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Google-Friendly SEO Configs for Blogger | for Highest SERP Ranking

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There is a combination of SEO-friendly robots tags Google embeds in Blogger, that if deployed correctly, would shoot your webpages sky high in Google SERP, but most bloggers either misuses it or are so oblivious that the dynamics of their Blogger website traffic cannot change for good by deploying such a short lines of code.

Blogger SEO

This does not apply only to Google as Bing and other similar search engines would appreciate your pages more thereby consider your blog to rank higher in their SERP rankings.

  1. What is SEO?
  2. What is Robots.txt?
  3. What is Robots Meta Tag?
  4. Robots Meta Tag or Robots.txt - what to use?
  5. How to Use Robots Meta Tags on Blogger Website
  6. How to Index Blogger Homepage Using Robots Meta Tag
  7. How to Index Blogger Post Page and Static Page Using Robots Meta Tag
  8. How to Index Blogger Labels Pages Using Robots Meta Tag
  9. How to Index Blogger Archive Pages Using Robots Meta Tag
  10. How to Index Blogger Search Results Pages Using Robots Meta Tag
  11. What is the Best Robots Meta Tags for Blogger?
  12. Frequently Asked Questions

True, it is possible you have seen similar posts as this before but I guarantee you that you have never learnt these exact Blogger SEO tips elsewhere on the internet.

I decided to discuss this topic because I have seen several bloggers lamenting of how terrible their Blogger website perform in Google. From their comments, especially on reddit, some of these bloggers consider Blogger.com to be very poor at SEO, little did they know that; they are actually the ones not having access to the right information.

I mean, see how crowded the internet has become, especially with the advent of AI generated contents that keep flooding the internet every now and then, you'll need just more than good contents to keep afloat in Google search.

See search engines as customers your blog or website needs so badly.

The least you can do to help your customers find and locate your business, in this case, your blog or website; is to position your blog such that;

  • Clear and easily digestible directions/paths are given.
  • Signals to help discern originals from parodies are provided.

Once these are done correctly, about 50 percent SEO is done with.

Now, how do you give these commands to or communicate these to the search engines?

Before we go into the details, allow me to touch on what SEO actually means.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization, SEO, for short; is the process of helping search engines find, better navigate and understand your content. It also involves making your content human-friendly by optimizing your website for speed, accessibility and readability.

From the short definition of SEO from above, you should understand that SEO is in two phases namely;

  • Optimizations done for Search Engines.
  • Optimizations done for human readers.

For the two phases, the importance of one cannot outweigh the other but it is impossible to discuss all SEO tips in one single blog post, not even with one phase. Especially, not for beginners.

With that in mind, the SEO tips we are discussing here is one of the Optimizations done for Search Engines; a branch of technical SEO that allows search engines find, better navigate and understand your content.

So, how do you go about this?

How do you give commands to or communicate search engines in such a way that your blog paths can be easily understood and digested?

Of course, I understand your blog may already be indexed and you probably have recorded a few clicks from Google search but;

  • Is that the best your Blogger website can do?
  • Are you receiving the most traffic your blog should get from Google?
  • And, does your blog communicate the right way?

And here is how you will find out.

How Do Search Engines Index your Blog?

Two of the commonest ways throughwhich webmasters give commands to search engines are;

  • Robots.txt
  • Robots Meta Tags

Perhaps, you are familiar with the above terms too but, allow me to shed more lights on them so that you may understand them better.

What is Robots.txt?

Robots.txt file, as we know it, is a single text file that is located within the root directory of a domain and contains the instructions or directives that tell search engines which pages or directories of that domain are to be crawled and which ones are to be ignored by the search engines.

Robots.txt file is a single file that contains all the directives and commands aimed at search engines but these commands and directives are applied sitewide, thus, they apply to the entire domain.

Meanwhile;

What is Robots Meta Tag?

Robots Meta Tag or Meta Robots Tag is a line of code which the search engines interprete as a directive that tells the search engines how to crawl, index and serve a Page in the SERP. Robots Meta Tag must be contained in the HTML code of every Page which a webmaster wishes to control its index in the SERP according to the commands issued in the tags.

