Blogger Dashboard: Complete Guide to Managing Your Blog

As the title suggests, I'll walk you through the Blogger Dashboard, starting from Posts and continuing through the Reading List.

I know new users will probably explore the dashboard on their own, so you might think there’s no need to explain every feature. However, what if you miss something? You might not even realize that Blogger has a particular feature, and instead, you could end up going to the Blogger Community to ask about it. Even longtime Blogger users can sometimes overlook useful functions that have been sitting right in front of them.

That’s why I’m here to walk you through the Blogger Dashboard in detail, so you can get familiar with its features and make the most of what Blogger has to offer.

I won't discuss the + New Post button since you probably already know what it does. Learn more about how to create, edit, manage, and delete a post.

Posts

The first thing you'll see when you open your Blogger Dashboard is the Posts section.

In the Posts, you'll see a search box and a list of all your posts, sorted by publication date. This means your latest published post appears at the top.

Below the search bar, you can filter your posts by their status, including:

• All
• Published
• Draft
• Scheduled
• Trash

You can also filter your posts by label and access the Manage option to perform actions on multiple posts at once.

For each post, you'll see its thumbnail, title, publication date, labels, share icon, number of comments, number of views, and the account that published it.

Managing Multiple Posts

Forgot to add a label to a post? Or maybe you want to make changes to several posts at once? That's where the Manage option comes in.

You can select individual posts and then choose an action, such as:

• Publish the selected posts
• Revert them to drafts
• Apply labels
• Delete posts

This can save you a lot of time when you're managing a large number of posts.

Searching for Posts

You can enter search operators to find specific posts more quickly instead of scrolling through your entire post list. This can make managing a large blog much easier.

Stats

In Stats, you can see the total number of your followers, posts, and comments.

Below that, you can see your pageview statistics, including your all-time, today, yesterday, this month, and last month pageviews.

If you click on your followers, you will be redirected to the Manage followers section of your blog. Here, you can see who is following your blog and block users if necessary.

Excluding Your Own Pageviews

Let's go back to your stats. If you visit your own blog, your pageviews will normally increase, right?

This is something many people don't know: Blogger has a feature that allows you to exclude your own pageviews from your blog's statistics.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the Stats page, you will see Manage tracking your own pageviews. Click on it, and you can check or uncheck the option to exclude your own pageviews.

Once enabled, pageviews from this browser will not be counted for this blog. However, there is a limitation. This setting only applies to the browser where you enabled it.

Blogger stats aren’t always reliable because every visit and page refresh can be counted. I’ve seen people on Reddit share their stats to promote or advertise tools they sell. Don’t take those numbers at face value—check their analytics instead.

Comments

In the Comments section, you can see all of the comments on your blog, including:

• Awaiting moderation: Comments waiting for approval if you have comment moderation set to Always.
• Published: Comments that are currently visible on your blog.
• Spam: Comments that have been marked as spam.

You can also manage individual comments. Depending on the comment's status, you can remove it, mark it as spam, or permanently delete it.

Difference Between "Remove" and "Delete"

You might wonder what the difference is between removing and deleting a comment.

If you remove a comment, it is not permanently deleted. Instead, other users will see a message saying:

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

You can still restore the comment. To do this, mark the removed comment as spam, then click the check icon to publish it again.

However, if you delete a comment, it will be permanently deleted and cannot be restored.

Warning: Be careful when using the Delete option, because deleting a comment will also delete any replies to that comment.

Earnings

You can connect your Google AdSense account here immediately if you want to monetize your blog.

Pages

The Pages section works similarly to Posts, but there are some differences. Pages do not use labels, and users with the Author permission cannot publish pages.

If you want an author to be able to create and publish pages, you need to change them to Admin under Permissions. We’ll discuss this in more detail later.

Layout

In Layout, you can add, remove, and edit gadgets on your blog. You can also click and drag gadgets to rearrange their positions.

If you want to change the number of columns or adjust the widths of your blog sections, you can Customize it.

