Google Redirecting Blogs To Country-Specific URL's
Google found an amazing trick for redirecting blogspot blogs to Country Specific URLs and in coming few weeks you might get noticed that the URL of a blog you visiting has been redirecting to a country specific URLs. Presently this change has been rolled out in India only. If you are from India try to visit any BlogSpot URL and you will notice that the URL you visited has been redirected to the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).
For example: Let's say you visit Googleblog.blogspot.com from India, you will be redirected to the country specific URL like Googleblog.blogspot.in.
Similarly if you visit any other ccTLDs from India, you will be redirected to the Indian TLD.
For example: http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com.au (Australian TLD) will be redirected to the http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.in (Indian TLD). This way any of ccTLDs URLs you visiting from India, you will redirected to country specific TLD.
If you're unhappy with Country Specific TLD and want to stick with correct URL, you can temporarily opt-out this redirection with NCR option. NCR stands for (No Country Redirect) is used to prevent redirection and display correct version of URL.
For example: http://Googleblog.blogspot.com/ncr will give you the correct version of ULR without redirecting to your ccTLD, whether you are from India, Australia, Germany, Brazil or anywhere it will display correct URL, if you used NCR option in the URL.
Those who are already using Custom Domain for their blog they should not see any visible differences to their blog other than the URL redirecting to a ccTLD. Custom Domain blogs like mine will not get affected by this change. Don't worry it's not too late you can Setup Custom Domain for your blog to stay unaffected.
Search for the following line in your Blog Template and make sure it is there. In-case, if you're unable to find or you removed it from your blog template, don't worry you can still add this line of code to your template below the <head> section. This below code will render the canonical tag for you.
If you don't use Canonical Tag in your blog pages, then your blog might get into trouble on Search Engines and Google crawler might index different country specific pages of your Blog. This also affect your Social buttons too and display wrong counts for your share buttons like (Facebook Like Button, Google Plus Button etc) and it allows users to share country specific versions of your page.
Adding the Canonical tag in your blog template will ensure that the same version of blogspot.com page gets shared on social networks and so the counters will display the correct count irrespective of the country the visitor is from.
Read more @ Google support.
For example: Let's say you visit Googleblog.blogspot.com from India, you will be redirected to the country specific URL like Googleblog.blogspot.in.
Similarly if you visit any other ccTLDs from India, you will be redirected to the Indian TLD.
For example: http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com.au (Australian TLD) will be redirected to the http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.in (Indian TLD). This way any of ccTLDs URLs you visiting from India, you will redirected to country specific TLD.
If you're unhappy with Country Specific TLD and want to stick with correct URL, you can temporarily opt-out this redirection with NCR option. NCR stands for (No Country Redirect) is used to prevent redirection and display correct version of URL.
For example: http://Googleblog.blogspot.com/ncr will give you the correct version of ULR without redirecting to your ccTLD, whether you are from India, Australia, Germany, Brazil or anywhere it will display correct URL, if you used NCR option in the URL.
Why This Change Happening ?
This change was specifically made to comply with local law and country wise censorship to take down content. See what Google says below:“By utilizing ccTLDs, content removals can be managed on a per country basis, which will limit their impact to the smallest number of readers. Content removed due to a specific country’s law will only be removed from the relevant ccTLD.”
Who Will Be Affected by This Change ?
Specially Blogger's who don't have a custom domain for their blogs and (readers all over the world) get affected by this change. Currently this change has been rolled out in India only. So, if you visit your blog with BlogSpot URL say yourblog.blogspot.com, will be redirected to yourblog.blogspot.in (Indian TLD) using a 302 redirect.Those who are already using Custom Domain for their blog they should not see any visible differences to their blog other than the URL redirecting to a ccTLD. Custom Domain blogs like mine will not get affected by this change. Don't worry it's not too late you can Setup Custom Domain for your blog to stay unaffected.
What Should BlogSpot Users Do Now ?
Make sure that you are using Canonical Tag in your blog pages. This tag already present in your blog template unless you have hacked and customized the template.Search for the following line in your Blog Template and make sure it is there. In-case, if you're unable to find or you removed it from your blog template, don't worry you can still add this line of code to your template below the <head> section. This below code will render the canonical tag for you.
