Ranking a Blogspot Blog in 2026: A 12-Month Experiment

Is the free .blogspot.com subdomain holding us back? Or is spending $12 a year just a vanity metric that doesn't actually move the needle on Google? Today, I’m putting my credit card on the table (metaphorically) to break down the real SEO vs. Cost analysis of ditching the free extension. If you are sitting on the fence about buying a custom domain for Blogspot , this is the reality check you need. The "Free" Subdomain Stigma: Is It Real? Let’s be honest with each other. When you see a link that ends in .blogspot.com , what is your first instinct? For regular people—your mom, your friends on Facebook—they probably don't care. They just click. But for the internet savvy? For other bloggers? For potential advertisers? There is a stigma. A free subdomain screams "Hobby." It says, "I wasn't willing to spend the price of a sandwich on this website." In 2026, authority is everything. Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativen...

 It is officially 2026. The internet landscape has changed dramatically. The web is flooded with mass-produced AI content, competition is fiercer than ever, and Google's algorithm is smarter, faster, and more ruthless than it has ever been. For independent creators and digital marketers, this begs the massive question we are answering in this live experiment: Can you still rank a free Blogspot blog in 2026? The short answer is Yes . But the "old way" of blogging—writing a quick 500-word diary entry, stuffing it with keywords, and hoping for the best—is completely dead. That era is gone. To rank a free .blogspot.com subdomain today, you cannot treat it like a hobby. You need to treat it like a premium media asset. You need to out-engineer the competition. In this major update, I am going to break down the exact, detailed 3-step blueprint I am using right now to revive this blog from the "Google Sandbox." This includes a deep dive into technical settings, content...

 First off, Happy New Year! Welcome to 2026. I also owe you an apology. It has been over three weeks since my last update in mid-December. To be completely honest, I was holding off on writing this post because I wanted to come back with a "Victory" announcement. I wanted to start the year by showing you a screenshot of all green checkmarks in Google Search Console. I wanted to say, "The robots.txt fix worked instantly, and we are ranking!" But this is an experiment, and experiments rely on truth , not hype. The truth is: My blog posts are still not indexed. Despite fixing the critical robots.txt error three weeks ago, Google has not yet added my articles to the search results. My homepage is indexed, but the actual content remains in the dark. If you are facing the same frustration with your new Blogspot blog, this post is for you. Here is exactly what is happening, why it’s happening, and my strategy to fix it in 2026. The "Trust Recovery" Phase When ...