Create Free Blog Website (Google Blogger Tutorial)

How to Create Free Blog Website in 2023?

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to make or create a blog website for free using google blogger. Point to be noted hosting is completely however if you need a custom domain then you should spend some $2-8 USD to purchase a custom TLD domain. If you don't need a custom then you can make a blog website with absolute no cost.

What is Blogger?

Google Blogger is a free blog-publishing platform from Google. If you're looking to grow your business through an improved online presence with low cost, you should consider Google Blogger. Learn how Google Blogger can take your business's online presence to the next level. Learn about Google Blogger and its benefits for website hosting, SEO, and more!

Find out how this platform can help you reach wider audiences and generate more revenue.

• Hosting is always free and provides storage up to 15GB to save images, videos and files.
• Custom Domain is setup is easy and free. You no need to spend money for setting up a custom domain.
• Free TLS/SSL/HTTPS security for your blog site.
• Google blogger offers low latency, high speed, 99.99% availability.
• As it is a CMS based platform it is easy to edit content, add images, videos, widgets,...etc.
• Automated XML sitemaps
• On-page SEO tools (like page slugs and alt text for images)
• Redirect manager which prevents 404 errors by automatically creating redirects when URLs change or pages are deleted.
• Google Analytics integration

Step by Step Guide to Create Your Own Free Blog Website

Learn how to create an effective blog using Google Blogger quickly with this helpful guide! We'll cover everything from setting up your blog to monetization options. Get started on developing your own website with Google Blogger. From setup, customizing, to publishing, learn the essentials here!

Step 1: Visit the Blogger website at blogger.com >> Click on Create

Step 2: Choose a title for your blog and a unique sub domain address (URL) for your blog to get started.

Step 3: Open Setting and add the basic details of your blog site.

Step 4: Enable Privacy which allows search engines to find your blog website on search engines.

Step 5: Setup Custom Domain

Configure Domain Settings in DNS Management

Add Custom Domain For Example: www.<domain_name>.com

Adding Records to Domain Settings in DNS Management

Add the following two CNAMEs

Add 1st CNAME Record 

• Type = CNAME
• Name = www  
• Value = ghs.google.com
• TTL = 1/2 Hour

Add 2nd CNAME Record

• Type = CNAME
• Name =  <Unique-blogger-Host-Value>  //get it from Blogger Domain Settings
• Value = <blogger-Host-Value>.dv.googlehosted.com  //get it from Blogger Domain Settings
• TTL = 1/2 Hour

Add A Record > Reference: To Get A Record List- https://www.blogger.com/go/customdomain

• Type = A
• Name =  @
• Value = 216.239.32.21
• TTL = 1/2 Hour

Add these 4 A-records that point to Google IPs:

• 216.239.32.21
• 216.239.34.21
• 216.239.36.21
• 216.239.38.21

Redirect blog to website domain name www.<domain_name>.com

Tool: Whois Lookup - Discover who owns a domain.

Step 6: Enable HTTPS and HTTPS Redirect

Enabling HTTPS and HTTPS redirect improves the security of your website keep your visitors safe with secure protocols!

Step 7: Choose a template for your blog from the options provided. You can also customize your template later on.

Install responsive and SEO friendly XML Template. After setting up the template check your site speed using the following free tools.

Test My Site - This is a Web Tool where user can Test Mobile Site Speed on 3G and 4G Connection.

PageSpeed Insight -  This tool analyzes the content of a web page or web post, then generates a best required suggestions to make the web page faster.

Webpagetest - One of the best tool to check the performance of the page.

Mobile Friendly Test - This is web tool checks wheather the web page is mobile friendly or not.

Step 8: Add About, Contact, Privacy Policy and User Friendly Sitemap Pages

Step 9: Enable Custom robots.txt

A robots.txt file is a simple text file that tells search engine crawlers which pages or sections of your website should not be crawled or indexed. By creating a robots.txt file, you can prevent search engines from crawling and indexing pages that are not important or duplicated, and also prevent the crawling of pages that are under construction or in development.

