SEO benefits of Blogs

[DMC_34]

Hi everyone,

I would like to get opinions regarding blogs and the SEO benefits from the set up options below:

Which is better?

1. Set up blog hosted within the domain, www.mysite.com/blog/ you are trying to rank www.mysite.com. Obvious benefits would be fresh "on topic" content consistently added to sites index. Links to internal pages etc.
Benefits: Y! and MSN, since algos seems to favor content over IBL's

2. Set up blog hosted on different host name but same domain, blog.mysite.com. Obvious benefits would be links are now considered IBL from an external site, since bots will view blog. and www. as different sites. The downside would be content freshness would not count towards the www. site.
Benefits: Google.

Thoughts?

DMC

[dburdon]

DMC,

I'm a Blogger blogger.

One key facet is the ease of use. No need work offline then upload the material. My search marketing blog is almost two years old and all that material would be clogging up my main website.

However, you make a valid point that a lot of the material - whatever the quality - is from of another site.

[bhartzer]

Set up blog hosted on different host name but same domain, blog.mysite.com. Obvious benefits would be links are now considered IBL from an external site, since bots will view blog

You don't need to host the subdomain on a separate web host--hosting it on the same host as the main domain is perfectly fine and you'll get the same benefits of the links. If you're going to get separate hosting, it would be preferred that you host the blog on a separate domain entirely, such as mysiteblog.com.

I don't recommend hosting a blog on another site like blogger or blogspot. You don't have as much control over the "back end" of the blog. So much of the "optimizing" of the blog comes when you edit the template of the blog, edit the permalinks and how they're displayed, and the pings that are sent out when you post in your blog.

[toprank]

Bill's right and WordPress and Movable Type work pretty well whether you're going with a dedicated domain name, directory or sub domain. I would avoid hosted blog solutions as you give up control and functionality.

Actually, I posted about this topic last week, "Blog Address: Directory or Domain" that might be useful.

[maniactive]

Interesting approach, dburdon.

I use blogger, too - but use it to post directly to my site www.maniactive.com/states/blogger.html instead of to blogspot.

In your opinion, is hosting your blog offsite more beneficial traffic-wise to your main site? Because it strikes me that having a content-rich, frequently updated site with clean navigation is beneficial to search engine positioning...

Or is it "six of one / half dozen of the other?"

[davidmg]

I use both and I track the traffic comming to my site. Internal blogs are read 3-4 times daily. The external blog I use bring 18-20 hits daily. Obviously the external blog I use coms from a PR8 where as my site is a PR4. But a lot of it is content that brings the readers. I have seen blogs from my site on MSN but none on Yahoo or Google. External blog appears on all 3. I suugest using both it can't hurt. You can post the same content just rewrite it then it is fresh.

PS Training camp starts in 1 1/2 weeks do the Browns have a chance this year?

[maha]

Actually I am thinking of doing the same - using a blog to promote my products on my eCommerce shopping site.

I worried that using this technique would be consider "spam" in the Google's eye?

[RegDCP]

I'm going to throw this out for discussion as I am just in the process of setting up a blog for a client.

I feel that the blog should be setup on a hosted service (blogger, blogspot etc), to take advantage of the community market rather than a self hosted platform.

Unlike dburdon I do not feel that the content would "clog up" my website. Just the opposite.
I feel that the blog artices should be published in the site before being posted in the blog.

I have limited experience with the link traffic to the main website, that will be generated from blog traffic.
I feel that the best way to generate the click throughs to the client's main site would be to use a blog format which would show only about 75% of the article. If the blog reader is interested they they will have to click through to read the end.
Sort of the same method that Yahoo News uses in their articles where you see enough to get you interested and if you want more you click to the original artice.

Thoughts anyone?

[davidmg]

No it's not spam if it's done correctly. I found a website with PR8 that has a blog section for new products therefore the search engines seam to pick up on this. If I went to a blog like this and said hey look at my new products everyone would say it was spam and it would be.

[krnl]

With regard to using a subdomain such as blog.mydomain.com for SEO purposes, it has been my understanding that IBLs from pages and websites that are on the same host or within the same class D network are not weighed as heavily since they are "local" to the domain.

