As recently promised on my 45 Year Old Millionaire Make Money Online Blog at How to Make Money Online with Blogspot, AdSense and Clickbank for Free below I provide a free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template called Rounders 2 (one of the original Blogger templates).
Blogspot Template Search engine Optimization Features
I’ve been using this Blogger template myself for quite sometime (I own a few Blogspot blogs 
). SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2 is fully search engine optimised.
Like with my WordPress AdSense/SEO themes only the home page and archive pages uses a H1 header for the name of the blog in the header area (the big blue block at the top) on single blog posts the name of the blog is within span tags instead of H1 headers (no SEO benefit wasted).
Headers are not wasted on the sidebar menu, (most Blogspot themes use a H2 header which is such a waste of SEO benefit!) on the home and archive pages the name of each blog post is within a H2 header as a link to the single post, (or archive page if you have single posts disabled: recommend you have single posts on).
On single blog post pages the title of the post is within a H1 header (on most Blogspot themes it’s a H2 because the blog name is in the H1).
This is all basic SEO 101 for me, but 99 out of 100 times missed on other templates (that’s for Blogspot and WordPress themes).
The title element is formed with SEO in mind, home page and archive pages the name of the blog is used for the title element (so ideally name your blog with a keyword or two). On single blog posts the name of the post is used as the title element: name your blog posts with SEO in mind (that’s keyword rich titles) and you’ll do well in the search engines.
Although meta tags hold no real value these days I’ve included the description meta tag and keywords meta tags. Trust me from an SEO perspective they are worth no more time discussing.
Things I don’t like about Blogger/Blogspot as an SEO consultant.
Since there’s no Categories in Blogger/Blogspot you have to use the monthly archives to get your blog fully indexed, these pages are not very good SEO wise (in WordPress I never use them, I use Categories which add SEO value). With Blogger we are stuck with them as otherwise the site won’t be fully spidered and indexed!
Unfortunately the anchor text to the archive links are useless (the anchor text format is 01/01/2010 – 02/01/2010), so you should treat the archive pages as a sitemap (they will not pull in much traffic). To protect link benefit AND more importantly reduce SEO damage caused by the poor anchor text I set the SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2 to only show the archive links on the home page and other monthly archive pages. In this way your single blogs posts (which should pull in most search engine traffic) are not damaged by a dozen or more text links with poor date related anchor text.
AdSense Features
I’m happy with the AdSense placement etc… of this theme, if you’ve used my WordPress AdSense/SEO themes you might be a little disappointed with the lack of easy option changes, but it’s Blogger and their template code is not as easy to manipulate as WordPress code is.
I have the AdSense code set to blend the colours with the theme, there are 6 AdSense code sections and if you wanted to change the colour scheme or ad sizes you’d have to manually edit all 6. If you are happy with the ad sizes and colour scheme all you have to do is search and replace my Google AdSense publisher ID with yours, You must do this on all 6 code sections, easiest way is load the template file into a text editor and run a simple search and replace.
Not a great deal I can add about the AdSense ads, they are placed in key locations that I’ve found works well.
Download the Free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2
Most visitors probably saw the header above and jumped straight to this section skipping all my well thought out advice, well, if you don’t want to know the meaning of life here’s the download link
Free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template Zip File
Free Blogspot Template Install Instructions
The Blogspot theme is fully search engine optimized and AdSense optimized and requires one simple search and replace in a text editor to replace my Google AdSense publisher ID with yours. Sign up for a free Google AdSense account at https://www.google.com/adsense/
The theme uses the old Blogspot legacy code which means your Blog has to use the original Blogger coding (can’t use their new widgets/gadgets), but it’s a small price to pay for an SEO/AdSense ready Blogspot theme (especially a free one).
To install the SEO/AdSense themes code, log into your Blogger account and under your accounts Dashboard click the “Layout” link, followed by the “Edit HTML” link and near the bottom of the page click the “Revert to Classic Template” link, click OK on the warning box and on the next page paste the free Blogspot SEO/AdSense theme code (that you’ve already replaced my AdSense publisher ID with yours).
Click the “Save Template Changes” button and you have an SEO/AdSense Ready Blogspot Blog just waiting for new content.