<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>For some reason you don't want to add this tag, then you can add following line of code in your template below the <head>.
<link expr:href="data:blog.canonicalUrl" rel="canonical"/>The above line of code will give you the actual canonical URL(blogspot.com).
What does the Canonical Tag do ?
This Canonical Tag specifies the actual location of the page. Even if you are visiting a blogspot.in URL, the canonical tag will let the search engines to know where the actual page is located i.e. (blogspot.com).If you don't use Canonical Tag in your blog pages, then your blog might get into trouble on Search Engines and Google crawler might index different country specific pages of your Blog. This also affect your Social buttons too and display wrong counts for your share buttons like (Facebook Like Button, Google Plus Button etc) and it allows users to share country specific versions of your page.
Adding the Canonical tag in your blog template will ensure that the same version of blogspot.com page gets shared on social networks and so the counters will display the correct count irrespective of the country the visitor is from.
Will This Effect My Blog Ranking ?
Yes, it might be effect your blog Search Engine Ranking. Google says they are finding ways to minimize this problem as soon as possible because Google Crawlers are finding same content on two different domains can affect your blog ranking. See what Google Says below.After this change, crawlers will find Blogspot content on many different domains. Hosting duplicate content on different domains can affect search results, but we are making every effort to minimize any negative consequences of hosting Blogspot content on multiple domains.
The majority of content hosted on different domains will be unaffected by content removals, and therefore identical. For all such content, we will specify the blogspot.com version as the canonical version using rel=canonical. This will let crawlers know that although the URLs are different, the content is the same. When a post or blog in a country is affected by a content removal, the canonical URL will be set to that country’s ccTLD instead of the .com version. This will ensure that we aren’t marking different content with the same canonical tag.
Read more @ Google support.
If you have a Tip, tutorial, Idea or anything you want to share with ravisaive readers, you can send it to : ravisaive.in[a]gmail.com
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I am very much impressed from your post.It has amazing information.I learned lot of new things which explores my knowledge in various developments.So i must appreciate your efforts on posting these information.
ReplyDeletepretty impressed will help me to redirect my blogs using canonical tag.. thnks
ReplyDelete@ live cricket - read this post for more about canonical tag http://www.ravisaive.in/2012/02/fix-blogspot-canonical-urls-problems.html
DeleteThe content issue is a slippery slope. In trying to appease certain countries in terms of content, it then becomes a question of which posts need to be deleted, which bloggers are to be censored, this does not bode particularly well for free speech.
ReplyDeleteHello Ravi,
ReplyDeleteWell, this change started already affecting us here in Canada!
My blog: http://gabrieladelworthdesigns.blogspot.com/ has changed to:
http://gabrieladelworthdesigns.blogspot.ca/
Now when you open it either you get a warning from Norton or it gets blocked due to a threat:
Threat Name: Web Attack: Manual Sharing Scam
Location: http://costco-giftcardoffer.blogspot.ca/?fb_comment_id=fbc_417378709949_13260051_419263984949
It is very upsetting and looking for a solution I ended up in your great blog.
I did add the Canonical Tag and followed your tutorial above. Thanks so much!
I am now getting a warning but feels terrible! My stats went right down.
Would you mind giving me some advise, please?
Thank you so very much!
Gabriela
@ Gabriela add this below code before </head> and save your template.
Delete<script type="text/javascript">
if ((window.location.href.toString().indexOf('.com/'))=='-1')
{
window.location.href = window.location.href.toString().replace('.blogspot.in/','.blogspot.com/ncr/').replace('.blogspot.com.au/','.blogspot.com/ncr/').replace('.blogspot.co.nz/','.blogspot.com/ncr/').replace('.blogspot.ca/','.blogspot.com/ncr/');
}
</script>
The above code works 100%. Once you added let me know that status waiting..
I'm in Australia and I was visiting US blogs on the 14th March and noticed the .au on all the US blogspot blogs I visited. This must have rolled out a lot sooner than expected. Doesn't make any sense to me, if I link to a blog from another country the address will be wrong as I see a .com.au on all blogger blogs.
ReplyDelete@ Karen Mitchell - Yes! you right its already started on each country level domain. To get rid of this redirection visit the page Disable Blogger Country Specific Domain Redirection
DeleteI was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.Cydia Download
ReplyDelete