Take the following example:

www.mydomain.com is hosted on 111.222.111.222
blog.mydomain.com is hosted on 111.222.111.223 (same class D network (or IP block))

www. is hosted on 111.222.111.222
blog. is hosted on 238.254.182.69 (completely different IP block)

Would the second set of inbound links from blog.* hold a higher "IBL value" so-to-speak as opposed to the first blog link which is hosted in the same ip address block?

The reason for this is that inbound links from external domains that are hosted completely outside of the domain in question are considered to be more "authentic" due to the fact that I could create any page on my current host that is just full of junk keywords.

This is just what I've heard (or read, as the case may be). I'm by no means an SEO expert, so let me know if you agree or disagree with the statements above.

Rick
All in General Outdoors
http://all-in-general.com

[minorgod]

The two examples you gave are basically identical from a search engine perspective since subdomains generally resolve to the same IP address as the main domain. Most of the time, http://subdomain.mydomain.com will map directly to a folder located at http://www.mydomain.com/subdomain. From an SEO perspective, I would expect the search engines to regard them as the same.

[davidmg]

Even if the search engines consider them to be the same it still creates back links from within the site and this really doesn't hurt anything it could only help. When a blog gives the title and a breif description making you click over to another page is no different than on an ecommerce site where products are listed together in a catagory with just the title linking to the product page. It's more links within a site helping to make the customer stay on your site longer. External links are the traffic builders.

[tinobuntic]

I don't think there's anything wrong with using blogger. I'm using it and it ranks well. If you do a google blog search, my blog is in the "related blogs" section of search results for Sales leads and for business networking, two keywords that you would think are big.

But, you know what? Having top results for those keywords is quite useless. I barely get any traffic via those searches.

If you're looking for pure traffic, try writing eZine articles instead. Read my article about why it is better: Writing eZine articles is better than blogging

[ergobob]

Blogger.com permits you to redirect from blogger.com to yoursite.com. I did this for the convenience of quick setup and the use of the Blog This button on the Google toolbar. You control the CSS and HTML so it can look any way you want. It works quite well. You can see this at http://www.usernomics.com/news/user-...sign-news.html .

All the search engines pick it up and it has a PR6.

The search engines see it as hosted on mysite.

Bob

[ron angel]

Originally Posted by DMC_34

Hi everyone,

I would like to get opinions regarding blogs and the SEO benefits from the set up options below:

Which is better?

1. Set up blog hosted within the domain, www.mysite.com/blog/ you are trying to rank www.mysite.com. Obvious benefits would be fresh "on topic" content consistently added to sites index. Links to internal pages etc.
Benefits: Y! and MSN, since algos seems to favor content over IBL's

2. Set up blog hosted on different host name but same domain, blog.mysite.com. Obvious benefits would be links are now considered IBL from an external site, since bots will view blog. and www. as different sites. The downside would be content freshness would not count towards the www. site.
Benefits: Google.

Thoughts?

DMC

A blog like this one is the sort to use. the msn mysite type are not seen by the search engines. If you do text string searches of stuff on this blog of stuff in some cases after 24 hours it will be found in main search engines, unlike mysite stuff which does not seem to show up at all.
www.ssrichardmontgomery.com

[maha]

What's difference between a Blog linking to your website (say if you're sellng merchandise) and a SEO "doorway" page/site linking to your merchandise website?

Isn't it just another form of SEO "doorway" page/site?

[incrediblehelp]

Some points to consider:

1. Sure hosting your blog within a bloging community can help in its initial development and promotion, but you lose ultimate control of the blog using a service like Google Blogger. At anytime for any reason they can shut down your blog. No thanks. This is a key point to understand I would never recommend or work on a client blog unless I hard full control over the code like I would have with WP or Moveable Type.

Also you can use Blogger fine and host it under your own domains. You don't need to use one of their subdomains. Wasn't sure if that as clear from the above explanations.

2. I think hosting you blog internally within your website has some benefits and hosting the complete blog somewhere else also has benefits. If the blog is being developed for a corporate website, I would suggest having it the actual website as a subdirectory. This creates some legitimacy to the blog. If the blog is slightly off topic or can take on a life of it own as separate community then maybe hosting it somewhere else is a better idea. I would not look at the SEO benefits of the two choices because either way you will win, if you build and promote a great blog. I would look at what is best for yourself/client/visitors.

3. Interlinking or promoting your products on another website (whether it is a blog of not) is not spam. If your doing it and it makes sense to your end visitors then it is OK. If you set up a review website about all your products that you happen to be selling on another website you own, I wouldn't consider this spam. Of course I would rather have that great review content on my main website other than another.

