10 replies to this topic

[George Scifo]

Hi Friends,
I have a US based client and his site is doing pretty well in search engines. Last day the client told me that he needs a blog for further promoting his site. I have a doubt. Is it better to provide a blog associated with his site (blog.sitename.com or sitename.com/blog/) or set up an external blog (hisblog.blogspot dot com or something like that). Please give your suggestions and opinions. Waiting eagerly..

[don h]

Hi Friends,
I have a US based client and his site is doing pretty well in search engines. Last day the client told me that he needs a blog for further promoting his site. I have a doubt. Is it better to provide a blog associated with his site (blog.sitename.com or sitename.com/blog/) or set up an external blog (hisblog.blogspot dot com or something like that). Please give your suggestions and opinions. Waiting eagerly..

Adding unique content to a site is always good. If it were me I'd put it in a folder.

[Reflections]

Yes, creating a blog is very helpful. Update is regularly with fresh content.
I prefer to host blogs in free blog sites. like blogger.com, yahoo blogs  etc.

[Jill]

A blog is not going to be any special magic bullet to help the site.

That said, it doesn't matter whether it's at blog.company.com or company.com/blog, but definitely do not have it at blogspot.com or at wordpress.com etc. It should be hosted on your own server.

[nethy]

I think we are in a blog bubble. With all sorts of blogs started speculatively because they are generically good for your business, good for your rankings etc., which of course is not nessecarily true.

Need to figure out what the blog is for first. What's its business plan. Try avoiding catch terms like 'quality content', 'keyword rich content,' 'Google loves...,' etc. when wording it.
It's not that they are not true, necessarily. They have just become overused lately.

'A regular reader base will form, allowing me to communicate complex messages over time. These readers who are used to hearing from me, will be more likely to take my suggestions, consider my prducts/services' That's more along the lines of a plan.

Even 'My posts will rank on google and visitors will then call my number once they get to my blog because it is at the top left of the screen' is a plan. Though possibly not a great one.

'Google loves quality, keyword rich content and rewards those that write it for them' is not a plan.

My own hunch is that the successful (in the business-sense, which mof course is not most blogs) will be those that focus on selling the writer rather then their products.

Regular readership is the potential goldmine that blogs have the potential to establish. That lets you do all sorts of things you can't do with a radio ad, poster.

Of course, using a blog as a replacement for Adwords ads may work. Especially if you combine it with at least a superficial element of the more quality approach. You need to remeber though that it is not the same thing. Buying more ads will get you nmore of the same traffic to the same site. A blog will get you different traffic to a different site (even if your site is a folder) .

[Randy]

Need to figure out what the blog is for first. What's its business plan. Try avoiding catch terms like 'quality content', 'keyword rich content,' 'Google loves...,' etc. when wording it.
It's not that they are not true, necessarily. They have just become overused lately.

Well said Nethy !

[nethy]

Thanks Randy.

The flip side of all this fuss about blogs is that I think blogs may have a natural tendency towards quality.

A blog is more alive. The business owner-blogger may get some inspiration to do things well. They see what sort of posts get replies & mentions on other blogs & emails & subscriptions. If they value this, it's possible that it'll be an incentive for quality writing. T

[SarahCC]

A blog is not going to be any special magic bullet to help the site.

That said, it doesn't matter whether it's at blog.company.com or company.com/blog, but definitely do not have it at blogspot.com or at wordpress.com etc. It should be hosted on your own server.

Jill,
I have read other places that www.xyz.com\blog is better than blog.xyz.com because blog.xyz.com could be treated as unique from the primary domain by search engines and serves no real purpose anyway. Sounds like this is wrong but just wanted to double check.
Thanks!

[nethy]

Does anyone think that (know if?), the number of subscribers to a blog, or any other non-PR metrics are used to rank blogs specifically in SERPs?

[Jill]

www.xyz.com\blog is better than blog.xyz.com because blog.xyz.com could be treated as unique from the primary domain by search engines and serves no real purpose anyway

Being treated as a unique domain is a good thing. More chances to be listed in the same SERP.

The way you have it, it's a subdomain, not a unique domain.

But as previously stated, for blogging purposes it really doesn't matter.

[Catz]

Although up to the present a subdomain (blog.company.com) was being treated as a seperate URL, Google is supposed to start treating these subdomains as they currently treat folders (company.com/blog) in the site, so it looks like before long, this won't end up making a difference either way in that respect.

It will be interesting to see what happens once this is in full force.