Google Blog Search Module

1. Go to Add Modules, like you do with every module you want to find


2. Go to Search (A-Z)


3. Find the G for Google (not B for Blogs)


4. Click Google Blog Search

That's it. No short cuts to this one.

Do check out your options. To make google blog search search blogs you will have to set the settings to blogs. The default is news.

The default setting is to only have one result, and to only show the headline.

I usually prefer to set the settings to:

• 3 results (4 is the maximum)


• include descriptions


• update frequency: once a day (only with topics with a lot of news does updating more often make sense)

Google blog search works just like ordinary google search. This means that it's pretty tolerant of what you type.

Generally - for your lenses - you just want the theme of your lens.

You can try out the following variations. Say your subject is 'Blue Ribbons'...

1. Type "blue ribbons"
   This will mean that only blogs using the two words in exactly that order, with nothing in between will show up.
   
2. Type blue ribbons
   This will turn up blogs which might be talking about ribbons on some blue dress they were making - not necessarily using BLUE ribbons, just something about blue is on the page.

I usually get good results without the quotes, but if that gives you results that don't fit your theme - trying the quotes just might fix it.

Sometimes you just want your latest blogposts to show up on a lens. You can use the RSS module for that, but the blog search module will work as well.

You do the following to get your own blog posts to show up in this module:

1) you set the module to blogs
2) you set the module to the amount of posts you want
3) you set the module to search for the title of your blog. For instance my "Religion and Spirituality lenses (and more)"
NB Make sure you use those quotes: if you're announcing this as your own blog, you don't want other people's blogposts showing up.

You might be tempted to use the URL (http://spirituality.squidtop.com/ for instance) as a search term, but that method doesn't work for some reason.

See below for the result.

Of course this only works for blogs that actually get indexed by google. If yours isn't, make sure you link to it from a relevant lens (for instance).

This means that you can use the blog search module to check if your blog is being indexed.

Do make sure to remember though: the automatically generated links to your lens in the blog search module DO NOT count as links for google SEO. So make sure you also put in a normal link to your blog somewhere.

Unfortunately changes in my personal life, and in the way squidu is managed, have made me decide to stop answering questions on that forum. I'm also too busy to answer questions elsewhere.

I am available for consulting though, but that doesn't come cheap. For $99 you get a month of asking whatever questions you want and advice on your SEO strategy, link building, optimizing your blog etc. SEO consult online publishing.

If you aren't willing to pay up, you'll have to be content to stay updated on my Marketing Spiritual Blog where I am also willing to answer any questions related to the posts. It also contains a free ebook.

I'm active on twitter and facebook.