4. Don't make decisions based on how you would figure the search engines compute IBL's. This IBL stuff is still such a big mystery and even if you did put some facts together who is to say it doesnt chnage all together the next day? The fact is, if you build your website with your end users in mind the links will come naturally. With this being said I would never consider building out a separate blog to increase IBL's to my main website.

In my case I put my SEO blog on my www.jaankanellis.com domain name because I didn't have anything there yet and I though it would be a good idea to add something. I hardly ever use it to link to my www.kbkmarketing.com website.

Just to recap:

Blog because you want to or having something to say, not for SEO reasons. The SEO benefits are simply a side effect/by product of giving back to your community/business niche with your professional knowledge..

[RegDCP]

Originally Posted by maha

What's difference between a Blog linking to your website (say if you're sellng merchandise) and a regular "doorway" page/site linking to your merchandise website?

Isn't it just another form of SEO "doorway" page/site?

Not really as if you are in one of the blog groups you have their internal search engine to draw on to promote your blog and thus, through linking, your website.

It is these same internal search engines that makes me want to include the blog content on the site before posting it to the blog.
Since these blog communities only search within their communities, then similar content on a site in the form of an article will not fall within the duplicate content rules,
and prior publishing on the site will show the content to be original in the eyes of a Google global search.
Reg

[bj]

Geez, my blog ON my site is what brings me visitors and converts them to paying clients. I know the SEO weenies will argue, but I wouldn't want my blog anywhere but ON my site. The blog is what is drawing in a good portion of the traffic.

Almost every post in my blog has served as a landing page from a search engine at one point or another.

Blogs are RSS enabled. That allows people to subscribe to you and makes your site sticky. I want that on my MAIN site since if they keep coming back they'll eventually buy design work for themselves or send me business.

You can ping all the RSS aggregators every time you post, which creates backlinks. Mmmmm, backlinks. Yum.

If you blog something controversial it creates buzz and people comment, argue and LINK to you. More backlinks. Yum.

If you have a particular thing you blog about and there's a blogroll you can be added to you get MORE backlinks. Yum yum.

As far as I'm concerned I want a blog as an important part of each and every site I build for myself. Luckily I find it easy to write and blog, and it doesn't take me long. I doubt my site would be producing the way it does now if I hadn't added a blog on it.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by bj

Geez, my blog ON my site is what brings me visitors and converts them to paying clients. I know the SEO weenies will argue, but I wouldn't want my blog anywhere but ON my site. The blog is what is drawing in a good portion of the traffic.

I am weenie and I totally agree here. I would never ask a client to do the blog on another website. They would need damn good reason to do so and it wouldnt be because of IBL's.

[solinc]

Unfortunately our company hired a 'web design' company to create our website. This company had no clue whatsoever about SEO. They even used frames for it so it doesn't rank very well at all for our keywords. And there is notheing I can do about it. (I tried to SEO it and made a little progress...)

So to counter that I got a blog from blogspot and used our main keyword for the domain name: keyword.blogspot.com
I actually get really good traffic on the site and I've posted links to the main site, which is now getting hits.
Just an idea ya'll might want to try.

[spronger]

bj wrote:

You can ping all the RSS aggregators every time you post, which creates backlinks. Mmmmm, backlinks. Yum.

Have to agree with bj. I use blogger and host on own site. Fresh, new content can never be considered "cluttering up" your site. You're growing your site organically and the engines love that. I have set up another blog hosted on Blogger, but as has already been pointed out, you don't really own the content on these blogs and you can lose them. Heck, I read somewhere Google deleted its own blog once by mistake.

As bj says, you can create backlinks every time you post. Just ad Technorati "tag" links and ping after every post. Instant backlinks. Way to go.

Steve

[DMC_34]

Thanks for all the great input!

I am treating the blog like any other advertisement our company aquires. I always look for traffic first and foremost but I also look at the possbile SEO benefits.

In regards to IBL's and how links are counted on SE's. I havent seen any negative effects from "burboun" to "big daddy". I hear all the complaints but I think the results look good on Google. Our site does the following for IBL's:

1. Press Releases
2. Paid relevant advertising
3. Articles (not alot but a few)
4. Reciprocal Links
5. Directories

The combinations above have worked very well. Results are top slots for main keywords and more on Google. MSN and Y! used to do the same as well but have since started to fall over the last few updates.


