Where To Find Free Blogger Backgrounds and Textures

Blogger is a fantastic tool for amateur and professional writers that have a passion for publishing online content. Unlike WordPress or hosting companies that require you to design your site before ever getting started, Blogger is a ready to go service right out of the box that will allow you to start writing for yourself or others on day one. The effort required to sign up for an account is minimal, and you can really get as creative as you want, whenever you want.

Even if you aren't familiar with web development or design, that's okay. Blogger is a place for everyone. Thanks to the overwhelming support of the Blogger and creative communities, there are plenty of free to use resources out there to make your site look great and keep you focused on what you love best. Here are some of the top sites for acquiring blogger backgrounds that won't cost you a dime and will look incredible.

Shabby Blogs

Shabby blogs offers some unique texture and graphic rendered Blogger backgrounds to choose from. All of the designs that they have are created to be standard width so you don't get a lot of flexibility to choose from; however, there are guides out there that can teach you how to extend the sidebars, header, and footer of your screen if you find one you love and this is something important to you. In addition to offering Blogger backgrounds Shabby blogs also has a section for cute little buttons that you can add to your site to give it an extra special touch.

Hot Bliggity Blog

Aside from having one of the coolest and creative names to say out loud, Hot Bliggity Blog has a wide selection of patterned-based blogs for your site. You can choose between different color schemes, and they also offer three different sizes to pick from, standard, widened, and full width. Best of all, they are really easy to install. All you have to do is click on the install link underneath the image. From there it will copy the code for you into your clipboard and give you instructions on where to paste it.

Dotty Dot Dot

Dotty Dot is the place to go if you like geometric type backgrounds that are heavy on squares, plaid, circles, and of course dots. The website is a little bit hard to navigate, but they have a sidebar with a bunch of tags to help you sort through all the available templates and find something you like. Just about every color you can imagine is available if you plan on matching your Blogger backgrounds to your favorite color or font style. The widths of the most of the templates vary so some have heavy padded sidebars, whereas some are very skinny.

LeeLou Blogs

Lee Lou Blogs offers Blogger backgrounds that look a lot like you would find in a scrapbook with a heavy dependency on small pictures and vector graphics. These free templates would go great with any home improvement blog or DIY arts and crafts writer. Most of the free backgrounds are standard size with the high padded sides, but like anything you can get access to more templates if you want to take advantage of any of his premium designs.

CgTextures

If you just want something basic real basic that won't distract customers from your content, you can head over to CgTextures. Their site is full of photos and textures that could be added as a background image with a reduced transparency. The blog would still look great and you wouldn't have to worry as much about trying to match your font style and color so that it fits in with the background. Instead you can draw more focus on what's important and less on the site's bells and whistles.

Every Stock Photo

Bloggers that want less of an 'artsy' look to their site and instead more of a serious appeal can get a picture from Every Stock Photo to use as the background image. You can also benefit by using some of the pictures offered through this site within your blog posts so that you aren't stuck buying things from premium image providers. There search bar and navigation panel makes it easy to find exactly what you are looking for to see a unique feel to every page.

Shizoo-Design

Shizoo-Design is a German based design firm with about 554 different patterns to choose from. You can find everything from conservative shapes to abstract rainbows and splashes of color. All of the textures are provided in a range of size, anywhere from 1000x700 pixels to 1300x600 pixels so that they will comfortably fit your entire site's background and work with most browsers and computer screen sizes. Brushes and custom icons are also available from the site, free of charge.

Patterns of Change

Patterns of Changes offers Blogger backgrounds that are cartoon oriented and that can best be tiled across the screen. The site is perhaps one of the easiest to use compared to all the others on the screen, providing a simple navigation bar where you can choose what color you'd like the pattern to be. When you select one of the colors provided, it will come up with a bunch of different patterns usually associated with that color. For instance, when the color brown is selected, one of the choices ia brown cake. Blogger backgrounds for this site might not be the best choice for business professionals, but they certainly are fun.

How to Add a Background Image using the Blogger Template Designer

If you have a background image that you want to upload, then follow these steps:

1. Log into your Blogger account and go to Template, press the Customize button on the right side. Once the Blogger template designer has opened, you'll see the Background option on the left - click on it:

2. Now click on the box below the Background image title and it will open a window from where we can select a default background image. On the upper left side of this window, click Upload Image and select the image you would like to use from a location on your computer.

