The Blogger team have added a new "Geotagging" feature to Blogger in Draft which enables you to add a location to each of your blog posts. This will then display in your post-footer section (near your post labels, timestamp, etc), and will act as a link to a page on Google Maps where readers can learn more about the location.
Here's an example of how this would appear, as taken in screenshots from the explanatory post on the Blogger in Draft blog:
RSS support for Geotags
Your post locations will be included in your blog's RSS and Atom (XML) feeds using GeoRSS which is a web standard for Geotagging. This is important as it allows feed readers, map readers and search engines to associate your posts with particular locations. For example, if you tag your blog posts "New York", these posts can be found more easily by those searching for content based on the New York area.
How to tag your posts with a location
In order to Geotag your posts (add a location) you must create or edit your post through Blogger in Draft. This is because this feature is still experimental, and has not yet been rolled in to the main post editor.
When you create (or edit) a post through Blogger in Draft, look to the left of the Labels area to see the "Add location" link:
Once you have found the correct location, you can zoom in (for more accuracy) if you prefer, and finally save your location.
Important: once you have geotagged a post, you cannot remove this tag!
If you do need to remove your geotag for some reason, Blogger recommends that you copy the content of your post and create a new one, then delete the old geotagged post. At present, this is the only way to "remove" a geotag, though it is more of a workaround than a proper solution ;) I suspect the Blogger team will enable us to properly delete or edit a post's geotag before this feature is rolled out for the main post editor.
How to make your Geotags appear beneath your posts
The first step to making Geotag links appear beneath your posts is to enable this setting in the Blog Posts widget.
To do this, go to Layout>Page Elements while logged into Blogger in Draft, and click the "Edit" link for the Blog Posts widget. On this pop-up page, you will notice a new checkbox for "Location". Ensure you have ticked this checkbox, and save your changes.
If you have recently changed your template to a default Blogger theme (or have recently started a new blog), this simple change of setting will enable you to see Geotag locations beneath your posts straight away. If you are unable to see your Geotags after this change of setting, you need to follow one of the instructions below instead.
Since this is a new Blogger feature, your existing template may not currently include the code required to make geotags appear for each of your tagged posts.
If you use a default Blogger template, the simplest way to enable the Geotags for your posts is to pick a new template. Simply go to Layout>Pick new template in your Blogger dashboard and choose the template you would like to work with. This can be the same template you are currently using.
This method refresheds the template code and adds the section required to make the Geotags appear in the post footer section. Alternatively, you could "Revert the widget templates to default" on the Layout>Edit HTML page of your blog. This has the same effect as choosing a new default template.
If you use a customized or third party template, you will need to add the code required for the Geotags to display manually by editing your template code.
To do this, go to Layout>Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard and ensure you have checked the "Expand widget templates" box.
We need to add the required code to the "post-footer" section of the main blog posts widget. The easiest way to locate this section is to use your browser's search function to find the following line of code:
<div class='post-footer'>
or
<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>
If you cannot find either of these lines in your template code, search for "post-labels", "post-icons" or "timestamp" to locate the appropriate section of your template instead.
Once you have located this section of your template, you need to add the following section of code:
<span class='post-location'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showLocation'>
<b:if cond='data:post.location'>
<data:postLocationLabel/>
<a expr:href='data:post.location.mapsUrl' target='_blank'><data:post.location.name/></a>
</b:if>
</b:if>
</span>
Be sure to add this outside any other tags! If you did find the <div class='post-footer'> tag (or similar) in your template, the safest place is to add the code immediately after this line.
Then preview your template. If all is well, you should now see Geotag links appear beneath any posts you have Geotagged with a location (though none will appear on posts which have not been tagged).If you have made any errors when adding the code above, you'll receive a message that your template cannot be parsed. In this case, simply "Clear edits" and attempt to paste the code again.
Is Geotagging a useful feature for Blogger?
I personally feel that Blogger's integration of this new feature will prove very useful for a large proportion of the Blogger community. So far the comments I have read on the introductory post for this new feature have been very positive, and it seems many creative coders have already expanded their ideas for how Geotagging can be intrgrated for widgets and other useful features.
However, this may not be a feature which is beneficial for us all. Here on Blogger Buster, for example, the location where these posts are typed does not complement the content and has no added benefit for readers (I like to think the content posted here has international appeal!).
What are your opinions of Blogger's new Geotagging feature? Will you be using this feature to complement your own blog posts?
Please feel free to let us know your own opinions and comments by leaving your message below.
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My name is Amanda Fazani and I write Blogger Buster to help other Blogger users make the most of their Blogger blogs.