Again thanks to everyone for the input.

DMC

[dburdon]

Its quite possible to adapt the look of blogger without working too hard. I run a travel marketing blog where I've adapted the original Blogger template.

When I referred to "clogging up the system" I've made about 400 posts over 22 months. Blogger files and organises these by topic for nothing!!! No storage costs, no bandwidth use. Seems like a good deal to me.

[bj]

Just a question for you folks hosted by blogspot or other bloghosts-- Why would you want your blog's inbound links to give googly goodness to blogspot instead of to your domain? It's already proven that well-run and well-trafficked blogs will gather inbound links quicker than most static sites. I just don't understand why you'd wanna give the benefit of those inbound links to someone else's domain.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by bj

Just a question for you folks hosted by blogspot or other bloghosts-- Why would you want your blog's inbound links to give googly goodness to blogspot instead of to your domain? It's already proven that well-run and well-trafficked blogs will gather inbound links quicker than most static sites. I just don't understand why you'd wanna give the benefit of those inbound links to someone else's domain.

Exactly, I cant see why anyone would do this either?

[dburdon]

Bj,

as I understand it the IBL benefit accrues to the URL.

Sometimes traffic is generated by the myblog.blogspot.com url and sometimes by an individual page.

Given the points you raise I'll experiment by self-hosting.

[DMC_34]

dburdon,

External Link to index page.
LP given to index document.
Index page links to internal document.
Whether it is indirectly or directly related the internal document is given more weight. We have pages jump in ranking just by adding the link to index page, or most powerful page in regards to LP.

Throw in some good deep links to it as well and the internal ranks even better, most of the time giving a good indented listing.

Example - #1 and #2 on Google
Christmas cards
business greeting cards

This doesnt seem to be as true on Yahoo though.

Hence the reason for the thread. Which is more beneficial the ILB from blog.mysite.com pointing to www.mysite.com or all the fresh content in www.mysite.com/blog which might generate natural IBL's on its own. Plus is the fresh content more beneficial in Yahoo and MSN? Doesnt seem to matter to current Google algo where it is mostly link driven and age driven.

DMC

[bj]

Plus is the fresh content more beneficial in Yahoo and MSN? Doesnt seem to matter to current Google algo where it is mostly link driven and age driven.

I'd argue that bit about Google, simply from the standpoint that if you blog regularly and ping the ags, then the goog arachnids are VERY regular visitors to your site. It's not at all unusual for them to visit me five or six times a week. I can't believe that wouldn't have some benefit in the big G. And from what I've read both here and on other SEO and webmaster messageboards the G loves blogs. I know that a month or two after I added mine (I've always been religious about blogging at LEAST two times a week and usually much more) is when my site started dancing in the SERPS. Before that it was dead in the water and I was lucky if I saw those spiders a few times a month.

[DMC_34]

bj,

While I have heard the same sentiments, experience shows me otherwise. Google's is all about IBL's with aged sites. Frequent indexing doesnt play a role in the SERP's just indexing frequency. Yes, that may change at some point.

We aquired a competitor's websites a month ago which I was always floored on how they ranked so well.

They had the age factors 5+ years and a keyword domain. That was it. Content is bare. Fresh content, once a year it changed at Christmas, and all of the links were from link exchanges which were mostly irrelevant sites including gambling sites. Still holds true today. The previous owner wouldnt even submit it to one directory, not even the free ones. No paid advertising, no blogs, no content. Yet top 3 results for well over 4 years now. Always amazed me. Instead of continuing to fight it the owners bought the company out.

DMC

[Xen2]

I have many sites that I built from scratch, only recently did I realize that I needed to put my whole site onto blog software(eg: WordPress). I found that this was the best move I have made because of the versatlity of WordPress and its plugins. From an SEO point of view it is a god send. I have a plugin that creates a Google sitemap and updates it whenever I edit my site or when others leave comments or posts. I have a translation plugin that offers visitors eight different languages to translate the site into. My sites were indexed by Google within 72 hours and Google, Yahoo and MSN crawl my sites at least once a day. Most of my sites are ranking 4 within a month or two.
If you are concerned about SEO, and who isn't, then put your site on Wordpress, which will give your visitors the chance to comment on the content, register as members and make the search engines very happy!

