links on your blog are clearly displayed so readers can easily find and follow you. You have many different choices to customize the icons to fit your branding. 

Other Accounts

The easiest way to add social media links to your blog is to use our Other Accounts feature. Quickly connect to the many different platforms and display them on your blog.

To add the different platforms to your account, click on the Account tab, then Other Accounts. Here you can add links to the different platforms you are on. 

Once you are done adding accounts, you will add the Other Accounts module to your blog.

Go to: Blogs> Name of Blog > Design > Content

Add the Other Account Module and select how you'd like it to be displayed (List or Grid). Click on Save Changes.

From The Company

Some of the different social media sites offer downloads containing different versions of their logo. They also provide guidance on how to use their logos on your blog. These logos can be saved to your computer and are free to use. Below you can find links to the 4 popular social media brand pages.

Free From Designers

If your blog has a particular look that doesn't go well with the icons provided by the different platforms, you may want to look into pre-designed icons. Some designers create different versions of social media icons that can be used by everyone. They provide their designs to download and use as needed. Here are some sites that allow you to download and use different social media icons. 

Iconmonstr
They have a wide range of different icons besides social media.

IconFinder
Make sure you stay in the free section. They have premium images but you have to pay for them.

Graphic Fuel Flat Social Media Icons
This download includes the PSD file. If you have Photoshop, you can further customize the images.

Add To Your Blog

Once you have your custom icons saved you will need to add them to your blog. You can either add them as an image using the image module or you can use the Embed Your Own HTML module to add multiple images in a row. 

If you do decide to use the Embed Your Own HTML module, you can use a table to arrange your social media icons in a row. We provided some code to help you get started. 

First upload the images you want to your File Manager. Then copy the URL to the image to a safe place to be used later. Add the Embed Your Own HTML module to your blog and customize the code below.  

<table style="width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse;" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://social_media_URL.com">
<img border="0" src="https://image_url.jpg"></a></td>
<td><a href="https://social_media_URL.com">
<img border="0" src="https://image_url.jpg"></a></td>
<td><a href="https://social_media_URL.com">
<img border="0" src="https://image_url.jpg"></a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Replace https://social_media_URL.com with the URL to the social media page you want to promote.

Replace https://image_url.jpg with a URL to the image. 

If you need to add more icons, copy the <td> tag line and paste it above the </tr> tag, then make your changes. If you don't need as many icons, you can delete a <td> tag line. 

Once you are done, click on Ok, then Save Changes. If you have any questions you are always welcome to contact our support team, they are happy to help. 

Now that you have added social media icons, share your blog in the comments. We would love to see your blog and maybe follow you as well!! 

Seen On Typepad: Keep Your Family Happy And Healthy This Spring

Seen on Typepad highlights new and interesting posts from our community of Typepad bloggers, enjoy!

From: Mommypalooza

It’s going to be a very different spring for everyone this year, following advice to ‘stay home and save lives.’ While you might not be heading to the beach or vacationing on your spring break, you can still enjoy spending time with your family.

Read More at Mommypalooza

Customize your Blog Title in our New Magazine Layout

With the shiny new Magazine Layout, you can share a new look for your blog. The Custom CSS feature allows you to customize the design to fit your brand. (Custom CSS is available with the Unlimited plan. Click here to check your plan.)

The Magazine Layout is currently available in beta. It's easy to join the beta team to take advantage of new features. Learn more.

Now, we are going to share some CSS tips for changing the formatting of the Blog Title.

Change Blog Title Size

At Design > Custom CSS, you can add the below code to the text field:

.blog-header-logo { font-size: 40px; }

Adjust 40px to the preferred size for the title and click Save Changes.

Change Blog Title Font

.blog-header-logo { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; }

Change Blog Title Color

.blog-header-logo { color: #800000 !important; }

(The !important code in this CSS is...important.)

Make Blog Title Bold and Bolder

.blog-header-logo { font-weight: bold; }

Additional options: bolder, lighter, normal

What other tweaks do wish to try out with the new Magazine Layout? Let us know in the comments, and we'll include the CSS in another blog post.

Featured Blog: Shelley Klammer - Expressive Art Inspirations

Shelley Klammer is a therapist, collage artist, and an expressive arts educator.  Her blog, Shelley Klammer: Expressive Art Inspirations, includes e-courses (some are free), online therapy, creative resources, beautiful visuals, inspirational quotes and poetry.  

Follow: Profile | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Quick Tip: Align Your Blog Title In Design Lab

The Design Lab is our easy to customize, mobile friendly theme. When you don't add a banner to your theme, your blog name and description will be centered on the theme. 

You can change it up by adding a bit of CSS code to left or right align the title and description. 

Quick note: If you want to make changes to the CSS code, you need an Unlimited plan or higher. You can quickly upgrade if you do not have this plan. 

Add Alignment to your Title and Description

Click on the Blogs > Name of blog > Design > Custom CSS. In the box, paste in the code for the alignment you want below. Last, click on Save Changes. 

Left Align CSS Code:

#banner h1, #banner h2 { text-align: left; }

Right Align CSS Code: 

#banner h1, #banner h2 { text-align: right; }

Now that you have aligned your blog title and description share your blog in the comments. We'd love to take a look.