Saturday, January 30, 2016

Deleting blogs and changing a blog's name

image: Miguel Á. Padriñán | Pexels

Hello friends. 'Something I learned recently, and want to pass-on to you all. If you delete a Blogger blog, after a certain time that url (address) becomes available again. This means that another blogger can get that url (address). What can this mean for you? Well, the people who were following your blog will appear as followers of the new blog. Also, the people who followed your blog by email or RSS feed will continue to receive feeds and emails every time the new blog author makes a post. Suppose the new blog has a theme that you are offended by? Worse than that, your followers may get a shock to see these posts appearing in their emails and blog reading lists. PLeasew continue reading.

Why would someone claim that blog url? Perhaps they are a person who just really wanted that blog url. Or, they could be someone who is simply trying to gain a lot of followers and search engine status without having to earn it for themselves. Someone could "inherit" good ratings or not so good ratings. What can you now do about all of this? Before deleting a blog, go to your Layout and choose your Follow By Email gadget. There will be a blue text link towards the lower left of that box: View stats and learn more. Click on that link to open your FeedBurner acount. There will be a list of all of your blog feeds, arranged alphabetically by the blog's name. Click on the blog that you want to delete its feed, and at the upper left of that page will be a another blue text link: Delete feed . Click that text link and delete that blog's feed. Then, go to the Blogger blog and delete all of the posts that you had made on that blog. If you find yourself following a blog that has a new owner, you can un-follow that blog from the Blogger dashboard. Via your email and browser, you can choose to no longer follow that blog's RSS feed/email posts.


Simply changing a blog's name (title) will also create the same problem. Search engine bots read the url (address) of a site or blog. Just changing the blog's name (title) will not change it's url. Followers via RSS feed and email receive feeds/emails from the blog's url and title. We have no control over another blogger getting an old url that we once had, but we can take steps to ensure that we are not mistaken as being the new url owner. Someone got my old url Danice's Blog Templates, and that blog has absolutely nothing to do with blog templates/design. 'None of my business what the new owner posts, but I did take steps to let my followers know that it is not me. Making a blog post stating that you will be closing (deleting) the blog on a specific date is also a great idea. Even if the new url owner has a blog theme that you like, it's best to let people know that you are no longer the blog's owner. If you just want to change your blog's name (title), keep in mind that it's url will remain the same unless you change that also. If you are keeping the blog, that shouldn't be a problem. The trouble arrives if you later decide to delete that blog.

Woo, what a long post! I hope that this information will help you. We all like getting some tips for better/safer blogging. Prim blessings to you all.

Danice G.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Interesting. Good info. Thanks, Danice!

allthingzsewn said...

Never thought about it. But good to know just in case. Thanks for the heads up. I'm still try to decide if I want to open a new etsy and how i would do it. That will keep me busy for a long while.

Raymond Homestead said...

Wow, good to know Danice, thank you!

Denise * KKL Primitives said...

Good to know Danice - thanks for sharing!

Jessica said...

Good to know. Every now and then a blog comes up with a "new owner" and I quickly go and remove myself from their GFC. I really wish people would give a heads up when they delete or make private their blog. I'd rather remove it before, than after. I hate when a blog gets hijacked too. Have you seen what is happening with Our Pioneer Homestead? I don't know how they are getting Pam and Trace's deleted posts to post there. :-/

Wendy @ Ravenwood Whimzies said...

You are always so full of great info - thanks Danice.

Farmhouse prims said...

Hi Danice, thank you for all of the wonderful and helpful information. I do see where one of our fellow bloggers old blog was stolen and is being used by someone else, her old posts ever, so sad. Lecia