Note that you should use a JPG, GIF, or PNG image that is no more than 300k in size. If your image is too large, then you can use the Kraken.io image optimizer to make the file smaller.

3. After you've uploaded your image, click 'Done' and you'll be taken back to the background menu. Here you will see additional options like: Alignment, Tile and Scroll with page:

• Alignment: change the position of the background image to start either horizontal (left, center, right) or vertical (top and bottom);
• Tile (Repeat): if you want a small background image to fill the page, choose to repeat (tile) horizontally and/or vertically; 
• Scroll with page: the box is checked by default, this means that the background scroll along with the page contents. If you want the background picture to not move as the page is scrolled and stay exactly where it is, uncheck this box.

4. For a background image with plain color in the middle for content, you might want to remove the main and header background. Navigate to Advanced > Backgrounds and type the word transparent inside the Main Background and Header Background box:

5. If the background is smaller than the content area, we can fix this using CSS. Scroll down and click on the Add CSS option, then paste this CSS code inside the box:

body {
background-size: 200%;
}

.body-fauxcolumn-outer .cap-top {
background: none;
}

Note: to change the size of the background, modify the 200% value in red.

Once you're happy with the results, press the 'Apply to blog' button and enjoy the new background for your site.

How to Change Background in a Custom Blogger Template

Sometimes the above options might not appear in some custom Blogger templates if the body.background variable hasn't been defined. In this case, we will need to access the HTML of the template:

1. Go to Template, click the Edit HTML button and click anywhere inside the code area. Press the CTRL + F keys to open the Blogger search box:

2. Paste or type the following tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:

]]></b:skin>

3. Immediately before the ]]></b:skin> tag, paste one of the following code snippets:

For a large background image:

body {
background-image: url(IMAGE-URL.png) !important;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: center top;
background-attachment: fixed;
background-size: 100%;
}

Note: the no-repeat value prevents the image from repeating either vertically or horizontally. Use background-repeat: repeat-y if you'd like the image to repeat vertically, or background-repeat: repeat-x if you want it to repeat only horizontally. To increase the size of the background, change the 100% value.

If using a repeating pattern, add this CSS code instead:

body {
background-image: url(IMAGE-URL.png) !important;
background-repeat: repeat;
background-position: center top;
background-attachment: fixed;
}

4. Open a new tab and upload your background image to Blogger or an image hosting site, and copy the URL of your hosted image to your clipboard. If you don't know how to do it, please take a look at this tutorial.

After you copied it, replace the text highlighted in blue from above with your image url.

5. Finally, Preview the template to ensure that the background image appears as you want, and press the Save template button to save your changes. That's it!

Using the 8 sites listed above, you have a wide range to choose from when creating a site that really represents you. Given the right tools, designing you blog can be a fun hobby to enjoy that can spark your creativity and improve the quality of your writing. With such a large selection, the hardest part of setting up your new theme will be finding which one you like best.

How to Display Most Commented Posts in Blogger

One of the best gadgets for your Blogger blog is a popular posts widget for your sidebar. This lets visitors see what your trending posts are right now and encourages them to click on them to read them. This basic widget is just a little too basic, however, for the modern day website visitor. Not only do they want to see your trending posts, but they also want to join the discussions that are happening on your blog. To do that, you'll need a most commented posts widget for Blogger.

Having a customized widget on your site is a lot easier than you might think. In order to have an effective widget, however, you're going to need a few specific things to help you out.

Demo

Here's What You're Going To Get

There are certain aspects in the design of a most commented posts widget that you should expect. That's why you'll find these specific components with this custom widget:

• Ordered by popularity. The posts that have the most comments are the most likely to have visitors want to read the post and join in with the conversation. By ordering your posts based on the popularity of them, you'll give each visitor the chance to see what the hype really is about! This lets you have a charted graphic that gives a visitor easy recognition, but also allows you to keep it straight and aligned if you're looking for a cleaner look.

• Graphic incorporation. Blog posts that have at least one graphic incorporated with them will receive 100% more traffic than posts that have no images at all. For every graphic that you include with a blog post, the more likely you are to get a click! The same is true with your most commented posts widget, so be sure to incorporate graphics that stand out with your design.

• Descriptions that blend in. The internet today revolves around the value that you can provide each individual user. People don't just click on things because they look visually tempting. They click on them because they promise a level of value that another website like yours isn't able to provide. By having descriptions that blend in, you'll be able to enhance the perceived value that your site can provide. This leads to more clicks!

