How to Access Old Style Templates in Blogger (Blogspot)

"Can I still use the old default templates for my Blogger blog (Blogspot blog)?" is a frequent question I am asked on Blog Know How pretty often. Other people have asked me about the template I am using and how to get it. In answer to the first question as you can see older style templates do work on Blogger. And with respect to the second question the template I am using on Blog Know How is an enhanced version of the Rounders 3 Blogger template which is one of the older style default Blogger templates available from 2006 onwards.

In today's Blogger tutorial I am going to show you how to access the older style default Blogger templates (Blogspot templates) and activate them on your Blogger blog. This tutorial is mostly written for those new to Blogger who might not realise that there are a number of default Blogger layouts released in 2006 that are still perfectly usuable. Also there may be some of you who would like to revert back to an older style Blogger template but are not sure how to find the old templates on Blogger.

A Word of Warning First
At the outset I need to say that by applying an older style Blogger template to an existing blog you may lose some of the advanced design and layout features in the Blogger Template Designer. This may not be a drawback if you are happy to do a bit of tweaking and may actually be a far better alternative than downloading a free custom Blogger template that may have a host of compatibility problems with Blogger especially if it was released a while ago. There are some pretty good free custom Blogger templates out there and there are some which were thrown together and have all sorts of problems which are not easily solvable unless you know how to code in CSS.

So please be warned that you may potentially lose some features in converting to an older Blogger template. For instance if you are using the Simple default Blogger template and already have a three column layout selected with a 2 or 3 column footer then you will find that Blogger will revert to a two column layout and place all your widgets in the sidebar if you select an older style template. You will then need to manually add the footer and the extra sidebar. See my tutorials on how to add a 3 or 4 column footer to Blogger and how to manually add an extra column to Blogger for help with this.

I suggest before you start that you download a full back up of your template and that you upload this to a test blog to see how it looks rather than trying it out on a live blog. However if you decide go ahead and later change your mind and want to revert back to the one of the newer Blogger templates you will need to manually shift your widgets out of the sidebar using the drag and drop feature in Page Elements

How to Access Older Style Blogger (Blogspot) Templates

Note: These instructions assume you are using the updated Blogger interface. If you are using the old Blogger interface (you will have a message at the top of your blog "Try the updated Blogger interface") then start at step 3.

1. From Overview in the updated Blogger interface click on the wheel icon at the top right which will give you an array of Blogger options
   
   
2. Select the Older Blogger Interface from the drop down menu
   
   
   
   
3. The older style Blogger Dashboard will now be visible and displaying a list of blogs if you have more than one otherwise just the one. Click on Design from the list of links under the blog title you wish to apply the older Blogger template to.
   
   
   
4. Click on the Edit HTML link located under the Blogger tabs menu
   
   
   
   
5. Once on the Edit HTML page scroll to the bottom of the page and on the left you will see a heading entitled Old Templates. Click on the Select Layout Templates from the list. Avoid the Classic templates as these date from Blogger's first inception and are really too old to be of use.
   
   
   
   
6. You will now be on the older style Blogger templates page and can scroll through and select a template. Use the preview link to see how your blog looks with one of the older style templates applied. I use the Rounders 3 for Blog Know How by the way although I have adapted it to a 3 column layout.
   
   
   
   
7. Once you are sure you want to change over to an older style template click on the save button to apply the older style default Blogger template to your Blogspot blog.
   
   
8. Click on View Blog at the right of the menus tabs to view your changes and navigate around your blog.
   

Today I have shown you how to change your Blogger blog over to one of the older style Blogger templates. Remember that in doing so you may sacrifice some of the advanced layout and design features available in Template Designer but it will give you the option of more template options and a time-saving alternative to having to download and try out heaps of free custom Blogger templates available on the internet only to find they don't work properly. And remember that even with free custom Blogger templates most do not work with Blogger Template Designer. Having to manually add a footer or an extra column to your Blogger blog are really minor changes if everything else is working fine.

Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs

How to add Search engine Friendly Title to Blogger Blog

This article will help new blogger blog owners and all bloggers to make their blog search engine friendly Titles.By default Blogger blog titles are not search engine friendly.Page Title is group of text that appears on top of your browser.It is more important in showing your blog/blog posts on Search engine results.The Page title is the most important element in your blog in terms of higher ranking in search results.
Here is example,the figure shows the title of our blog post,the blog title is displayed first and after that the post title has been displayed.