Read more: How to Enable Custom Robots.txt in Blogger?

It is important to note that robots.txt is just a request, not a command. So, a search engine is not required to obey all the instructions in the file, but most do.

Additionally, creating a sitemap for your website will help search engines to understand the structure of your website and the importance of each page, which can also help improve your search results.

It's also recommended to regularly check your website's crawl errors in Google Search Console and fix any issues found, as well as keep an eye on your website's overall performance using analytics tools.

Also read: Google and Bing SEO Ranking Factors

Step 10: Setup Google Search Console and Submit Sitemap

Search Console helps you to monitor and improve your blog website presence on Google Search. Click here to know more about 

Step 11: Setup Bing Webmasters and Submit Sitemap

Check here to setup Microsoft Bing Webmasters for your new website.

Step 12: Setup GA4 Google Analytics to Monitor your Site

Setting up GA4 helps you to analyze the global traffic and page insights.

Tip: The profitability of a website depends on various factors such as competition and marketing strategy. It's always best to do your own research and stay up to date with trends in your chosen niche, as well as to identify potential gaps in the market.

Google Search Console Complete Setup Guide and Tips

Learn how to set up and optimize your website's performance in Google search results with our complete guide to Google Search Console. From verifying ownership to monitoring keywords and backlinks, our step-by-step guide covers everything you need to know to improve your website's visibility and search engine rankings."

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console, also known as Google Webmaster Tool, is a free web service provided by Google that helps website owners monitor and maintain their website's presence in Google search results. It allows website owners to check how Google crawls and indexes their website, as well as identifying any issues that may be affecting their website's visibility. The service provides a variety of tools and reports that can help website owners understand how their website is performing in search results, including data on the keywords people are using to find their site, the number of clicks and impressions their site is getting, and the average click-through rate (CTR). Additionally, it allows website owners to submit sitemaps, monitor crawling errors, check mobile usability, monitor backlinks, and connect with Google Analytics for more insights.

Things You Can Do With Google Search Console

The information provided by Google Search Console is extremely valuable for optimizing a website or blog. By utilizing the tool, you can access a variety of data, including:

• Search Queries: know about Search Engine Results Page (SERP) queries.
• Impressions: provide data about how many times your website pages appeared in Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
• Clicks: provides data that clicked on your website snippet. Clicks by pages and some other relevant data.
• Click to Impression Rate (CTR): for example if your website page has 12 clicks for 1000 impressions then CTR would be 1.2%
• Average Position: provides the average position of your website and your website or blog pages
• Locations: traffic logs from different locations
• Devices: clicks breakup by device.
• Crawl Errors: frequently review the crawl errors and fix them on the go. Once the errors are fixed then re-index the URLs to recrawl the posts and pages.
• Removals: If any unwanted URL is crawled by Google you can remove them from SERP using this feature. Before removing, block the URL or URL pattern in your robots.txt and then submit a request for URL removal.

What are the uses of Google Search Console?

Here are some useful tips for using Google Search Console:

Verify your website: To use Google Search Console, you'll need to verify that you own the website you want to track. This can be done by adding a meta tag to your website's header or by uploading an HTML file to your server.

Monitor your search performance: Google Search Console provides a wealth of data on how your website is performing in search results, including the keywords people are using to find your site, the number of clicks and impressions your site is getting, and the average click-through rate (CTR).

Check for crawling errors: Search Console will alert you if Googlebot encounters any errors while trying to crawl your website, such as broken links or redirects. Fixing these errors can help improve your site's visibility in search results.

Submit sitemaps and track crawl stats: Submitting a sitemap to Google Search Console can help Google understand the structure of your website and find all of your pages. You can also track how many pages Google is crawling on your site and how often they're doing it.