Related: Add Multi-Colored Popular Posts to Blogger

Add the Most Commented Posts Widget to Blogger

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account and go to Template, press the "Edit HTML" button.

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the Blogger' search box. Type the following tag inside it and hit Enter to find it:

</Group>

Step 3. Just below </Group>, add this code:

<Group description="Most Commented" selector=".most-commented">
<Variable name="most.commented.background1" description="background color1" type="color" default="#fa4242" value="#ee377a"/>
<Variable name="most.commented.background2" description="background color2" type="color" default="#ee6107" value="#fcad37"/>
<Variable name="most.commented.background3" description="background color3" type="color" default="#f0f" value="#f8e000"/>
<Variable name="most.commented.background4" description="background color4" type="color" default="#ff0" value="#c7e93d"/>
<Variable name="most.commented.background5" description="background color5" type="color" default="#0ff" value="#5ebded"/>
</Group>

Note: if you can't find the </Group> tag, try to find the following tag instead and add the variables just below it:

<b:skin><![CDATA[

Step 4. Now search for the following tag (CTRL + F):

]]></b:skin>

Step 5. And just above it, add this CSS code:

.comment-count {
    padding: 3px 10px;
    background: #fff;
    color: #000;
    font-size: 10px;
    float: right;
}

.most-commented ul {
    padding: 0px !important;
    font-family: Century Gothic, sans-serif;
}

.most-commented ul li {
    list-style-type: none;
    padding: 10px;
    color: #555;
    margin-top: -10px;
}

.most-commented ul li a {
    color: #444;
    font-weight: bold;
    text-decoration: none;
    font-size: 11px;
}

.most-commented ul li img {
    float: left;
    margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px;
    width: 60px;
    height: 60px;
}

.most-commented:nth-child(3n+0) {
    background: $(most.commented.background1);
    width: 100%;
}

.most-commented:nth-child(4n+0) {
    background: $(most.commented.background2);
    width: 95%;
}

.most-commented:nth-child(5n+0) {
    background: $(most.commented.background3);
    width: 90%;
}

.most-commented:nth-child(6n+0) {
    background: $(most.commented.background4);
    width: 85%;
}

.most-commented:nth-child(7n+0) {
    background: $(most.commented.background5);
    width: 80%;
}

Step 6. Save the template.

Now, let's add the Most Commented Posts widget to the Layout of our Blogger blog. Head over to the "Layout" section of your Blogger dashboard and click on the "Add a gadget" link on the right side. From the pop-up window, scroll down the list and select the "HTML/JavaScript" gadget:

Copy and paste this script inside the content box:

<script type="text/javascript">
function stripTags(s,n) {
    return s.replace(/<.*?>/ig,"").split(/\s+/).slice(0,n-1).join(" ")
}
function mostcommented(feed) {
    var i;
    for (i = 0; i < feed.count ; i++) {
var postURL = "'" + feed.value.items[i].link + "'";
var postTitle = feed.value.items[i].title;
var postthumbnail = "<img src="+feed.value.items[i].postthumbnail+" />";
var postDescription = feed.value.items[i].postdescription;
var postComments = feed.value.items[i].commentcount;
var postList = '<div class="most-commented"><ul><li><div class="comment-count">' + postComments + "</div>" + postthumbnail + "<a href="+ postURL + '">' + postTitle + "</a>"  + '<p>' +stripTags(postDescription,10)+'...</p>' + '</li></ul></div>';
 document.write(postList);
     }
 }
 </script>
<script src="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?
AddUrlHere=http://helplogger.blogspot.com
&NumberofPosts=5
&_id=2cb5eb603ed55a6264ee1484e5fdd45c
&_callback=mostcommented
&_render=json"
type="text/javascript"></script><span style="font-size: 80%; float:left;"><a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2014/08/most-commented-posts-blogger-widget.html">Add this widget</a></span>

Here, change http://helplogger.blogspot.com with your blog URL. If you want to add more characters to the description, modify the "10" value in red from "postDescription,10".

