Blotanical News

When you submitted your blog to Blotanical one of the questions that was asked was whether you wanted to be included in the Search facility. We have had nearly a 100% take-up on this preference and so every time to write a post, Google indexes it and makes it available to those who search through Blotanical.

This is such a wonderful resource for garden bloggers who are needing some more info to complete their posts or deal with some gardening issue. For example, if you were trying to find out some info on "Erigeron", typing the keyword into Blotanical search would bring up all the bloggers who have discussed this genus for you to visit and learn.

While this is all very helpful, where do you navigate to to use this resource?

First option

The first option is probably the best for people who are NOT using the latest versions of either IE or FireFox browsers. That is because the older versions don't have auto-discovery of search engines enabled.

So, let's keep it on this site and click the Search Blogs tab. The default page is the Search Blogging Content with an input field from Google asking you to type in your keyword or phrase and then click Search. This will then bring up all the results that are available.

The next option is by far the most exciting and if you're using FireFox 2.0 or IE 7 will give you even more access.

Following the directions in Option #1 you should reach the Search Blogging Content page. Now cast your eyes up to the top-right corner of your browser where your Search Engine bar is located. You will notice that the symbol is now flashing a different colour to what it did originally.

Click the downward arrow to the right of the Icon symbol and you will be presented with a menu and at the bottom will be a link that says Add "Blotanical Search". Click this link and Blotanical Search will be added to your list of available search engines.

Once it becomes a part of your search engine list you can easily use it just by clicking the downward arrow beside the recent icon. Now you can use it to just search all the garden blogs contained within Blotanical without having to visit Blotanical! Easy, huh?

One small note: While it is my aim to ensure that this runs smoothly, there is a small hiccup when using the search. After typing your keyword or phrase into the search bar and clicking the Magnifying glass or clicking Enter it will then only show you the new bar on the page, like this;

Simply click the Search button and your results will be shown.

How do you know if your site has been included in the search results?

There is an easy way to find out if your blog is being listed in Blotanical Search. Just type the phrase site: [your blog url] in the search bar (here's an example site:www.gardeningtipsnideas.com) and it should list at least one entry to your home page. If not, then there's a good chance that your site hasn't been included, or Google hasn't yet indexed your blog.