In order to help Facebook grab the right description for each post shared on Facebook, bloggers (using Blogger) have came up with many cool, nifty tips and tricks in the last few years. However, some of their tips and tricks are dangerous because it might give search engines the impression that whoever that is using such techniques is trying to show off his or her spamming skills. Today I’m going to show one such example.
Example of a dangerous Facebook Like/Send/Share Get-Description Hack
Let’s take a look at this example given by Blogger Sentral. Blogger Sentral recommends bloggers to place the following additional scripts right before the data:post.body layout data tag. For your information, data:post.body is not listed as part of Blogger’s Globally Available Data and it can only be called from the body section alone.
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<b:if cond='data:post.snippet'>
<meta expr:content='data:post.snippet' name='description'/>
</b:if>
</b:if>
That is dangerous. This is because the additional scripts include a META tag that should only be placed or wrapped within the head (<head></head>), NOT body (<body></body>) section.
What is wrong with placing META tags in the body section?
It is just wrong and if you insist upon placing META tags in the body section, search engines might think that you are trying to spam or inject keywords and descriptions. If search engines managed to catch you, your blog is history. Please, do some reading on Spamdexing.
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9 comments:
Hi, I agree with you but what is the solution for it?
I have tried different things and the blogger sentral thread was the only one working.
Do you have any sugestion?
Thank you.
Fernanda Nabuco,
Thank your visiting. :)
I would suggest bloggers to start using HTML p (paragraph) tags in their blog posts. If your blog posts' HTML p tags are the first visible HTML p tags in your Blogger template, then rest assured that Facebook will grab your blog posts and turn them into snippets as descriptions for each and every Facebook 'likes' and shares.
Thanks for your reply Homebiss,
I have tried p tags as well but in that case facebook picks the Blog Description in the header widget section.
Why is impossible to use, for exemple:
[meta expr:content='data:post.snippet' name='description'/]
Fernanda Nabuco,
I know because I've been there. :)
Here's my proposed solution. Replace those HTML p tags (the ones in your Blogger Header widget) with HTML headings (do not use H1). By doing so, Facebook will have no problems in grabbing your HTML p tags in your Blogger Blog Posts widget.
Fernanda Nabuco,
It's a meta tag and meta tags could only be placed within the <head> and </head> section. 'data:post.snippet' on the other hand is not part of Blogger's Globally Available Data and it could only function in our Blog Posts widget (that's why it is useless to put it in the <head> and </head> section).
Thank you very very much for your instructions. But because I am a newbie in HTML I don't know exactely how could I find those tags in the Header and effectively do the replacement, maybe I need something like step-by-step :(. What you mean "HTML headings"?
I have just deleted the Blog description from the gadget and voila!
Saidul, you rock!
I hope this post shall be useful for many people worried about their SEO. But hope my competitors never discover your tips.
Thanks again.
Fernanda Nabuco,
You said; "I have just deleted the Blog description from the gadget and voila!"
I wouldn't do that I were you.
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