Blogger (Blogspot) SEO Guide

Blogger endures as the free-tier survivor: Google's own platform, zero cost, zero maintenance, and a control surface frozen a decade behind — which makes its SEO guide two documents in one: the honest optimisation of what Blogger allows (a shorter list than any platform in this series), and the strategic counsel its serious users eventually need (the graduation guide exists for a reason). Here's both, without the snobbery the platform usually gets.

What Blogger genuinely offers

The credit due: free hosting on Google's infrastructure (fast, TLS'd, never hacked via plugin sediment — the maintenance burden at literal zero), custom domains supported (the decision that matters most — see below), and a settings layer covering real basics: per-post descriptions (enable "search description" in settings — off by default, the platform's classic unconfigured item), custom robots and header tags (surprisingly present: per-page noindex is available), editable post URLs at publish time (within the dated /YYYY/MM/ pattern — the structure critique applies, unchangeable), redirect basics within the blog, and automatic sitemaps. Ceilings, permanent: the dated URL pattern, template-level control via raw XML editing only (schema beyond basics is hand-surgery), no server anything, and feature development effectively ended — what it is now is what it will be.

The optimisation pass (one afternoon, once)

1. Custom domain, immediately — the single decision that preserves your equity's portability: yourname.com on Blogger keeps every link and ranking yours when you eventually migrate; blogspot.com subdomain equity is partially marooned by the platform's redirect ceiling, per that guide's fork. Nothing else on this list matters as much.
2. Settings sweep: search descriptions enabled and written per post, meta description for the blog set, HTTPS enforced, the custom robots settings left default-sane unless you know why not (the noindex controls for archive/label pages — Blogger's label archives being its tag-sprawl equivalent, worth noindexing via the header-tags settings).
3. Post craft, platform-independent: titles per the formulas, URLs edited from the auto-slug at publish (the one moment it's editable), images compressed before upload with alts filled, and contextual links between posts — the disciplines no platform performs.
4. Template hygiene: a lean template (the older official ones outperform the ornate third-party tier), mobile rendering verified, and heading structure checked in the rendered output.

The strategic counsel

Blogger serves two users well: the writer testing whether they'll write at all (zero-cost validation — with the custom domain as the escape hatch bought on day one), and the durable hobby blog with no commercial ceiling pressure. The moment ambitions professionalise — monetisation, cluster strategies, plugin-shaped needs — the platform's frozen ceiling becomes the constraint, and the migration guide's early-is-cheaper rule applies: the best time is before the archive grows, the second-best is now.

Frequently asked questions

Does Google favour Blogger blogs in search?

No — the no-favoured-platform rule covers Google's own products too (ask any Blogger veteran watching WordPress rivals outrank them). The platform's Google-ness buys infrastructure, not positions.

Can a Blogger blog really rank competitively?

Within its lane, demonstrably — well-crafted Blogger posts with real links rank like well-crafted anything (the page-beats-platform physics). The ceiling is operational, not algorithmic: the growth tactics a scaling site needs are the features Blogger froze out of.

Is blogspot's subdomain hurting my SEO right now?

Not as a ranking penalty — blogspot blogs rank — but as equity portability (the migration fork) and, mildly, as the credibility read commercial audiences make. The custom domain resolves both for pocket change, which is why it leads the checklist — after which Blogger blogs grow on the same pair as everything: content and earned links (we serve hobbyists too).