Can’t Drag or Add a Gadget in the Layout?

If you can’t drag the gadgets in your layout, it may be because the widget is set to locked='true', which prevents it from being moved.

1. Go to Theme
2. Click the down arrow next to the Customize button
3. Then select Edit HTML
4. At the top corner, you’ll see the Jump to Widget icon.
5. Click it and choose the widget you want to make draggable.

You may see something like this:

<b:widget id='Blog1' locked='true' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog' version='2' visible='true'>

Change locked='true' to locked='false':

<b:widget id='Blog1' locked='false' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog' version='2' visible='true'>

Some theme developers also disable the option to add another gadget to a section. To fix this, find the showaddelement attribute in the section where the widget belongs and check whether it is set to true or false.

If it is set to false, change it to true. Also, check the maxwidgets attribute for that section, as it determines the maximum number of widgets that can be added.

Theme

Blogger provides several built-in themes that you can choose from, including modern-looking themes such as:

• Contempo
• Soho
• Emporio
• Notable
• Essential
• Dynamic Views

If you prefer the older Blogger-style themes, especially the ones that have the classic Blogger navigation and admin-style layout, you can choose:

• Simple
• Picture Window
• Awesome Inc.
• Watermark
• Ethereal
• Travel

In this theme section, also lets you back up or restore your theme.

1. Click the down arrow next to the Customize button
2. Then select Backup or Restore

Settings

After creating a blog, I recommend editing the basic settings before publishing your first post. Some of these settings can affect how your blog appears, how people access it, and how search engines interact with it.

1. Basic

If you want to rename your blog title, you can always edit it here. Also, if your posts contain NSFW images or words, enable the Adult Content or, better yet, censor those images and words when appropriate. Blogger may lock or restrict your blog if your content violates its policies.

Always review your content carefully before publishing. As I mentioned in my Blogger Review post, make sure to read Blogger’s Content Policy so you know what is and isn’t allowed.

2. Privacy

Always turn on Visible to search engines if you want your blog to appear in search engine results.

3. Publishing

Here you can manage your blog address and custom domain.

If you use a custom domain, make sure Redirect domain is enabled so visitors who access your Blogspot address will be redirected to your custom domain.

4. HTTPS

Turn on HTTPS redirect to automatically redirect visitors from HTTP to HTTPS.

5. Permissions

1. Blog Admins and Authors: Here you can see the people who have access to your blog and manage their roles. You can have up to 100 total members on your blog and you can change an user's permission to Admin, but be careful when doing this. Admins have extensive control over the blog and can potentially remove your administrative access.
   • Only give the Admin to people you completely trust.
   • If you’re an author of a blog, you can only access and manage the posts you’ve created. You don’t have access to the rest of the blog’s content or settings.
   • A Google Account is required to manage and publish content on a Blogger blog.
2. Pending Author Invites: This section shows the authors you have invited who have not yet accepted your invitation.
3. Invite More Authors: You can invite additional authors to write and publish articles on your blog.
4. Reader Access: You can choose who can view your blog.
   • Public: Anyone can view your blog.
   • Private to authors: Only you and authors of your blog can view it.
   • Custom readers: Only people you specifically invite can view your blog.

Posts

1. Max posts shown on main page: This controls how many posts are displayed on your blog's main page.

   Pro tip: If you have a large number of posts, you may want to lower this number to help prevent your homepage from becoming slow to load.

2. Post template: This is optional. Post templates allow you to pre-fill the Blogger post editor with text or code. The template will appear whenever you create a new post.

   This can be useful if your posts regularly follow the same format.

3. Image lightbox: When enabled, images in your posts will open in an overlay when clicked. If a post contains multiple images, they will appear as thumbnails along the bottom of the screen, allowing readers to switch between them.

   Note: This feature may not work with custom Blogger themes created by third parties unless the theme still supports the Blogger image lightbox functionality.

4. Lazy load images: When enabled, images are loaded individually as the reader scrolls down the page instead of loading all images at once.
5. WebP image serving: When enabled, Blogger serves your post images using the WebP image format when supported.