Robots.txt vs Robots Meta Tag - the differences

Unlike robots.txt file that is solely contained in the root directory of the domain and effectively instructs search engines where to crawl in the entire domain, robots meta tag on the other hand, must be contained in the HTML code of every page which you wish to control its index in the SERP.

robots txt location in root directory

Thus, for robots meta tags, no lines of meta robots tags found in the HTML code of a page, no specific rules given. Search engines would just apply their respective defaults index rules for that webpage.

Robots Meta Tag or Robots.txt - what to use?

Both robots.txt and meta robots tag are intended to perform one major task and that is;

  • Allow Google to index certain page or pages.
  • Or, prevent Google from indexing certain page or pages.

But one of robots.txt and meta robots tag goes a few yards farther to get the task done better.

Let us take a closer look at it by briefly discussing how search engines index webpages.

How Search Engines Index Pages

Because this aspect is not so important to you, at least, not in this context, I will barely go deep into it.

Before search engines such as Google, Bing and Yandex index a Page, at surface level, three stages are involved;

  • Discover
  • Crawl
  • Index

  1. Discover or Discovery Stage

    This is the first stage, the point at which search engines get to know about the page's existence via;

    • Submission: when you manually submit your url to search engines for inclusion in their index.
    • Or, when search engines discover your url from another page that is been indexed and has the follow command issued.
    • Search engines such as Googlebots, Bingbots and Yandex can also discover and crawl your urls from another files such as .pdf that is included in their index.
      • follow is a meta robots tag command/element that instructs Googlebots to follow and crawl all the urls that are linked-to from that particular page.

  2. Crawl

    This is the stage at which point Googlebots, Bingbots, Yandex and the likes fetch a page and analyze it to determine its position, according the page's optimizations score in the SERP.

  3. Index

    This is the final stage. Any indexed page is served in the SERP.

    Your page has been indexed when you see it appear in Google search results pages.

Now, with robots.txt you can;

  • Prevent or allow search engines from crawling your entire domain, specific directory or folder.
  • Instruct specific search engines (say, Googlebots but not Bingbots) to or not to crawl your page.
  • Allow Googlebots to crawl a specific directory from within a folder that has been disallowed. - for now, this works with ONLY Googlebots.

Meanwhile, with meta robots tags you can;

  • Instruct search engines to index or de-index a webpage.
  • Allow search engines to index subdirectory of a specific directory that has been noindexed.
  • Tell search engines which specific section of a page is allowed to be featured in the snippet of that page in the SERP.
  • Allow specific search engines (say, Yandex but not Googlebots) to or not to index your page.
  • ...and quite a lot more options.

For the flexibility and numerous available specific options, robots meta tags are more preferred and certainly, more used by many SEO experts.

You can read more about robots meta tags and its usage applications from Google here. And Google certainly recommends robots meta tags.

Why Robots Meta Tags Should Be Used Instead of Robots.txt?

There are several reasons but I have listed just three below;

  1. Robots.txt Prevents Crawling But BOES NOT De-index

    If you have decided to prevent Google from indexing a page and used robots.txt disallow: /example-page.html command, Google will not crawl that page BUT, if Google discovers /example-page.html page's from another page that is been indexed and has the follow command issued, /example-page.html might still be served in Google SERP but without snippet. See the example in the image below:

    robots txt effect in SERP

  2. Robots Meta Tag Enhances Privacy

    Unlike robots.txt that is publicly accessible to all, except the source codes of the page are perused, robots meta tags are hidden away from the public view.

    To confirm this, just test any of your favourite popular websites by visiting example-domain.com/robots.txt (replace "example-domain" with actual URL) and in a matter of seconds, you will see what is contained in the website's robots.txt, revealing to you all the pages not been crawled by search engines from that website.

    You can already guess what bad actors can do with providing them with the exact paths to some sensitive directories within a website, right?

  3. With Robots Meta Tags, Advanced Commands Are Possible

    Robots Meta Tag's flexibility and controls are quite a lot. You can check the Google Search Central page that is linked from above to learn more about the possible use cases for robots meta tag. You can also see our other articles that discuss robots meta tag here.

Now, let us discuss how to correctly use robots meta tags for Blogger.