[bj]

DMC_34, I can't and won't argue with you about that being the case with a well established and aged site with good linkage and a keyword domain, since I do know that plays a very large role. However, if you want to build a new site and get it good positioning fast, the quickest way to do that is either add a blog to it or use blog or similar software for the whole site and include a blog as part of the mix. I and others have all found this to be true. I can only imagine how you can do buying a site the way you did and adding a blog to it-- that's a formula for REALLY kicking some butt! :-)

One of the things I've found as well, comparing stats on a site with a blog and a static site without one (even with content added regularly) is that in awstats the keyphrase list that folks are coming in on is a LOT longer on the blogged site, almost five times as long. That's significant to me. I daresay others can see the significance also, especially for niche terms.

[DMC_34]

bj,
I totally agree. This is the very reason I have blogs on our sites. I also want to add them to our new sites.

Even though links are king in Googles algo right now, Natural IBL's are meant to support content in the algo. Purchasing links and exchanges are quick fix inflations of LP.

In the end good content and natural IBL's along with a good visitor experience are the keys to long term success of a website and (as it is meant to be) organic rankings on SE's

DMC

[nuttymarketer]

Dear Friends,

i want some help in blogging. I am interested in blogging to promote my sites. And has been doing it for last 3 months. One posting per day with ping at pingomatics.com But I have not seen any good out come of that. Very few visitors. Why so.

Other question is I have heard that Blogging help webmaster to get the pages listed in Google and yahoo. Is that True. If yes, please tell me how to do that.

Nutty

[bj]

Use Technorati Tags, claim your blog on the technorati site, and submit your blog to as many blog search sites as you can. Also, set up your blog software to ping all of the following (if you use blogger you are screwed here!):
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/...wa/pingPodcast
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://pingqueue.com/rpc/
http://ping.blogg.de/
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.britblog.com/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.wpkeys.com/
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-...ngExtended.doz
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.imblogs.net/ping/
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.rssfwd.com/xmlrpc/api
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

[DMC_34]

Nice List!

Thanks for info bj

[bj]

Don't thank me, thank the Wordpress Codex.

[lbunnell]

Has anyone had any experience with Myst Technologies (blogsite.com) and their use of Topic Clouds? We've been using them for a short time and our blog site has a PR of 5 (3 months). I am somewhat concerned that the content is hosted somewhere else with an A record pointing there from our domain, but the results seem to be pretty good so far. Just wondered if anyone has any thoughts about this.

[itsdonny]

As far as whether to have your blog on or off your site. For less competive terms I think having your blog off your site or should I say as a separate site from what I've seen is that way to go. My competitor ranks really well for his main domain and then has a separate blog which also ranks on the top. So now people searching for his main keywords will be twice as likely to come across his work.

[cz]

Moving a blogspot blog I have is proving to be impossible.

I have a Yahoo! legacy store with no way (I'm told) to add it to my website. I opened a blogger blog and named it http:// myecommercesite'sdomain name.blogspot.com

I have 2+ yrs of posts on it and would love to make it www.my domainname/blog (or whatever) and make it part of my site - getting all of that content and IBL's etc.. I have only the side navigation link to my e-comm site and took down all of the links within posts that had previously pointed to product pages.

I thought Big Daddy would hammer me for Link SPAM. In truth - it was created for reviewing my products and in "some" posts I would link my keywords to the product pages of the e-comm site.

What should I do to best help me with raising my Serps via the blog? Any advice welcome (I just write - don't know beans about better and best SEO techniques!

BTW, the ecom site is the second line of my sig anf the related blogger blog is last.

Thanks in advance!
CZ

[bj]

WordPress imports blogger posts, though there have been some issues with images if it's been hosted on blogspot. Still, worst case is you need to do a search and replace when your blogposts have been backed up, to "fix" the image paths. If you use Wordpress you won't lose your past posts.

[begabloomers]

Hi BJ and everyone, thanks for the info on blogging, I set up Wordpress using fantastico on my cpanel, but i think I have it installed incorrectly. It is part of my root directory - is this correct? Technorati does not recognise the post with the code in in it. When I go from admin to look at the posts I am taken to my web page index page.

I realise this is very very basic but I am , as my daughter says, a " bear of very little brain".