Post a Comment 36 Comments:
I think this can probably be useful.
Maybe I will geotag a post if I decide to write about a restaurant or an event.
And of course your writing has international appeal since I'm french ;-)
I agree with Feufol. It will have its uses but not as a 'standard' for posts.
That is awesome! It will be good for some people.
yes its usefull,
i will try this, thanks amanda
I have a new tool for this function...
GeoTagging List
It's german, but easy to understand.
I hope it's usefull ;-)
thanks for the info amanda!
thanks,
nice
But i have some question for amanda.
can u countomize the title that it will be based of label. for example if a post has label "123" then the title will be "asdf-asdfasdfasdf" or the title will be "blogposttitle"
is it possible thank you. mail me at kak_keno_kalo@yahoo.com thank u again
Geoblogs are great for documenting your trips and gives the readers the complete picture; the blog post with photos and maps to back it all up. We've been geoblogging with Blogger with 3.5 years to document our 5 year sailing trip.
We've also developed BlurbBits a set of utilities which not only give different viewing options for your blogs but help add your Picasa/Flickr photos to a blog post.
We'd be interested in feedback from fellow geobloggers.
This feature could prove to be very useful for my blog, as it focuses on area coffeehouses. I currently run a parallel Google Map. See http://www.milehighbuzz.com... (which you'll note, by the way, has one of Amanda's fantastic themes applied). I am not certain whether I'll use this, simply because of the overlap with my existing "coffee map."
I am curious if this will assist with SEO though. I assume it will, as geotagging post would presumable make that post appear more relevant and accurate to google... that's my guess anyway.
I have tried this and its worked, however you need to edit all your blogpost if you want to show your blog location and thats one of shortcoming of this widget, nice one but i prefer the one that BloggerDraft posted :)
I see lots of potential for the family history and genealogy bloggers if they can work out some of the glitches. Having to recreate a post if I find a more specific address in the future is a big problem for me. The sidebar widget doesn't work quite right but having a link to a map at the end of each post allows my readers to have a better idea of where a small town or cemetery is located. I still need to look more closely at Lissandro Dittmar's and Billabong Blog's posts, they both obviously understand how to use this much better than I.
thanks a lot on this information, can be used for decorating the sidebar
nice tips....
do you want link exchange????
thanks 4 this useful tips amanda
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Thanks for nice post.
Because my blog is all about postcards I have collected from around the world, I think it's wonderful and I've been using it ever since I discovered it a week or so ago. The question is, do I go back and add the tags to all my previous posts? Will the advantage of the tag be more than the disadvantage of my posts re-appearing in my feed? Or is that a disadvantage?
@Takumi86
I'm not sure I understand your comment. You don't need to use BlurbBits to tag each post, you can use the Blogger-in-Draft location editor as well. The viewing options will work with both methods.
However if you want to add photos (albums or sets) with a map to your post using BlurbBits, this will also allow the Blog post to be mapped. BlurbBits doesn't require Blogger-in-Draft and posts can be migrated later using the BlurbBits mapr Lat/Lng Position.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Ruth
http://www.infrared-sauna-spot.info
It's a great idea. I hope it catches on with Blogger users. Takn the time to use it could really add value to geo posts.
Thanks for the great info.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Vietnam.
well i wan to try this gadget...thanks for ur share , can i'm link x-change ur link, i follow ur blog to support my lerning blog
woooow abdi resep berjunjung ka dieu, salam kenal mbak.... ti urang sunda.
Nice info Amanda,, I will try it soon for My blogs
Thanks for the tips :)
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thanks.you are a great help.regards
wow....cool..
i've been reading your posts for a while, and i think your ideas give more spirit to blogspot. and also this geotag post. keep writing!
I'm agree. It's a great idea.
I think the new feature will be useful for my blog that features heavily articles written travelling and on articles written about life and living abroad, so for me, most of my posts have a geographic reference.
And in planning trips, I have found searching blogs for locations to be tedious. To have travel blogs geotagged would be a major improvement to their aggregation usefulness once written.
So of course not a feature for everyone, but having the standard option will be a fantastic step forward IMO.
McKay
I read your article.The things you have written sound very sincere and nice topics i am looking forward to its continuation.
I really don't know if whats on your blog that keep me coming back.. I thought I would be satisfied of leaving 1 comment on one of your pages, but as i go through each and every page I noticed its addictive. Your brilliant!! Many many thanks
I will try ,thanks a lot , I'am grateful to you .
A nice idea.
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Thank you so much! I know I can always find what I need here. My readers love this feature and I lost it when I changed templates. It's back thanks to your advice. See how I use it on my blog. www.explorationorlando.com