If you want a more simple look (without the thumbnails and post snippets), add this script instead:

<script type="text/javascript">
function stripTags(s,n)
    {
    return s.replace(/<.*?>/ig,"").split(/\s+/).slice(0,n-1).join(" ")
}
function mostcommented(feed) {
 var i;
 for (i = 0; i < feed.count ; i++)
 {
var postURL = "'" + feed.value.items[i].link + "'";
var postTitle = feed.value.items[i].title;
var postComments = feed.value.items[i].commentcount;
var postList = '<div class="most-commented"><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 10px"><div class="comment-count">' + postComments + "</div>" + "<a href="+ postURL + '">' + postTitle + "</a>"  + '</li></ul></div>';
 document.write(postList);
 }
 }
 </script>
<script src="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?
 AddUrlHere=http://helplogger.blogspot.com
&NumberofPosts=5
&_id=2cb5eb603ed55a6264ee1484e5fdd45c
&_callback=mostcommented
&_render=json"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<span style="font-size: 80%; float:left;"><a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2014/08/most-commented-posts-blogger-widget.html">Add this widget</a></span>

.... and replace http://helplogger.blogspot.com with your address.
To add the "comments" text after the comments number, replace the line in red:

<div class="comment-count">' + postComments + "</div>"

with:

<div class="comment-count">' + postComments + " comments" + "</div>"

Once you have finished adding your own settings, press the "Save" button to enable the gadget in the sidebar of your blog. That's it!

To change the background colors of the most commented posts, go to "Template" > hit the "Customize" button and navigate to "Advanced" > "Most Commented" tab. Here you can pick 5 different colors by clicking on the color boxes:

Once you've selected your favorite color scheme, click the "Apply to blog" button to save the changes... and you're done.

Why Use the Most Commented Posts widget?

The basic psychology in every human is that they want to feel like they belong to a community. That's exactly what this customized widget will bring to your site. No matter what content drew a visitor to see your content, this widget will invite them to join the lively parts of your piece of the internet. This helps to build relationships, with you and with other visitors, and this relationship-building engagement is what you need to start having real value.

Take the time to install this most commented posts widget on your site and you'll see for yourself why this is one of the most useful widgets that is available right now. Enjoy ;)

Make Blogger Header, Navigation and Footer Full Width

Blogger is a user-friendly service that provides a lot of really attractive looking default templates for those just starting out. Default templates come in handy, but the nice things about owning your own blog is that you have the chance to add your own personal touch. As a matter of fact, templates aren't made to restrict your freedom of design, but instead they're there to provide you a foundation to build from. With every default template available on Blogger, you can make changes to fit your style.

One of the most common requests out of the Blogger community when making alterations is how to change the look of some of the key sections like headers, navigation, and footers. Initially, these items are designed to fit within just 1/3 of the page, surrounded by padding and margins on either side. These margins are used to give the page a slim fitting appearance, but could also cause your content to look compressed.

Important: Backup your Template

Making the changes to a full screen Blogger navigation, footer, or header can be done and won't take you much time. Before you can make any changes, you should save extra copies of the template .xml file in case anything goes wrong. That way, if you don't like it or it doesn't come out looking like it should, you can reuse the contents of the original file to restore your blog to working condition.

Demo

Hover your mouse over the image to see a before and after example:

How to Make Header, Navigation and Footer Full Width in Blogger

Step #1: Access Your CSS File

If you've never opened up your CSS file before, log in to your Blogger account, select your blog and navigate to Template > Edit HTML. This will bring up the code of your template containing all your blog's internal files in one place.

Step #2: Modify the Background

Click anywhere inside the code area > press CTRL + F keys and type the following line > hit Enter to find it (stop at the first occurrence of it):

body {

Just below body { you should see some lines that will look like this:

body {
font: $(body.font);
color: $(body.text.color);
background: $(body.background);
padding: 0 $(content.shadow.spread) $(content.shadow.spread) $(content.shadow.spread);
$(body.background.override)
}

Where you see the highlighted line above in the code, remove the line and replace it with:

padding: 0px;

Different templates will have minor variations, but you should still be able to find these lines within every template.

Step #3: Change the Content Section

Next, search using the CTRL+F keys for this part:

.content-inner {

Just below it, you will see this line:

.content-inner {
padding: $(content.padding) $(content.padding.horizontal); 
}

Remove the line in red and replace it with:

padding: 0px;

This will remove any of the padding around the inner content, so it won't leave any room on both sides.