Susan

[bj]

begabloomers, I never set up any program in the root directory, since it makes it more difficult at upgrade time. And I rarely use fantastico since the programs are usually not the latest versions. I think when you install with fantastico you have the option at the beginning from within fantastico of naming what directory to install in, which fantastico will then create for you. If, after you install in a subdirectory, you want the blog to look like it's toplevel, there's a way to do that through wordpress by editing a path in one file and copying it into root, and naming the path in the admin/options.

I suggest uninstalling it and trying again. You can do that! But if you do, you might want to delete that database first. I know some older host accounts have db limits.

Oh, and clicking the "view site" link at the top of the post admin page always takes you to your blog index page.

Re Technorati, I use the simpletags plugin. Also, did you "claim your blog" at Technorati?

[begabloomers]

Yes, I have managed to "claim" my blog. I will look at a more up to date version of WordPress.

[NameCritic]

A couple of points to add here. I have several blogs of my own and manage several for companies.

In My Opinion, There are two types of blog that can help you.

Company Blog: This is in a folder or subdomain of your domain name. Every time you post to the blog, it creates new and fresh content to your website. If the blog is configured correctly, each blog post becomes a new webpage added to your website. Content is king and this is the best way to add content.

In addition to that a company blog promotes your products and services better than just having a website. Its like you owning a store offline. People come into your store but don’t always go down every aisle of the store so they don’t see all of your products. So storeowners put special items they wish to sell in the store window to draw attention to them. A Company blog is the “window” for your website where we showcase specials you are offering, information about your company, and anything else you need to highlight.

Promotion Blog: This is a blog you set up on another domain outside of your website. I do not recommend blogger.com, wordpress.com, or other free hosts no more than I would advise you to use a free host for your website. We need to put this blog on a domain name we have some control over.

A blog outside your domain name is different than a company blog. You still from time to time use it as a window for your products or services, but it is not the main focus. This type of blog becomes a related website that links to all pages of your website individually in blog posts as well as in the sidebar.

You post about related material that readers representing your target audience will be interested in and use text that will rank the blog high in search engines. The better the page rank for the blog, the more valuable the blog becomes for your website. Plus after attracting readers to the blog you can get them to click though to your website creating another source of traffic for you that converts to sales better than even search engine traffic.

Either type of blog creates trust and lets the customer get to know you better. That equals sales conversions.

[Webnauts]

Great info BJ.

Thanks for the list!

[dburdon]

I didn't realise this thread was still active.

I just played around with a Wordpress blog. I started with Typepad. But it seems that I'm just so comfortable working with Blogger.

[NameCritic]

Well, the problem with blogger, wordpress.com and other freehosts is that they have some control and can decide whether or not you have a "legitimate" blog.

I built two blogs for companies, one on wordpress and one on blogger. The one on blogger got flagged for spam becuase I posted to it too often. They said they would have a human review it if I contacted them, but I would be locked out until they did. I did contact them. They kept emailing me saying I had not responded. Then they deleted all of the content.

At wordpress, the one I built for a company had links to company pages in the sidebar. They locked it up and closed it and emailed me saying it was not a "genuine blog".

A genuine blog is one that you get to decide how you want it to work, just like with your own website.

I have blogs that were on blogger for years with no problems so I know that others have also. However, just the chance that you can build up all those links and put in all that content and have someone else tell you whether or not they like your blog is just not worth the time and effort in my opinion.

Using a freehost for your website is a bad idea, so why put your blog on a freehost if its important to you or to your company?

[bj]

Using a freehost for your website is a bad idea, so why put your blog on a freehost if its important to you or to your company?

Also, as I know I've said many times in the past, WHY would you put all that work in to give your blog googly goodness on a domain that doesn't belong to you? Get those incoming links pointing at your OWN domain. Get your OWN pagerank, and your OWN authority toward SERPS. It just doesn't make any sense to have a blog hosted elsewhere, you lose out on SO MUCH benefit!

[bj]

I just played around with a Wordpress blog. I started with Typepad. But it seems that I'm just so comfortable working with Blogger.

I've been tracking the "unique visitor" spike I get within 24 hours every time I've blogged. It runs between 25% and 30% of my "non-blog-days" number of unique visitors.

So you keep on using Blogger, the amateur's software, and I'll keep using what really works. :)

It doesn't have to be WordPress. Movable Type, Typepad, B2Evolution, DotClear 2, Chronolith and TextPattern are also good programs that do pretty much what WordPress does. Find a real blogging program that works for you.