Comments

1. Comment location: This controls where the comment form appears.
   • Embedded: Allows users to reply directly on the post.
   • Full page: Takes users to a separate page to leave a comment.
   • Popup window: Opens a separate popup window for comments.
   • Hide: Hides the comment form.
2. Who can comment?: You can control who is allowed to comment on your blog posts.
3. Comment moderation: Comment moderation allows you to review comments before they are published.

   You can review and manage moderated comments from the Comments section of Blogger.

   • For posts older than: If you select Sometimes for comment moderation, only comments made within the specified time period will be sent to the moderation section.
   • Email moderation requests to: You can enter an email address where Blogger will send notifications when a new comment needs moderation.
4. Comment form message: This message appears underneath the comment box.

   Pro tip: Use it to provide instructions or additional information to people who want to comment.

Email

1. Post using email: It allows you to publish text and images directly to your blog by sending an email to your Blogger posting address.
2. Comment notification email: You can add email addresses that will receive notifications whenever someone leaves a comment on your blog.
3. Pending comment notification emails: This shows users who have been invited to receive comment notification emails but have not yet accepted the invitation.
4. Invite more people to comment notification emails: You can enter up to 10 email addresses, separated by commas, to receive comment notifications.
5. Email posts to: Whenever you publish a new post, Blogger can send an email notification to the addresses listed here.
6. Pending post notification emails: This shows users who have been invited to receive post notification emails but have not yet accepted the invitation.
7. Invite more people to post notifications: You can enter up to 10 email addresses, separated by commas, to receive notifications about new posts.

Formatting

You can control how the date and time headers of posts and comments appear on your blog.

Meta Tags

Enable this option to set a search description for your blog.

The search description provides search engines and users with a short summary of what your blog is about. This can help users understand your website when it appears in search results.

Errors and Redirects

1. Custom 404: You can create a custom 404 Page Not Found message. So, instead of showing the default error page, Blogger can display your custom message when someone visits a page that does not exist.
2. Custom redirects: Custom redirects allow you to redirect an old or deleted URL to another URL on your blog.
   • From: Enter the old or deleted URL. If the original page or article has been permanently removed, select Permanent.
   • To: Enter the URL where you want visitors to be redirected.

Crawlers and Indexing

Many Blogger Product Experts recommend leaving these settings disabled unless you understand how they work and have a specific reason to customize them. Blogger's default settings are generally sufficient for most blogs.

Monetization

Enable custom ads.txt: This allows you to create a custom ads.txt file.

The ads.txt file allows publishers to identify and authorize companies that are permitted to sell their digital advertising inventory.

Manage Blog

1. Import Content: You can import an .xml file containing posts and comments into your Blogger blog.
2. Back Up Content: When you back up your blog, you’ll be redirected to Google Takeout, where you can review the included data, file formats, and transfer destination.

   It's a good idea to periodically back up your blog, especially before making major changes to your theme or settings.

3. Videos from your blog / Media from your blog: These options redirect you to Blogger's media manager, where you can view the videos and images you have uploaded to your blog.
4. Remove Your Blog: You can delete your blog from this section. When you delete a blog, you have a limited period of time to restore it before it is permanently removed.

Important: Deleted blogs can be restored within 90 days before they are permanently removed. After permanent deletion, your blog's information, posts, and pages can no longer be restored.

Before deleting your blog, you should export a backup of your content.

Site Feed

1. Allow Blog Feed: This controls how much of your blog's content is distributed through your blog feed.
   • Full: Distributes the entire contents of your posts.
   • Until Jump Break: Shows the content before your Jump Break.
   • Short: Distributes approximately the first 400 characters of your post.
   • None: Disables your blog's XML feed.
   • Custom: Allows you to configure advanced options for your post and comment feeds.
   Only by selecting the Custom will be able to edit the options below of the Blog feed.
   • Blog Post Feed: Choose how much of your post content you want to distribute through your feed.
   • Blog Comment Feed: Choose how much of your comment content you want to distribute through your feed.
   • Per-post Comment Feeds: Choose how much of the comments from individual posts you want to distribute through the feed.