How to Use Robots Meta Tags on Blogger Website

Before you can decide how best to deploy robots meta tag for Blogger, you need to first understand;

  1. Which pages or directories of your Blogger website you want indexed.
  2. From SEO point of view, which pages should be included in SERP.
  3. And again, from SEO point of view, which pages are to be excluded from the SERP.

After you might have gotten all of the above right, you also need to understand Blogger website url structure.

Understanding Blogger URL Structures

For Blogger websites, there are seven prominent pages that serve as foundational URLs which are listed below;

  • Homepage Url
  • Post Page Url
  • Static Page Url
  • Labels Page Url
  • Archive Page Url
  • Blog Pagination Pages Url
  • Search Results Page Url

Each of the seven prominent pages listed from above has its own unique url structure.

Now, let us discuss them one after the other.

  1. Homepage Url

    Your Blogger homepage url is basically your domain name and that is;

    https://www.example.com

    Or, in its Blogger mobile version form;

    https://www.example.com/?m=1

    Noticed the ?m=1 suffix in the mobile version of your Blogger website? We shall discuss it later, down this article. For some, depending on your Blogger theme, the suffix could be ?m=0.

    Your Blogger website homepage url, like any other website, is the first-level url, that links all other pages. In other words, the homepage url is the founding url for all others.

  2. Post Page Url

    Post page url comprises the url of all blog posts in the blog including the published and those that would be published in the future.

    Blogger post page url is usually structured like this;

    https://www.example.com/2025/04/post-title-or-your-custom-url.html

    Where /2025 is the year the post was published and /04 is the month the post was published. The /post-title.html could be your post title, or, if you have chosen to use a custom url; your own chosen custom url.

  3. Static Page Url

    This is somewhat similar to post page but it is more specific. It is, as hinted in the name, a standalone form of the post pages.

    Blogger static page structure is usually like;

    https://www.example.com/p/page-title-or-your-custom-url.html

    Posts or pages such as contact us, ToS, Privacy Policy should be made into your Blogger website static pages.

    From the url, the /p denotes page and cannot be altered. /page-title.html can be your Page's title such as /contact-us.html and you can also decide to use a custom url.

  4. Labels Page Url

    For Blogger websites, Labels Page Url is equivallent to WordPress websites category url.

    Labels Page Url is usually in this form;

    https://www.example.com/search/label/label-name

    In the URL structure above, /search is a directory and /label/ is a subdirectory of /search. And the /label-name is the name of the (label) category in which you put that post. That label-name is an item within the /label/ subdirectory.

    Plainly speaking, let say you published a post titled "My First Journey to Alaska" and you lablled that blog post as Travels. Then, the url to pull every posts lablled "Travels" within the example.com website would be;

    https://www.example.com/search/label/Travels

    I hope that is clear enough?

    NOTE:

    Labels Page url is case-sensitive thus; /search/label/Travels is not the same as /search/label/travels.

    Observed the Travels and travels?

  5. Archive Page Url

    Archive Page Url, for Blogger website, come in two versions. There is a url for every blog posts that have been published in a particular year and the url is like this;

    https://www.example.com/2025/

    And then, there is a url for every blog posts that have been published in a particular month of a particular year. I guess you already know what the structure of this url looks like. Yes. It is like this;

    https://www.example.com/2024/12/

  6. Blog Pagination Pages Url

    This is the url you encounter when you click on the next page URL from your blog homepage, archive page, Labels page and Search Results page.

    The URLs of the blog Pagination page usually look like;

    https://www.example.com/search?updated-max=2022-07-28T05%3A44%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=12#PageNo=2

    NOTE:

    The Url is usually slightly different depending on from which page you clicked from thus; is it homepage, archive page, Labels page and Search Results page.

    The ONLY constants in blog Pagination Urls are;

    • #PageNo=2 and
    • search?updated-max=

  7. Search Results Page Url

    I think this is self explanatory. Search Results Page Url is the url that is generated when a search occurs within a Blogger website thus, when Blogger default search widget is used.

    The url structure is like this;

    https://www.example.com/search/?q=the-search-term-here

    Or, depending on how much customization is done to the Blogger default search widget, you can also see urls like this;

    https://www.example.com/search/max-results=12?q=the-search-term-here

Finally, I hope you now have a clearer understanding of what Blogger website urls look like and which pages each of the urls contains.

