Five ways Blogger.com is Trying to Catch Up with WordPress
Originally launched by Pyra Labs in 1999, Blogger was one of the first free blogging solutions offered to the general public. Since then, their assets have changed hands many times, and the company has seen its share of the market dwindle to competitors. Since Google acquired the service, however, Blogger has added many features in an attempt to compete with content management giant WordPress.
- Improved Search Engine Visibility
- Social Media Widgets
- Improved Interface
- Improved Post Management
- Statistics
For commercial bloggers, one of the platform’s main shortcomings has been the way it handles search engine placement. Blogger recently introduced an improved search function designed to alleviate these issues. Posts are now more effectively catalogued on the site allowing for increased crawl traffic. This should lead to improved exposure.
In the past, users have complained that Blogger did not offer enough ways to share published content via social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest. Blogger developers have listened, and there are now a number of ways to share your content on these sites, as well as integrate it into your existing Facebook pages.
In 2012, all Blogger users were automatically upgraded to the newest interface, featuring faster load times, an improved look and feel and easier access to features. The new layout is almost certainly a direct response to user comparisons of the old layout to that of WordPress. While Blogger still has several kinks to work out, they appear headed in the right direction.
Blogger added several basic but key features their text editor was lacking in recent months, including the “h1” heading size and a number of sub-headings as well. It is now much easier to edit and manage your old posts as well. While this change may seem trivial to some, these heading and sub-heading distinctions are a vital part of SEO and were a key feature request in the past.
While WordPress and other platforms have long been displaying statistics regarding traffic for their blogs, Blogger has been behind the times in this regard. However, they have added an extensive statistics panel as part of their new dashboard, meaning users can now get detailed information about their website’s traffic, where it’s coming from, how long they are staying and more. These statistics give users valuable information in regards to ways they can improve their content.
Self-hosted blogs may be the preferred method for many users, but Blogger’s new changes make their platform worth a second look, particularly for those who do not wish to manage their own hosting service.