Herself's Webtools

First backup your template.

Go to Layout->Edit HTML and click download full template.

You can change the title of the widgets that appear on your site by changing the title in the template.

Go to Layout->Edit HTML and click Expand Widgets

You can change any title this shows how to change the title of ‘Labels’ to ‘Categories’

Find the title you wish to change. For ‘Labels’ I find:

<b:widget id=’Label1′ locked=’false’ title=’Labels’ type=’Label’>

The title=’xxx’ is what shows on the website so change that to whatever you desire.

<b:widget id=’Label1′ locked=’false’ title=’Categories’ type=’Label’>

Save your template, view your blog to be sure it says what you think it says, then back up your new template to some place safe on your home computer.

Labels and tags what to do?

Many sites say using tags will increase your visitors, just as many say they won’t. There is a fair bit of work involved in adding Technorati tags to your previous and current posts. I’m not convinced it is worth the trouble. If you are interested Technorati has some information on how to tag your posts There are also several free programs to do it for you. I have not tried any of them.

Blogger labels can be used to tag relevant terms people might search for on your blog. Better yet you can use them to sort your blog entries into categories. On my house plants blog I sorted entries into specific plant information entries and general information about house plants. This can make searching your site easier for people. It also gives them an easy way to hang out and explore subjects of interest on your site. I’ve just added them to my blogger blogs this week and am seeing a fair bit of usage.

To add blogger labels just add them to the box at the bottom of the posting area. Think of them not a repetitions of key words and titles, but rather break your blog down into a half dozen or dozen subject areas that people might want to pursue on your blog.

There is also a new PERL script up on the left to help you do word frequency counts on your blog entries to help with tagging, and search engine key word optimization of your entries.