9 replies to this topic

[DonJ]

I am having changes made to my employers website. The site was designed by a third party who will be implementing the changes. The site was not designed with wordpress. I want to create a blog that I will directly add content to as one method of improving the site's search positioning. If a wordpress blog is created that links to the main site will the search engines see that as new content for the site ? Or, is there a preferable method of creating a blog within the site?
Thanks for your insight

[Michael Martinez]

If the Wordpress blog is installed in a folder/sub-directory on the site and it pings and people link to it, the blog will be found and indexed by the search engines. If the blog links to the root URL but there is no link back to the blog from the older navigation system, the search engines may allow the blog to perform on its own merits without inheriting the trust and authority of the domain like a normal new section might.

If you're wondering whether links from the blog to the rest of the domain would be treated as if from separate sites, I doubt it.

You MIGHT get that kind of boost if the Wordpress blog is installed on a sub-domain but there are no guarantees. I wouldn't count on it working that way (and even if it did, the links will still only pass as much value as one new site can pass anyway).

[Jill]

If a wordpress blog is created that links to the main site will the search engines see that as new content for the site ?

They will see the new content wherever it is, i.e., the URL it lives at.

Even if the blog was on your domain, the new content doesn't help the site as a whole, it's simply another page of the site that can be found for it's relevant keywords.

I think you may have a misunderstanding of what sort of "power" having a blog has. It's not some sort of magical SEO device.

[MartijnOud]

Even if the blog was on your domain, the new content doesn't help the site as a whole, it's simply another page of the site that can be found for it's relevant keywords.

But good content will attract links which will improve your overall rankings.

The best way to do this is to make a sub-directory something like yoursite.com/blog/.

[Michael Martinez]

But good content will attract links which will improve your overall rankings.

I think you may be imputing too much power to the flow of PageRank. If you put a blog on your site and it attracts links, those links will provide the most direct benefit for the blog articles they are pointing to.

If the blog links to the rest of the site then, yes, some portion of that inflowing PageRank will contribute to the crawl, trust, and outflow of PageRank from the rest of the site. It may also help boost the domain's "authority" (a term I don't like using as it's poorly defined) which MIGHT help the domain rank well.

Just because a domain has 10 bazillion inbound links doesn't mean it will dominate every query. Even Wikipedia is outranked by smaller sites with far smaller link profiles in many, many competitive queries.

ON EDIT: For sites that have relatively little trust, crawl, authority, whatever getting some more links is always an appropriate thing to do. But I would never promise anyone that links pointing to SECTION ALPHA are going to help pages in SECTION GAMMA rank much better. That's more of a long shot than most people realize.

[MartijnOud]

If the blog links to the rest of the site then, yes, some portion of that inflowing PageRank will contribute to the crawl, trust, and outflow of PageRank from the rest of the site. It may also help boost the domain's "authority" (a term I don't like using as it's poorly defined) which MIGHT help the domain rank well.

Just because a domain has 10 bazillion inbound links doesn't mean it will dominate every query. Even Wikipedia is outranked by smaller sites with far smaller link profiles in many, many competitive queries.

Exactly, that's what your going for. Of course you wont dominate every query but staying on Wikipedia's example; it does rank very often simply because the website is a trusted source with an awesome backlink profile.

ON EDIT: For sites that have relatively little trust, crawl, authority, whatever getting some more links is always an appropriate thing to do. But I would never promise anyone that links pointing to SECTION ALPHA are going to help pages in SECTION GAMMA rank much better. That's more of a long shot than most people realize.

Maybe but I personally would still suggest a blog. It can help you build links and build a brand, if done correctly of course.

[Michael Martinez]

If everyone could replicate Wikipedia's success simply by blogging, we would all have jumped on that bandwagon long before now.

What works best is creating distinctive value.

[DonJ]

Thank you all for responding to my question.

[Wishing8]

I found that a blog did help me, but it took time. It didn't help right away. My blog is a Wordpress one located on my domain in a subfolder. What seemed to helped me the most was having my blog posts categorized appropriately and using consistent tags. Over time, I think the tags started to have more weight? Now, my blog shows up in Google searches for the appropriate key words. I also regularly comment on other blogs related to my industry and other industry-related web sites comment on my blog. Comments on my blog are "no-follow free," so supposedly the people commenting on my blog should have their own web sites helped with the link back to their sites. When I comment on someone else's blog who also has the "no-follow free," I'm also helped. The downside is you have to watch out for spammers. I have a plugin that helps, but occasionally some spammers get through. I approve every comment before it appears on my blog, so I just have to be careful to make sure that I'm only approving appropriate people.

[DonJ]

Thanks for the explanation of what you experienced.