Now, let us discuss how to target each of these Blogger website urls using robots meta tags.

  1. How to Index Blogger Homepage Using Robots Meta Tag

    First, to tell search engines to index Blogger homepage using robots meta tag, use the code below:

        <b:if cond='data:view.isHomepage'>
    <meta content='doindex, dofollow' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

    In the lines of code above, the doindex tells search engines to index your Blogger homepage. And the dofollow tells search engines to fetch and analyze every links contained within the body of your Blogger homepage.

    De-index Blogger Homepage Using Robots Meta Tag

    Obviously, you will probably never have a use for this, but, just in case, here is the code to use;

        <b:if cond='data:view.isHomepage'>
    <meta content='noindex, nofollow' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

  2. How to Index Blogger Post Page and Static Page Using Robots Meta Tag

    For convinience and to arrive at a smoother solution, we combine both Static and Posts pages together.

    To instruct search engines to index all posts and static pages of Blogger, just paste the lines of code below within your Blogger blog head section;

        <b:if cond='data:view.isSingleItem'>
    <meta content='doindex, dofollow' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

    And that is it!

    De-index Blogger Post Page and Static Page Using Robots Meta Tag

    Of course, you might never have a need for this, but just in case you have a few duplicate blog posts and static pages you want to de-index, just replace the doindex and dofollow in the lines of code above with noindex and nofollow respectively so that you will have;

        <b:if cond='data:view.isSingleItem'>
    <meta content='noindex, nofollow' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

    And there you have it.

  3. How to Index Blogger Labels Pages Using Robots Meta Tag

    After the homepage, post pages and static pages, the next most essential urls in Blogger are the Labels urls. For some, Blogger Labels urls should be index and for others, it should not be index. As for me, I would say it depends on the kinds of lables you have used throughout your Blogger website.

    If you are a savvy at it, some Labels actually compete favourably in the SERP and bring quite a chunck of traffic to the blog.

    Anyways, to instruct search engines to index Labels urls using robots meta tags, here is the code for you;

        <b:if cond='data:view.isLabelSearch'>
    <meta content='doindex, dofollow' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

    De-index Blogger Labels Pages Using Robots Meta Tags

    And if for any reasons you want to de-index your Labels urls, the same rules apply. Just replace doindex and dofollow with noindex and nofollow respectively.

    The resulting codes to de-index the Labels urls would now be;

        <b:if cond='data:view.isLabelSearch'>
    <meta content='noindex, nofollow' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

    4. How to Index Blogger Archive Pages Using Robots Meta Tag

    There is absolutely no reason for anyone to include Blogger archive urls in search engines SERP and no SEO expert would recommend this practise but, for the knowledge of it, here is the code you need to ask search engines to index Blogger archive pages;

        <b:if cond='data:view.archive'>
    <meta content='doindex, dofollow' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

    And to reverse it such that search engines would exlude your Blogger archive pages in their index, here is the code to use;

        <b:if cond='data:view.archive'>
    <meta content='noindex, nofollow' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

  4. How to Index Blogger Search Results Pages Using Robots Meta Tag

    Similar to Blogger archive pages, it would be pointless and certainly of no SEO benefits to attempt to include Blogger Search Results pages in search engines index. Search engines, especially Google, will certainly react to the act.

    Again, for the knowledge of it, below here is the robots meta tags that tells search engines to index Blogger Search Results pages;

        <b:if cond='data:view.isSearch'>
    <meta content='doindex, dofollow' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

    And if for any reason, maybe you noticed some of your Search Results Pages are indexed and you wish to instruct search engines to de-index them, just paste the robots meta tags below within the head section of your Blogger website;

        <b:if cond='data:view.isSearch'>
    <meta content='noindex, nofollow' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

What is the Best Robots Meta Tags for Blogger?

For optimal SEO benefits, the best robots meta tags for Blogger is one that only doindex, dofollow and noarchive Blogger homepage, post pages, static pages and Labels page leaving all other urls within Blogger website noindex, nofollow and noarchive.

