Add Favicon to Blogger site

Have you wondered how these little icons appear next to the web addresses, like the one you see above? When you visit the sites or bookmark them, these icons will make these URLs stand out. These are “Favicons” or “Favorite Icons”.


First you need to have an icon which you would like to use. If you search your hard disk, you might find some icons which are generic. I would suggest that you create one to represent your own unique identity. There are quite a number of free icon editor software which you can download from the internet.


Once you have created an icon, save it into your hard disk.The only method to use will be to upload the icon into some web folder, and create a link. You can read about using free hosts like Google Page Creator and Google Groups.We have also a rather comprehensive list of free Image Hosts and File Hosting Services in our article on Manage Blogger Image Storage Space. Check out those sites and choose one that is fast, reliable and allows uploading of .ico files.

Now

Go to your Blogger dashboard and under the Template tab, go to “Edit HTML”. Near the top you will see a line like this:-

Make Blog Unsearchable and Private

Many people write blogs to share their thoughts with everybody and anybody. However, you may also use your Blog as an online diary, penning very personal and private thoughts.Also, you may not want it to be indexed by search engines, so that people searching for it on the net will not find it in the search results.

This post lets you know how to create private Blogs. If your intentions are the exact opposite, and you want to publicize your Blog to the whole world, follow our other guides to submit your Blog to Blog Directories, Google, Yahoo and Feed Directories.

Note that these steps are to be taken BEFORE you create the blog. If you already have an existing Blog, it has in all likelihood been indexed. These tips will at best prevent future contents from being seen.


Title and Blog URL

When you create a new Blog, select a Blog URL and Title carefully; choose words that have no bearing or relation to you or what you do. After the Blog is created, DO NOT post. Post only after you have completed all steps.

Permission

We start with the most important and necessary  step. Blogger has made it easy for you to create private Blogs. When you are logged in, go to Settings -> Permissions. You can restrict your Blog Readers to only people you choose or only the blog authors.

People who enter the Blog URL into their browsers can still see the Blog Title but will be prompted to enter their Google account particulars and password. If they are not given the rights to view the Blog, a message will be shown: “It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation.”


Listing on Blogger.com

These are the further steps to take, just to be sure. Under Settings -> Basic, you can see a “Add your Blog to our listings?” option. Choose “No”. Click “Save Settings” at the bottom. This will do three things –

i) Your Blog will not appear when people search Blogger.com.

ii) This Blog will not be shown in the Blog List on your Profile page.

iii) The Blogger homepage showcases a list of recently updated blogs but this Blog will not be shown.

Ping Setting

Go to Settings -> Publishing and under the “Send Ping” option, choose “No”. Save the Setting. Whenever a Blog is updated, Google will notify some of the tracking services of the updates. If your Blog is private, there is no reason why these services should to know of your Blog updates.

Site Feed

Your Blog contents can be read through your Site's Atom and RSS Feeds. People can catch up on news and articles by subscribing to these Feeds and viewing the material using their Feed readers. If you do not want your contents to be read or syndicated, go to Settings -> Site Feed and to the question “Allow Blog Feed?” select “None” and click “Save Settings”.

Meta Tag

Now that we have altered the settings for the Blog, we can add a further meta tag into our template to tell search engines not to index the site. Click Template ->Edit HTML and you can see the source code. Somewhere at the top, just below <head>, insert this line (shown in red):-

<head> <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">

Leave this tag there. Search engine robots which visit your site will not index the Blog pages and contents.

Profile

We thought we should cover this for completeness. In the top right corner of your Dashboard, you can go to the “Edit Profile” page. Under “Show my blogs”, if you see a blog that you do not want people to know about, remove it from the listing. People who view your Profile will not know about the Blog. You can also choose not to share information about your Profile by not ticking the box next to “Share my profile”.

External Links

The steps outlined above are within your control but this one is not. It is also the reason why we said we can only minimize but not eliminate the possibility that people know of your Blog. Anybody can link to your Blog URL since it is a valid URL. If your friends happen to know about your Blog and write a post mentioning your Blog or linking to your Blog, there will be an external link to your Blog. Whatever they write about it will be public knowledge. Hence, to have an online diary that only you know about, remember that a secret shared by two persons is no longer a secret.