David Law
Website - WordPress SEO
12 responses to Free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2
Hey David,
I can’t get this theme to work for the life of me. I even tried running it through a code converter and no dice. Still gives me the cryptic error message:
Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: Reference is not allowed in prolog.
Any ideas? I’d really love to use this theme! Thanks!
Free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2
This Blogspot template uses the classic template structure, so to use it you have to revert back to the classic template structure under Layout.
I thought I’d explained this above, but apparently not, included it at http://www.45-year-old-millionaire.co.uk/how-to-make-money-online-with-blogspot-adsense-and-clickbank-for-free.html and assumed I’d added it here.
Sorry about that, I’ve added the instructions right at the bottom of the article above.
David
Free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2
Wow! This is what I am looking for a long time. Thank you!
hi David
I have download the files and create my blogspot.. follow your instruction.. and all ok except the Blof Title..
maybe u can visit my blogspot here http://tips4home-gardening.blogspot.com/ and guide me to correct the error..
hope hear you reply soon.
tq
midieklate
You’ve managed to add a couple of carriage returns to the Blogspot templates code from the looks of things.
Find this code:
<MainOrArchivePage><h1 id="blog-title"></MainOrArchivePage><ItemPage><span id="blog-title"><a href="<$BlogURL$>"></ItemPage><$BlogTitle$><ItemPage></a></span></ItemPage><MainOrArchivePage></h1></MainOrArchivePage>And make sure it’s all in one line with no carriage returns. Basically that should all be in one line.
The problem will be just before $BlogTitle$ looks like you’ve pushed your enter key twice before the $ sign causing the code to break.
That should fix the error.
If not you might have added some code in that location causing the problem.
David
Free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2
David..
have small portfolio ..few hundred.. working to take these towards wordpress..
then kick in the advertising. SEO is confusing as
hell.. everyone has a differen’t answer.. is there a basic starting point? .. I have down this much.
1. get a host
2. install wordpress
3. install a theme
4. install plugins
5. writes articles.. or use articles in
exchange for links?-relevant content
6. get links ..types of linking are best?
Q&A .. which template is your best and most
current, how do you protect adsense?.. is there
alternative to adsense if you don’t like it?
Free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2
Hello David,
I just started to use your template and really like it, but still there is one thing i can’t figure out.
Post titles are not links to the posts whitch is really anoying. Is there any way to solve the problem?
My blog is http://diaita.blogspot.com .
Thanks in advance,
Katerina
Been a while since I played around with BlogSpot Template coding.
If you find:
<BlogItemTitle><BlogItemUrl><a href="<$BlogItemUrl$>" title="external link" class="title-link"></BlogItemUrl>
<h1 class="post-title"><$BlogItemTitle$></h1>
<BlogItemUrl></a></BlogItemUrl>
</BlogItemTitle>
And change to
<h1 class="post-title"><a href="<$BlogItemUrl$>" title="external link" class="title-link"><$BlogItemTitle$></a></h1> I think that should change the titles to links with a H1 header around them. I’ve not tested this.
David
Free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2
Dear Creator,
First of all, i would like to say many thanks to you for making some difficult script on helping adsense player.
I wanna ask something. I cannot move to Custumize Design menu when i will add Gadget.
So how to add Labels on this page???
I have had several of my free Blogger blogs deleted as spam blogs. They are getting harsh.
Not as harsh as WordPress I guess but harsh just the same.
I guess they don’t want advertizing on their blogs.
Rick
Ok really excited about this
So i got excited about this but when i tried to upload the file here is what it said.
“Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure that all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: The content of elements must consist of well-formed character data or markup.”
That’s exactly what it said I’m in the old version
Any ideas ?
Blogspot Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed error
The Blogspot error:
“Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure that all XML elements are closed properly.XML error message: The content of elements must consist of well-formed character data or markup.”
Means you are installing the Free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2 in the new template format.
When you’ve logged into Blogspot click the Template link for the site you are working on and at the bottom of the page is a link to “Revert to classic templates”, click the link and paste the code into the template form.
David
Free Blogspot SEO/AdSense Template Rounders 2
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