Check mobile usability: With more and more people accessing the internet on their mobile devices, it's important to make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Search Console will let you know if there are any issues with your site's mobile usability, such as text that's too small or links that are too close together.

Monitor your backlinks: Search Console provides information on the websites that are linking to your site. Keep an eye on new links pointing to your site, as well as any links that may have been removed. This can help you identify any potential issues with your backlink profile.

Use Search Console with Google Analytics: Connecting your Search Console account with Google Analytics can provide even more insights into how people are finding and interacting with your website.

Steps to Configure Google Search Console for your Blog

Implement these steps to set-up Search Console account for your website or blog:

Step 1: Go to Google Search Console website and Sign in with your Google account. If you don't have a Google account, you'll need to create one.

Step 2: Once you're signed in, click the "Add a Property" button.

To set up a search console, firstly you should select one the property type either Domain or URL prefix of your choice to add a property.

Step 3: Enter the URL of your website or blog and click "Add."

You can use URL Prefix  to add the entire URL of your site domain. 

Examples:

• "https://cloudtechin.blogspot.com/"
• "https://www.premieres.in/"
• "https://embed-code-generator.premieres.in/"

Step 4: Verify your website ownership by adding a meta tag to your website's header, or by uploading an HTML file to your server.

Step 5: Once your website is verified, Click on "Go To Property", then you'll be taken to the Search Console dashboard.

Navigate to Index Section >> click on Sitemaps

Now in sitemaps section Add/Enter the following URL "sitemap.xml"  >> click on Submit button.

Example: https://cloudtechin.blogspot.com/sitemap.xml

Again in the same Sitemaps section Add/Enter the following URL "atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&results=500" >> click on Submit button.

Example: https://cloudtechin.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500

Refer below images:

What is Search Console Insights?

Google Search Console Insights is a feature within the Google Search Console that allows website owners to monitor and understand how users are interacting with their website in Google Search. It provides data and insights on how people are searching for your website, what keywords they are using, how often your website is appearing in search results, how many clicks it is receiving, and how long users are spending on your website. This feature also allows you to see which pages are performing well, which pages are not and to understand the behavior of the users in your website.

Search Console Insights allows website owners to identify any issues that may be affecting their website's visibility and performance, such as crawling errors, indexing issues, and mobile usability problems. By providing valuable data and insights, it helps website owners optimize their website and improve their search engine rankings.

This feature is available for all verified website owners in the Search Console and can be found in the "Performance" tab.

What are the ways to verify ownership in Search Console?

One can verify ownership of a website in Google Search Console using any of the following:

HTML File: You can upload a unique HTML file provided by Google Search Console to your website's root directory.

HTML Tag: You can add a unique meta tag provided by Google Search Console to the head section of your website's home page.

Google Analytics: If you already have a Google Analytics account linked to your website, you can verify ownership by linking that account to your Search Console account.

Google Tag Manager: If you have a Google Tag Manager account linked to your website, you can verify ownership by linking that account to your Search Console account.

Domain Name Provider: You can add a DNS TXT or CNAME record provided by Google Search Console to your domain's DNS settings to verify ownership.

Note: If you use a google blogger CMS then by default it get's verified. 

If you are verified user then the message should look the following

Test your Website Page Mobile Friendly Score

Mobile-friendly web pages are more likely to rank well in search engine results. Make a website mobile friendly by using the Mobile Friendly Test online tool offered by Google can be used to check a website's mobile friendliness and responsiveness.

Check your Website Page's Mobile Friendly Score by following these steps:

Step 1: Visit https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly to open the Mobile Friendly Test online site or click here to open the URL link

Step 2: You can now test your page's mobile friendliness using two methods. To test your web page's score or errors, you can either use URL or Web Page Code.

Method 1: Enter the URL of your web page >> Click on the Test URL and wait for a minute to see if your web page is mobile-friendly.

When the test is complete, you will be able to view the results. In the image below, you can see that the page is mobile friendly and has been crawled by search engines with a green tick.

