16 replies to this topic

[TaniaMarble]

I was thinking of setting up a blog to try and help my main website perform better in search engines. As far as I can tell the main benefit of blogs would have been to insert links to the website but that blogs now have 'no follow' tags? Is there anyway that a blog could now help my website in terms of SEO?

Thanks a lot

Tania

[incrediblehelp]

The blog itself is not what is helping. Posting original, fresh content daily to your blog is what helps. The blog is basically just a vehicle that carrys the great content SE's look for.

I like clients to start blogs becuase most of the time the backend is very easy to use (WordPress, Blogger, etc.) that clients can manage posting themselves.

From HighRankings:

http://www.highranki...m/faq-blogs.htm

[Cameron Olthuis]

I agree with Jaan.

In regards to the "no follow". I believe the only time blogs use this is for comment links. But as the admin you can change this, if you don't want the "no follow" then you don't need it, if you do want it then add it. I have never even looked to see if blog has it or not, I don't really care one way or another so I've never bothered to look.

I'm pretty sure the "no follow" doesn't even stop the engines anymore.

[Michael Martinez]

There appears to be some disagreement over which engines are honoring rel=nofollow. Google claims to be. The others are silent.

[Debra]

As far as I can tell the main benefit of blogs would have been to insert links to the website but that blogs now have 'no follow' tags? Is there anyway that a blog could now help my website in terms of SEO?

I think blogs are more than link ponds, they tend to be personal in nature and convey the "human" side of a business. There are blogs for everything but for the most part they're done to support a product rather than sell it.

Depending on what kind of business you're in, a blog can be a great promotional tool. Keep adding to them on a constant basis so people don't lose interest. You may want to consider using the no follow in your comments section so you're not the victim of blog spamming but I see no reason to use them in the body of the blog. After all, you control that!

If your niche doesn't have a lot of topical blogs, you may want to think hard about starting one! Be the premier resource site for whatever you sell and develop your blog to be the "watercooler" spot your industry congregates around! The links will come as a result and help with your overall SEO efforts.

[SEO_Forum_Directory]

yes blogs very much can and will help with SERPS because you can target your articals for the keywords your trying to rank well for.

[Debra]

yes blogs very much can and will help with SERPS because you can target your articals for the keywords your trying to rank well for.

If I understand what you're saying here, I'll disagree. Targeting keywords isn't what makes a site/blog rank.

[achievecn]

I dont know blogs are useful to website promotion. And I want to know the answer. But I do know that some search engine think blogs are important.

Edited by Jill, 09 February 2006 - 07:49 AM.

[ewc21]

But I do know that some search engine think blogs are important.

Like which search engines?

[Michael Martinez]

But I do know that some search engine think blogs are important.

Like which search engines?

Well, any search engine with a blog search feature obviously feels they are worth allocating dedicated resources to.

[powerofeyes]

I agree with Jaan, Blogs are helpful when you keep them fresh and rich with original quality contents, Blogs are an other great way to bring quality contents into the site, You just dont have to be too professional when it comes to blogs which is great,

When you are writing articles you need to follow certain set of rules but blogging doesn't care about rules, Write what is relevant to your users and make sure the all topic is relevant to your site and your site will automatically gain its necessary credibilty from blog postings,

Blog postings should be new and interesting, think topics that people never touched it might attract some natural backlinks too,

[shermanhu]

Throwing in my 2c...

I've noticed in my own tests with launching blogs vs traditional html sites, that the engines come-a-crawling in the same week to my blogs, and even the same day, as compared to the longer wait, sometimes 3 months for GG, for a traditional site.

Of course, blogs like Wordpress have the benefit of a notification feature to ping the blog directories to come crawling.

Thought I'd try it again last night with a new Wordpress blog, and this morning, I found Yahoo's Feedseeker coming around 9 times, Google's Feedfetcher come around once, and a few other lesser known blog directories come around a few times. This is from posting a static home page to my blog, and 3 new articles.

99% of the time, I'm setting up root-directory installs (where the whole site is a blog). Here a few of my personal reasons...

1. Speed: It takes me less than a half hour to setup a new WP blog, design a new masthead, change color themes using CSS, customize other blog settings, and get ready to start posting my content - 'sans' publishing software & local html files - which leads me to my next point...

2. Convenience: Now I don't need to use Dreamweaver, or have to sync local files with my assistant when updating either a client site or my own sites, as all publishing is online. Simply login, post and publish..then its live. Very handy when I'm traveling - one can simply hop into an internet cafe and post your next genius thought ;-)

Now my clients can simply add content to a category/sub-category on their own blog site, without having to wait on a webmaster.

3. Cost Effective: I personally am biased towards Wordpress, and as its open-source, its free.

4. Customize Blog Directories to Ping.

Pinging is a notification to blog directories that your blog has a new page addition, and encourages them to visit your blog and index it into its database.

Blogger sets a default ping to only 1 blog directory.

On the other hand, Wordpress offers you a Notification Panel that you can insert additional blog directories to 'ping'. This offers you a wider base of being indexed by a host of blog directories - which helps in one-way inbound links to your blog, plus expands your exposure for your blog also.

5. Commenting Capabilities

A comment is a feature that encourages your visitors to offer feedback or participate in a discussion about your postings. This feedback gives you an immediate connection with your visitors, and this platform helps you to determine how to serve the needs of your audience more effectively.

With Wordpress, you can choose to either receive comments or not. Plus, there are features to help filter comment spam, which is a nuisance when comment spam software or services automatically enter irrelevant comments on your blog to receive links back to their blogs.

As a result of comment spam filtering, you can spend your precious time on productive activities instead of dealing with blog comment spam.

And of course, there's a ton of other reasons why I choose a blog over a traditional html site, but the above showcase a few that makes sense to me why I choose this publishing platform.

Hope this helps ;-)

Cheers!

[NewSiteLaunching]

Follow-up question, is there a line of HTML that I could add into a blog to prevent search engines from reviewing comments? My concern is that my blog could be filled with negative comments, which is fine, as I can address them, but I wouldn't want these comments to show-up on search results for my company's name.

Thanks,

David

[shermanhu]

Good question David - and that's why I moderate all comments.

I don't know - and haven't thought to do what you are requesting. Publishing approved comments help to add content, plus offer a wonderful feedback loop - and I assume this will be ok for you as SE-crawl-able content? :-)

Cheers!

[NewSiteLaunching]

Hi shermanhu,

I actually don't mind negative comments, per your comment about the feedback loop, I just don't want these comments to show up in the search engines if I can help it.

I wouldn't want a search listing for my company come up with a comment about how bad I suck. Which may or may not be true, but would prefer to not have that crawled.

David