Now find this part:

$(content.background.color.selector){

Just below it you will see this line:

$(content.background.color.selector){
background-color: $(content.background.color);
}

Replace the line in red with:

background-color: $(body.background);

Finally, search for this tag:

]]></b:skin>

And just above it, add this CSS:

.main-outer {
background: $(content.background.color);
}

Step #4: Make the Content Outer Full Width

Content is displayed differently between browsers, so you'll next want to fix this so that it alters the width across the board. This code can be found searching for:

.content-outer, .content-fauxcolumn-outer, .region-inner {

And just below it you will see the following lines:

.content-outer, .content-fauxcolumn-outer, .region-inner {
min-width: $(content.width);
max-width: $(content.width);
_width: $(content.width);
}

Delete the line in red and replace that line with:

max-width: 100%;

Step #5: Finish It Up

Now you have just two more lines you need to change. Look for:

</b:template-skin>

And click on the right arrow to expand the styles. Note: you will need to search for </b:template-skin> tag again, and just before it you'll see these symbols highlighted in yellow:

]]>
</b:template-skin>

Above this ]]></b:template-skin> section of code, add the following:

.main-outer {
max-width: $(content.width);
margin: 0 auto;
}

Then run a search for:

]]></b:skin>

Add these lines of code just before/above it:

.tabs-inner {
padding: 0px;
}
.section {
margin: 0px;
}
.header-inner .widget {
margin: 0px;
}

Save the template and exit out of the editor.

Finished!

Following along with this tutorial won't affect or alter the pictures you are using on the blog, just the design of the content area. If you have a logo that stretches across the screen and fits perfectly for 1/3 page header, you will need to resize and re-upload this content so that it is able to work with the new adjustments.

Automatically Resize Blogger Images to Fit Blog Post Area

Blogger offers most of the tools you would need to add and resize Blogger images quick and easy. You can upload photos directly on the platform and even change the dimensions based on the type of content that you are attempting to produce.

In order to do this, create a post and click on the small photo icon on the top toolbar next to the font style settings. A pop-up will show up on your screen asking you where you'd like to upload the image source. You have a choice between adding pictures from:

- Your local computer
- Previously uploaded images on the blog
- Picasa Web Albums
- An image URL

Once you select the image that you want to use, you'll see four image sizes to choose from - small, medium, large, and x-large; it also gives you the option to determine the alignment. If you find that the four preset dimensions aren't providing the outcome you desire, there are easy ways to resize Blogger images to custom dimensions in order to fit your blog post area.

Step #1: Retain the Image Quality

If you know that you are going to need to resize Blogger images once you post them to your blog, make sure that you start with a photo larger than the 640px dimensions of the x-large option. It's easy to bring an image down in size, but if you try to make a small image bigger, you'll lose some of the quality. Just make sure that you watch out for the file size containing the image; the larger the file, the slower it will load on your website.

Photoshop is a powerful image editor that can help you to resize Blogger images or modify your images before you post, but it is also an expensive investment. There are also many other freeware image editors that can perform the simple task of resizing the photo. Determine what size you'd like the photo to display on the page and manually resize Blogger images to those dimensions; other users have found that 700px is a pretty flexible width size that works well on posts.

Once you've got your photo resized and added to your post, click on it and choose the 'Original size' option. If your photos are going to exceed the post editor, it probably means that they are larger than the body of your post, so let's fix that and make them fit exactly.

Step #2: Modify The Site's CSS

Next, you'll want to modify the CSS of your Blogger template to accommodate the adjustments. Don't worry; you won't need much coding experience to complete this task.

Open up the Blogger dashboard and go to 'Template' > 'Customize'. You'll see the option for 'Advanced', click on it and find your way to the 'Add CSS' tab... paste the following CSS code inside the empty box:

.post-body img {
max-width: 100%;
max-height: auto;
display: block;
margin: auto;
}

Adding the code to this section, automatically adds it between the <b:skin>....<b:skin> tags of your Template (Template > Edit HTML, above the ]]></b:skin> tag). So, no matter whether you add it above ]]></b:skin> or within the Add CSS box, the effect should be the same.

Remember that when you make changes to the CSS of the blog's Template, these changes will affect every post previously added, using the "Original size" dimension option.

To spruce up the post even more, add the last three lines shown in green below:

.post-body img {
max-width: 100%;
max-height: auto;
display: block;
margin: auto;
box-shadow: none;
border: none;
padding: 0px;
}

Screenshot

This code will get rid of any borders and padding around the image and give it a much more natural look within the post. Hit the "Apply to Blog" button once you've finished adding it.

Note: This will only change the images set to Original size. To resize images with different sizes and apply this change on ALL the pictures added to your posts, add this CSS instead:

.post-body img {
width:100%;
height:100%;
display: block;
}

Please consider that, if you have posts with photos floating either on the right or left side of the content, they will automatically go full width.

