auto discovery

Pimp My Blog in 8 Steps – Steps 7 & 8: Header Tags and Enable Auto Discovery

Last updated on by topcat

This post talks about the final two steps in pimping my blog.

7. Change template for header tags

You’ll want to make sure the most important elements of your blog, such as your blog title, are in the <h1> tag. Other elements, such as the date of your posting, should be de-emphasized and not be in <h1> or <h2>. For example, in the Blogger template I chose, the default tag for the blog title was <h3>, while the default tag for the date of the blog was <h2>. That was changed to make sure search engines see what’s really important.

8. Enable auto discovery

Auto discovery enables your readers one-click subscription to your blog. If your readers have an auto discovery-enabled browser such as Firefox, or use a RSS reader, they’ll see a feed icon feed icon when they visit your blog. They can then subscribe to your block by simply clicking on the feed icon.

This step simply requires adding a line of code into the template:

<link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” title=”[your blog’s title]” href=”[your blog’s feed URL]” />

For my case, it’s <link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” title=”TopCat Blog” href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/TopCatBlog” mce_href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/TopCatBlog” />.

You will want to add this line between the <head> … </head> tags. In Blogger, make sure this is above the <$BlogMetaDate$> line.

Summary

You are set! Now you should have all the ammunication you need to reach out. Just monitor your audience via Feedburner, Technorati, or your own web analytics, and keep blogging.