"Please share this interactive on your site or blog. Just copy and paste the code below"
| Option | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
| Static page and custom re-direct | No theme editing is needed Easy page editing - no messing around putting content into a gadget No gaps on other pages due to the gadget being "missing" Simple, elegant, and fully functional for both desktop and mobile visitors. | Back in 2011, I wrote: "Google probably didn't intend to give us this option when they set up custom re-directs, so it's possible that they might remove it again. It's such a nice solution, though, that I think it's worth the risk for now". But it's now 2017, they haven't removed it yet. So I'm thinking that it's not going away any time soon. |
| Show all posts in reverse order | Great for new readers - they can "follow the story". | Return visitors have to navigate down to where they were up to last time: the blog has no way of helping them to remember where that was. You can't use most of Blogger's date features: newer and older posts links will take the reader in the "wrong" direction. And you have to manually enter any dates that would be relevant. Your posts will get "older" as you write more: this may confuse search-engines, and there's a risk that google might to things to "very old" posts in the future. |
| Make one post always show up first | You can still use all of Google's date features. Readers will know when you actually posted to your blog. Great for returning readers: they can see your (current) welcome comments, and then go straight to the latest post after that. | You have to remember to edit the "chosen" post every single time that you make a new post - one day, you might forget. This approach probably won't work on multi-author blogs: there's a very high chance that someone would forget to edit the chosen post and change its date. |
| Show a "welcome gadget" on the home page only | Doesn't need any changes to Post date-time settings. Your blog still functions like a blog (older/newer post links , archive gadget etc). An HTML/Javascript gadget can be very flexible, and you can get Blogger to write all the HTML for you - see Making a Gadget Like a Post. You can use things other than text, eg a picture or even a poll. It includes an extreme option: you could show no posts on the "home" page, and just show the gadget. | You need to edit your theme to make this work. You need to re-do the theme customisation every time that you change to use a different theme. The welcome gadget isn't one of your posts: it's not included in exports of your blog contents (It is in an export of your theme - but the words inside it are not included). A gadget cannot show quite as many things as a post. Doesn't work for mobile device users if your blog has a mobile theme enabled, unless you some some specific things to make the gadget show on mobile. |