   Difference Between "Jump Break" and "Short"

   If you choose Until Jump Break, you can use Blogger's Jump Break feature to decide where the preview ends. This is where readers will see a Read more link.

   If you choose Short, you don't need to manually add a Jump Break because Blogger will automatically create a shortened snippet of your post.

   Why Can’t I See All My Posts on the Homepage?

   Using Insert Jump Break can fix this issue. It allows you to show only a short preview or excerpt of each post on your Blogger homepage instead of displaying the entire post.

   When you add a Jump Break (<!--more-->) to a post, Blogger shows the content above the break as a preview, followed by a Read more link.

2. Post Feed Redirect URL: Leave this blank.
3. Post Feed Footer: Anything entered here will appear after each post in your post feed. If you use advertisements or other third-party additions in your feed, you can add the required code here.

   You must set Allow Blog Feed to Full for the post feed footer to work.

4. Title and Enclosure Links These options add Title Link and Enclosure Link fields to the Blogger post editor.
   • Title Links: Title links allow you to assign a custom URL to your post title.
   • Enclosure Links: Enclosure links can be used for podcasts, MP3 files, and other media that can be played through RSS or Atom feeds

General

1. Use Blogger Draft is a testing version of Blogger that allows users to try certain new features before they are released to everyone. Enable this option if you want to test experimental or upcoming Blogger features.
2. Edit Profile: To manage your Blogger user profile, click the Edit Profile link. Your profile settings can be managed separately from your individual blog settings.

You can customize how your name and profile photo appear on your blog. This allows you to create a more recognizable and professional-looking profile for your readers. You can also choose which blogs you want to display on your profile and decide whether your profile should be public or private, depending on how much information you want to share.

When uploading your Blogger profile photo, I recommend using a 1:1 square aspect ratio so the image displays properly without being cropped or distorted. Avoid using tall or vertical images, such as a 6:19 ratio, because they may not fit well within the profile photo area. A clear, square image will generally look cleaner and more consistent across your blog and profile pages.

Reading List

Your Reading List lets you see all the blogs you follow. There’s also a little trick here if you don’t want other people to know which blogs you’re following or don’t want your Google profile to show the blogs you follow.

Click Manage in the upper-right corner. A popup will appear where you can add blogs to your Reading List. Enter the blog’s URL, then choose whether you want to Follow publicly or keep your follow private.

If you initially choose to follow a blog anonymously, you can always change your setting to make the follow public later.

I personally think following blogs publicly can be a nice way to show the author—and others—that you enjoy their content. It can also motivate the author to keep creating. If they visit your profile, they may discover other blogs you follow, especially if you’re in the same niche or community.

Can I follow a blog that isn’t hosted on Blogger?

Yes! You can follow any blog you want and stay updated whenever new posts are published.

The problem is that the Reading List doesn’t always update in real time. Some users may have experienced their Reading List not updating properly. I’m not sure if there’s already a fix or workaround for this issue.

Final Thoughts

If you just created your Blogger blog and don't know what to change, you don't need to configure everything immediately.

Here is a simple checklist to get you started:

Recommended to check

• Blog Title
• Blog Description
• Blog Language
• Favicon
• Visible to search engines
• HTTPS redirect
• Time Zone
• Search Description
• Comment settings
• Number of posts shown on the homepage
• Blog Feed

Optional

• Google Analytics
• Custom domain
• Post templates
• Custom 404 page
• Custom redirects
• Email notifications
• Google Search Console
• AdSense

Leave alone unless you know what you're doing

• Custom robots.txt
• Custom robots header tags
• Advanced feed settings

That’s it! I hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions, find anything unclear, or notice a mistake in my explanation, please leave a comment and let me know. I’ll do my best to correct it as soon as possible.

Enjoy blogging!