Please note: If there is a red cross mark, it means that there is a problem that needs to be fixed.

Check the details of your crawl by clicking on the down arrow button under Section Details >> Crawl.

That's it! You can also do a mobile friendly test by using the Code Method.

Tip: Make sure web pages are easy to use on mobile devices to increase SEO rankings.

How to increase page speed on mobile devices?

Mobile web pages load much faster than desktop versions, but there are still things you can do to improve performance. This article will show you how to optimize for speed.

1. Use a CDN.

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of servers located across the Internet that deliver web pages faster than other methods. It works by caching static assets such as images, scripts, and stylesheets so that when a user requests them, the server delivers the file directly from the cache rather than having to download it again from the original source.

2. Reduce HTTP requests

3. Minify JavaScript and CSS files

Minifying JavaScript and CSS files reduces the size of the code by removing unnecessary characters and comments. This makes the code smaller and faster to load. It also helps to improve the performance of the site because fewer HTTP requests need to be made.

4. Add compression to static assets.

Compress your CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files with gzip compression. This will reduce the size of your website without affecting its functionality.

5. Remove unused images.

Images take up a lot of space on a web page. If you have an image that isn’t being used, remove it. You can do this manually by right clicking on the image and selecting “Remove Image”. Or, you can use a free online service called TinyPNG to automatically remove any images that aren’t being displayed.

Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools Setup Guide

Know about Bing Webmaster Tool:

Bing Webmaster Tool is a Free online Microsoft product offered by popular search engine Bing. This webmasters tool helps website owners and administrators to monitor, manage and improve their website's visibility and ranking on Bing and Yahoo search results.

Bing Webmaster provides data and insights on how Bing crawls and indexes a website, and allows users to submit sitemaps, monitor keyword rankings, and troubleshoot any crawl or indexing issues.

The tool also provides analytics on organic search traffic and backlink profiles, helping website owners optimize their site for search engines and improve their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

What can be done with the Bing Webmaster Tool?

👉You can monitor your Bing Search presence on your Website/Blog pages.

👉 You can improve the search presence of your Website/Blog pages by resolving the errors/issues

👉 Webmaster tool crawl results and suggestions. Error reports will help you in fixing the Website/Blog pages issues.

👉 You can monitor impressions of your Website/Blog pages presence on Bing Search Engine.

👉 You can check your top performing pages and you can analyse them.

How to add a website to Bing Webmaster Tools?

Setting up a Bing Webmaster Tool for a site is very simple and can be done in a few following steps. Follow the steps below to set up a Bing Webmaster Tool for your site/sites.

Step 1: Open Bing Webmaster Tools or use the following link to open - https://www.bing.com/webmasters/

Step 2: If your site is already verified on Google Search Console then choose the first option that is Google Search Console and Click on import to Import your sites from GSC.

Step 3:  Add your site to Bing Webmaster tools by making detectable changes on your site.

Step for adding your site manually >> Add your site URL >> Click on Add button.

Step 4: Once the site is verified then it looks at the following dashboard.

How to Submit Sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tool?

Submit your website xml sitemaps of your site to crawl and index on bing search engine.

To add a sitemap of your site navigate to Sitemap Section from the left menu and Click on Submit Sitemap from top left corner of the screen >> add your xml sitemap URL and then click on Submit.

That's all. We are done with the setup!

More about Bing Webmaster Tool

Step 1: Open Bing Webmaster Tools or use the following link to open https://www.bing.com/webmasters/

Step 2: Click on Search Performance to view the following

1. Total number of clicks on bing search
2. Total number of impressions on bing search
3. Average CTR
4. Crawl Requests
5. Crawl Errors
6. Indexed Pages

Step 3: Submit Sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tool

Step 4:  Click on Submit Sitemap from top right corner.

Step 5: Enter your site URL >> Click on Submit.

Step 6: Analyse your website for common technical SEO issues and fix them to improve your performance on Bing using Site Scan