And the meta robots tags that fit what is described from above would be;

    <b:if cond='data:view.isLabelSearch'>
    <meta content='doindex, dofollow, noarchive' name='robots'/>
    <b:elseif cond='data:view.archive'/>
    <meta content='noindex, nofollow, noarchive' name='robots'/>
    <b:elseif cond='data:view.isSearch'/>
    <meta content='noindex, nofollow, noarchive' name='robots'/>
    <b:else/>
    <meta content='doindex, dofollow, noarchive' name='robots'/>
    </b:if>

If you use the combination of robots meta tags from above in your Blogger website, you are effectively instructing Google to index ONLY;

  • Your Blogger homepage
  • Post pages
  • Static pages
  • Labels pages

All other urls including;

  • Blogger Archive
  • Blogger blog Pagination URLs
  • Search Results Pages URLs

Would be excluded in search engines index and over time, if any, would all disappear in SERPs.

At full propergation of this, and when this new meta robots tags become fully effective on your Blogger website, you will realize just how much traffic you have been losing all along.

Test Blogger Meta Robots Tags Effectiveness

After you may have implemented the meta robots tags from above on your Blogger website, I recommend that you test and confirm that it works as you expected.

To test it, you can utilize Google Rich Results Test tool.

Using the tool, you can test both desktop versions and mobile versions of each of the urls.

How to De-index Blogger Mobile Site in Google - Fix for ?M=1 and ?M=0 Error

This is a perfect and permanent solution for the /?m=1 and /?m=0 errors you see in Google Search Console that prioritizes your Blogger mobile site over the desktop version.

NOTE:

Do NOT USE any robots.txt solution or embed any javascript (that claims to solve this issue) in your blog as those would not solve the issue but will further hinder your Blogger website ranking in Google.

Also, you should use this solution ONLY IF;

  • Your Blogger template DOES NOT canonicalize your urls.
  • Your Blogger website is responsive and mobile-friendly.
  • You are still using an old Blogger template that is not SEO optimized.

Now, let us begin.

To De-index Blogger Mobile Site Version from Google

The robots meta tag below disallows Google and other search engines from indexing your Blogger website mobile version including the /?m=1 and /?m=0 url suffixes;

    <b:if cond='data:blog.isMobileRequest'>
      <meta content='noindex' name='robots'/>
      </b:if>

That is it. Just copy and paste the meta robots tag from above anywhere within the <head> section of your Blogger theme source codes and save it.

What this Solution Does

  1. Google de-indexes Blogger website mobile version from SERPs.
  2. It forces Google to index your Blogger website desktop version only.
  3. It fixes the Google Search Console pages with redirect issue particularly for the /?m=1 and /?m=0 issues.
  4. This solution does not stop Google from crawling your Blogger website mobile version.

CAUTION

This solution would take several weeks or months before it fully impacts your Blogger website. If you cannot wait for that long, I recommend canonicalizing your Blogger website urls.

The canonical url; rel='canonical' url element is the solution Google recommends for this kind of issue as it allows Google to index both desktop and mobile versions of Blogger website but choses to display your preferred (canonical) url in SERPs.

Also, you should be informed that Blogger now auto-generates and inserts canonical url into all essential Blogger pages on pageload. These pages include;

  1. Blogger homepage
  2. Blogger Posts Page
  3. Blogger Static Pages
  4. Blogger Labels Urls

So, from SEO point of view, there is absolutely no reason for you to de-index Blogger website mobile version.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Can I Use Robots.txt and Robots Meta Tags on the Same Page?

    Yes. You can use both robots.txt and meta robots tags on the same page in as much as both cater to different issues. For example, you should not use robots.txt disallow: function for the same urls or directory that you have also used robots meta tags. The robots meta tags WOULD NOT just work.

  2. Where to Insert Robots Meta Tags in Blogger Theme?

    You can insert meta robots tags anywhere inside your theme's <head> section and it will work just fine.

  3. How Long Does Robots Meta Tags Take to Be Effective?

    For this, I would say it depends on the size of the website and the volume of urls that are affected. For some, a few days and for others, a few weeks. It could even extend for months. What's important is that, the impacts are felt from the first 72 hours of implementation.

  4. Why Can't I Use the Default Blogger Robots Meta Tags?

    If you know exactly what you are doing and what you desire to achieve using the robots meta tags, you can as well use the default Blogger robots meta tags, otherwise, you are better off to use the custom meta robots tags provided in this article.

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