Google only displays 70 characters on Google search results and in case of Yahoo display bit more.So your blog posts will not display or you will not get as much rank in Search Results.Let us think about reversing of position of the blog title and post title,Giving the first priority to Post title and it will works.
It will appears like the following figure.

This
Lets see how to optimize your blogger blog titles Search engine friendly.

• Go to Design->Edit HTML
• find the following 

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

• Replace the it with the following code

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;index&quot;'>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageName/> - NetOops Blog</title>
</b:if>

Replace the red text by your blog's Name
Done..! you have an SEO friendly page title.

Increase blog traffic using powerful meta tags

This is a very useful article for all bloggers,every blogger had a dream that their blog got higher rank in Google or other search engines.Adding meta tags to your blogger blog help you to increase blog traffic.The meta tag helps the search engine to find appropriate results,This is a powerful Search Engine optimization(SEO) method used by popular websites and blogs.
Within a few steps you can add powerful meta tags by following the below steps

• Sign In to your Blogger Account
• Take Design tab in your blog dashboard
• Select Edit HTML
• Add the following code inside <head> section

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<meta content='Place blogger description here' NAME='description'/>
<meta content='Place your blog's keywords here(seperated by commas)'
NAME='keywords'/>
</b:if>

Replace the Red text by your blog's description and keywords and place it inside <head> section.Now your blogger blog meta tags are placed.The Blogger description you placed in meta tag description will display as the description of your blog in Google search results(as shown in the figure).

Now day by day there are so many blogs are arriving on internet.This powerful meta tag technique will help you to go your blog success.

Head Banner changing trick for blogger

Today i am saying about an interesting thing .Head banner changing trick for blogger
This is a simple blogger hack.when you add this, your blogger blog's header image will change after RELOAD the webpage on your browser.
 Follow the instructions :)

• Sign In to your blogger account.
• Goto Design->Edit HTML
• Find ]]></b:skin> and paste the following code before it.

#header {
background: url("your head image url") no-repeat left bottom;
margin:0;
padding:2px;
}

• Then copy the below script  and place it inside the <head> tag:

<script type="text/javascript">
var banner= new Array()

banner[0]="1st image url"
banner[1]="2nd image url"
banner[2]="3rd image url"
banner[3]="4th image url"
banner[4]="5th image url"
var random=Math.round(4*Math.random());

document.write("<style>");
document.write("#header {");
document.write(' background:url("' + banner[random] + '") no-repeat left TOP;');
document.write(" }");
document.write("</style>");
</script>

you are done...:)
If any problem with this blogger trick please leave comment,don't hesitate to ask,we are happy to help you:)

Remove Subscribe to posts (atom) from Blogger Blog

#This is an article about how to remove Subscribe to:posts(Atom).

You must have seen that this Subscribe to:posts(Atom) at the bottom of your Blogger Blog.Blogger added it to every blogger blog for your visitors to subscribe atoms feeds.Do you thinks that it is quiet boring? Here a simple tip to remove it.

First of all 

• Sign In to your Blogger Account and Go to Design->Edit HTML

 Important:You must tick the check box  Expand Widget Templates

• Find the following and delete it

<b:include name='feedLinks'/>

 Or put inside this (<!-- -->) like this <!-- <b:include name='feedLinks'/> -->

Its done...

Start Blogging

Pre On-Page Optimization Website Analysis

In the SEO process pre optimization site review and analysis is very much important. In case of on-page optimization some permanent change in the web pages is required. To make the website suitable for crawler and visitors’ friendly on-page optimization is necessary. When there are several permanent changes are concerned, before starting the on-page documentation and implementation we must analyse the structure of a website and generate a review report with keeping aside a total site backup.

On-page optimization process should follow the site analysis report. In analysis process you have to understand the entire website structure and have to documented these following issues (if exists) in the review report.

Points to be considered to understand website structure and nature

•    Canonical Issues
•    Non-optimized URLs
•    On-page Sitemap
•    XML Sitemap
•    Page Navigation System (menu, side bar, bread crumb)
•    Broken Links
•    Duplicate Pages
•    Duplicate Content
•    Robots.txt file
•    Code to Text Ratio
•    Average Page Loading Time
•    Template Suggestion
•    Cross Browser Compatibility Test
•    Orphan Pages
•    Splash Page Suggestion
•    Back Link Analysis
•    Keyword Analysis

A website structure generally depends on these above mentioned points. To understand a site structure, we need help of good SEO tools. Screaming Frog is a very authentic tool for website analysis and SEO backup.