Step #3: Create A Post

After making the adjustments to both file size and CSS, you may go back to the post editor and repeat the Step 1 to add an image. When you return to the screen that asks for size, click on the "Original size" option and confirm your choice. Your newly added image will then be displayed with the adjustments that you created, so that it fits nicely the width of the post area.

How to Turn Off Auto Enhance for Blogger Photos

When you go to upload photos on Blogger, look closely for changes between the picture you uploaded on your computer and how it looks on Blogger. If you notice any darkening of the pictures themselves, especially in light-colored areas of the photo, you are seeing the results of a Blogger auto-enhancing feature.

This Blogger auto-enhancing feature is packaged within the service and is intended to give your photos a more professional feel. It works by smoothing out fuzzy photos and removing any imperfections in personal photos, so that you see your best looking you. However, you may realize that not every picture that you upload needs to undergo this enhancement. In fact, it may even cause your site to look dull or outdated as it can turn white photos gray.

The first picture was auto-enhanced, while the second one was not

Turning Off Picture Auto-Enhancement on Google Plus

Fortunately, there is a way to adjust these settings so that you're able to turn them on and off at will. You may be surprised to know that the root cause of these changes actually lies with the Google uploader and your decision to link your Google+ and Blogger accounts together.

Step 1: Access Your Google Account

Blogger is just one of the many services that make up the Google network. When the company released Google+, this Blogger auto-enhancing feature came with it because adjustments were made to the Google uploading service. These same changes take place when you're adding pictures from your library in Picasa. The good thing about Google is that they allow you to make adjustments to your settings from one central location by navigating over to your Google account.

In order to turn the "Auto Enhance" feature off, go to your Blogger dashboard, and click your icon in the top right corner, then the blue "View Profile" button (if you are not using Google+, click the "Account settings" link). Now you'll be taken over to your Google+ profile or settings.

Step 2: Find The Enhancement Settings

Once opening your Google account, look for the tab on the top left corner of the page that says Profile > navigate to Settings - or if you are using a Blogger profile, click the "Edit settings" link under "Google+ settings". This will bring up a list with "Photos and Videos" options including "Show geo location�" and "Allow viewers to download my photos...". Look toward the bottom of the list for the 'Auto Enhance' heading and check the "Off" option to turn this feature off.

Step 3: Auto Enhance on Photos You've Already Uploaded

Any picture that you upload from here on out will no longer be subject to this Blogger auto-enhancement feature; however, this will not revert any pictures that have already been uploaded. If you want to make any changes to photos that were uploaded during this period, do the following: from the same panel, click on the 'Photos' tab which it will take you to the albums for each blog > click on the blog where you wish to disable the auto enhance effect and press the down arrow > go to the "Apply Auto Enhance" option and choose 'Off'.

Notice The Results?

Now that the auto-enhancement feature is turned off, you may start to see different results when uploading. Remember that this change will affect all of your Google services across the board such as Google+ and YouTube. You may turn this feature back on, at any time, by repeating the steps list above and re-checking the account settings box. When you're done, just turn it back off. Understanding these changes gives you the power to decide for yourself which pictures you'd like enhanced, and which you don't.

How to Optimize Images for Better Search Engine Rankings

When search engines start indexing the pages on your site, they don't just focus on the writing. Web crawlers employed by services like Google and Bing shuffle through your site's structural code looking for any relevant information that they might offer to their customers. Some of the information includes things like backlinks, tags and even images.

Images make up a big part of any website. They help to excite the visual senses of readers and offer a little extra entertainment value. What most blog owners don't realize is that all of the photos that they upload to their site aren't confined to their site alone. Crawlers make sure that these images also show up within their respective search engines sites.

Image searches can have the effect of drawing in large numbers of new readers that were just looking through content in Google images. You can benefit from this traffic and increase your average subscriber by practicing image optimization.

Image Optimization Tip #1: Alt Tags & File Names

Visitors may love images, but computers don't. Computers are designed to do what you tell them without violating any of the parameters. When web crawlers come across images on a website, they really don't know what to do with it because they are made to collect information, not interpret it. The solution to this problem is to optimize images and appropriately label your alt tags so that they display the correct content when someone goes to look for it.

For example, let's say you upload a picture of your dog, and label the "alt" tag by the dog's name, 'Frank'. The web crawler is going to read the alt tag without ever realizing it's a picture of a dog; therefore, the crawler will come to the conclusion that it needs to display the image when someone run a search for 'Frank'.

