Adding Social Media Icons to your Blog

Want your readers to stay connected?  Here's an easy way to add clickable social media buttons to your Blogger blog without code editing or third party hosting.  And it takes less than ten minutes!

Steps:

1.  Find Social Media buttons you'd like to use, make sure you download them so you have quality png versions.

2.  Go to your dashboard and select New Post.  This post will never be published so title it accordingly.

3. Switch over to html, it's important to upload your images while in html to avoid spaces that get created when in compose.

4.  Upload your social media icons using the insert image button. When prompted to choose a layout, select None.

5.  Once all your images are uploaded, now you can switch to the Compose and use the toolbar to centre your icons.  

6.  Now it's time to link each of your icons to your social media pages.  As you do this, make sure that you keep the box that asks for a title blank.

7.  Once all your links are done, revert to the HTML editing and select all of the html code you have now created, and save it. 

8.  Now it's time to place your icons on the side column where they will always be highly visible.  Go to your layout and select add a gadget.  Find HTML/JavaScript in your list.

9.  Once you've selected that gadget, simply paste the code that copied earlier and save! Go to your preview and it's there. 

That's all it takes. Sure, there are third party applications that do this as well, but when you do it yourself, you have more control on the final outcome.

The Purpose of Labels

Labels, tags, keywords - what does that box at the bottom of your new post really accomplish?

What are they? Labels (or tags) make it easy to group related posts, without having to create specific categories for each subject. They give visitors the ability to browse all your posts that relate to a similar subject. When two or more blog posts are given the same label, visitors can easily click on the label to view those posts grouped together in the archive template.

Why should you use them? What’s more important is that these labels also serve as a great way for search engines to find your blog. When I’m deciding which words to use as labels for my post, I always ask myself “if I was searching this topic, which keywords would I enter in Google?”

Keywords are a source of traffic. Considering Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the highest priority in creating a successful blog, these labels will direct the traffic to you.

Mr. Ven of eMoneyMakingOnline.Com offers important advice on using keywords in your blog: “Don’t always write articles to stuff keywords instead “convey the message naturally” and you will ‘use keywords naturally’.”

How to do it? When creating a new post, there is a space at the bottom of your form marked "Labels for this post" (other platforms use “Tags”) Simply enter your keywords (labels), separated by commas. (If you click the "show all" link you’ll see the list of labels you've used before. Then just click on those labels to add them.) When you publish your post, the labels will be listed with it.

Label List

It's also a good idea to add a label list to your side bar.  This helps navigate your blog, and instantly categorizes your topics  To do this go to Add A Gadget and find Labels.

At this point you can edit your label and choose whether to sort labels alphabetically or by frequency of use and as a LIST or by CLOUD. Until you’ve built up a bank of labels, I would suggest using the list option. To add this list, go to add a gadget and add labels.

Remember: Relevant Labels = SEO.