The minor word choice mistakes may not affect the operations of your website, or how your image is displayed, but it will affect the search results of others and the traffic that comes into your website. Whereas you may have been able to attract the dog lovers in the world using image optimization of your dog tagged 'dog', you are now drawing in crowds searching for their uncle "Frank".

To include the alt tag, simply add alt="this is your alt text" to your image tag. Here's an example:

<img src="pug-dog.jpg" alt="frank dog" />

But you don't have to touch the html code of the image. Once the picture is uploaded, click on it and you will see the "Properties" setting. Add the alt text inside the box and hit OK:

This goes the same for file names on a website. You need to optimize images and file names on everything that you decide to save to your website directory so that this information can be appropriately indexed and be used as a search term. You could name the file of your dog Frank, "pug-dog.jpg", which would encourage the search engine to add Frank into searches being performed with the phrase 'pug dog'. Alt tags and file names play an important interpretation role between you and the machine that makes your blog possible.

Image Optimization Tip #2: Add A Caption

After uploading your images, you should always add a caption to the image, so that average browser understands what they're looking at. This gives your website a more professional appearance and will help to keep people on your page.

Not everyone that comes across your picture using a Google Image search is looking for your blog. Maybe they just want to download the image, and that's all you'll ever get from them. The important thing is that they found your photo relevant to their search, and decided to navigate to your site in order to save it for their own use.

The longer those users stay on the site, the better it looks for you because it plays a role in the "bounce rate". Bounce rate refers to when someone clicks on a link, realizes it's not what they're looking for, and then immediately goes back to the search engine. If you can reduce the number of times that this happens by providing captions and intriguing content that will make people want to stick around, your SEO ranking will improve.

Image caption and SEO

Image Optimization Tip #3: File Size

Improving your bounce rate can be tough because the attention span of the everyday Internet user is incredibly short. It may be as short as 8 seconds. High bounce back rates and slow loading sites can be the death of most blogs because no one wants to wait for the content to load. By the time your website finally loads with the content that you need, they could have easily visited two or more sites and found what they need from someone who was better prepared to handle their traffic.

Optimize images so that you are able to keep the file size as small as possible while retaining the quality of the photo. Images taken from DSLR camera - although they may look great - can be up to 1.4 MB in size if you take them directly off your camera and upload them on your blog. This type of space is massive for any everyday blog, and will hurt your SEO ratings.

Use Photoshop or one of many online services like Google Picasa to rescale your images or reduce the file size. Two services that can perform this ability for free and do a great job are Yahoo's Smushit and Kraken. When you access either site, they will allow you to upload the picture on the site and download the new image optimization versions for use on your Blogger site.

Putting It All Together

At the end of the day, the quality of your site and overall SEO ranking isn't just about what you have to say. It's the entire package of what you have to offer. Optimize images every chance you get and use the strategies discussed above. Now that you know that you might have been neglecting images all along, you can make necessary adjustments and start to see even better results from all your hard work.

Blogger vs WordPress: Which is Better for You?

There are two big-name services in the world of blogging: Blogger vs WordPress. No matter where you go on the internet looking for advice, these two names are nearly impossible to avoid because they play such an important role within the online content community.

If you're just starting out a new blog, or making some major changes to your current layout, you'll most likely be faced with the decision to choose between Blogger vs WordPress. Both are stellar services that are going to make your life as a blogger much easier, but ultimately, your decision must come down to one. So don't cross over, let's walk this path together and ensure that you don't get lost in the wonder world of web, looking for answers.

Before we start!

WordPress as you might have noticed, comes in two different flavors, wordpress.org and wordpress.com. Seemingly same, but practically, not. Like in Blogger vs WordPress, hosting at wordpress.com is like renting a corporate apartment where the corporate is responsible for maintenance and facilitation of your place. While hosting at wordpress.org is similar to buying your own apartment, where you are responsible for your place's security, maintenance and many others.

So, wherever in this post you see the word 'WordPress'; know that it refers to wordpress.org.

User-Friendliness

WordPress is a clear front-runner in the blogging and web design community in terms of how many people actually use the platform. The founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, provided eye-opening statistics that around 18.9% of the entire Internet runs on WordPress. Compared to a 2012 study done by Blogging.org, of all the actual blogs on the Internet, WordPress makes up 43%, Blogger 35%, and the remaining blogs are Tumblr or other less known services.

However, just because something is used more often than another, it doesn't mean it's easier to use. The problem with WordPress is that it wasn't designed for beginners who just want to take up blogging as a side hobby. In order to set up your own WordPress blog, you have to have some previous knowledge of things like hosting, bandwidth, HTML and SEO practices. There are WordPress services out there that will help set up your site and get you online, but WordPress itself comes as a set of files that you are expected to download and configure to your own site.

Some hosting companies have made the idea of using WordPress a little bit easier with things like one-click downloads; but it's still a pretty steep learning curve for new bloggers to overcome. You also have to deal with paying for the costs of hosting your site and acquiring the domain name. If you opt to use one of the many WordPress services instead of setting it up yourself, you'll be stuck with a URL such as 'yourwebsite.wordpress.com', which takes away from the professional image you may be trying to portray.

Blogger is entirely based on Google and makes setting up a blog a breeze. With Blogger vs WordPress all you need to get started is to sign up for the service using your Google account, or make a new account like you would if you were setting up an email account. From there, Blogger takes responsibility for all your files, backing up the systems and the details associated with operating a content site like a database. Blogger is so much easier in terms of walking you through the steps, providing you with everything you need to be successful and it's at little-to-no cost to you.

Design & Customizability

Hosting at WordPress means stepping into the Disney world. With hundreds of featured rich-customizable design templates, you would find yourself literally lost in the WordPress arena, ensuring that your site looks unique, catchy and simply marvelous to visitors. The wide array of WordPress templates include customized designs for nearly every walk of life including fashion, entertainment, music, health, kitchen, etc.

Blogger themes, some would say, are not responsive; but let me tell you a secret. With a little search online, you can find hundreds of free, highly customizable, responsive templates that you can easily integrate into your blog, so that you and your site visitors stay in touch with your blog through their handsets. For WordPress, however, you don't need to wander around. By default, it has rich and responsive native designs, making WordPress ideal for mobile bloggers.

Both platforms will allow you to make modifications to the theme and features of the site if you have experience or feel comfortable to use HTML and CSS. They also both provide helpful post areas for when you go to submit new content. These post areas will also include HTML and some basic functions to change the font style and the size of your text.

One design feature between the two that may tip the scale toward Blogger in the Blogger vs WordPress discussion is that Blogger is integrated with other Google services like Google Picasa. Picasa is a photo sharing site that will allow you to share all your personal photos, or the photos that you plan on using within your posts. These can then be accessed via the text editor when you are submitting content and can be easily included with the content.

Gadgets, Widgets & Plugins

Talking of plugins, WordPress provides you with thousands of easy to integrate plugins from security to multimedia, enabling you to add any feature or functionality in your site, in a couple easy steps. Users of this platform have submitted thousands of independent plugins that you can install for just about anything you would need, from SEO to E-commerce. There are so many interesting plugins available, that blog owners often make the mistake of cluttering their site with too many and distracting their readers from the content.

Blogger may not have as many plugins or widgets as WordPress, it does have enough to provide you with what you need. Blogger's simplicity in many ways provides it with an edge over WordPress because you are able to focus most of your time in producing great content, instead of seeing how many bells and whistles you can add on the site.

The SEO Question

Not every person that starts a blog is looking to make money off the content; some people just like to write for the sake of writing. Whatever your goals are for starting the blog, search engine optimization - or SEO for short - is a key strategy in growing your readership, so others might enjoy what you have to share.

Over 1 quadrillion searches are performed via Google each year. The goal of most SEO producers is to implement strategies that can appease Google so that their content will be ranked higher up in search query results. Blogger is a service created by Google, so it's obvious that they added their own formulas to the service to ensure that those blogs are doing what they need to do to be found.

Sticking to Blogger means Google would optimize your blog itself from a SEO perspective. All you need to do is check / uncheck a couple of options from your dashboard and Google will start crawling your site with just a click of a button. WordPress takes a hands-on approach that will require you to know a little bit more to modify your website design and content to meet these standards.

And the Blogger vs WordPress Winner Is�

In terms of Blogger vs WordPress, both services might be worth trying out, but ultimately Blogger comes out as a winner in all four categories discussed above. For new or returning bloggers, it is a fantastic service that makes it easy to focus on what you love, regardless of all the add-ons and fancy additions of WordPress. Blogger's simplicity is perhaps one of it's greatest advantages and provides bloggers of all experience levels a chance to succeed.