SEO vs SEO – Separate Blog From Main Domain?

[mjtaylor]

I am doing the SEO on a site where I have recommended they have several blogs. Long story, but they are hosted on a site that doesn’t have PHP and they can’t host WordPress. In any case, their in-house SEO believes that it is better, SEO-wise, if blogs are hosted on a different domain. (We are not talking about blogging on Blogspot or some other domain out of our control.)

I don’t agree and believe they should move to a host that can accommodate WP.

Here’s my reasoning: a blog has several functions:

• To allow a client to easily add content to a website
• To allow visitors to become involved on the website
• To please the search engines with frequent addition of spider food
• To develop link popularity

If the blog which is intended to promote Site/Domain A is hosted on Site/Domain B the content, participation and link popularity accrues to Site B and not Site A. Sure, Site B will link to Site A and there will be some value in that – once Site B is established.

But don’t you agree that there would be more value in having the links – and while Site A might benefit from links from B to A, it would be far better, SEO-wise, to have any links to the blog accrue directly to the domain we want to promote.

It seems as the two-domain approach means we need to promote two sites and not just one.

Agree? Disagree?

TIA for your two cents.

MJ

[SemAdvance]

I have my blog on it's own domain.

Putting it on its own does mean you have to promote two sites, but you can also say you have two arms to grab visitors with as well.

For some mid level competition terms blogs can jump up in the rankings quicker than a website.

If you put it on it's own hosting account other than the main site then you can toss some one way links to the main site kind of a way to give yourself a boost without the SERPs knowing. (keep registration details different)

Depends too on how much the branding is important to your client.....if brand building is first and foremost then stick to one domain.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by SemAdvance

For some mid level competition terms blogs can jump up in the rankings quicker than a website.

Thanks, that's all very helpful ... in this case, the main site is old, well established domain and already ranks in the top 5 for its primary keywords. The site has just been redesigned and is now going to go after some new keywords, and the blogs will support those new market areas.

Originally Posted by SemAdvance

I have my blog on it's own domain.

If you put it on it's own hosting account other than the main site then you can toss some one way links to the main site kind of a way to give yourself a boost without the SERPs knowing. (keep registration details different).

Good point.

Originally Posted by SemAdvance

Depends too on how much the branding is important to your client.....if brand building is first and foremost then stick to one domain.

I believe branding is very important to the client. Thanks for all your input! Cheers, MJ

[weslinda]

Well content is king, and content on one site is better than splitting it to two. The only reason I would recommend splitting it is if the two sites won't be able to flow together. If they are both going to be the same company and the same message. The content should be valued for the same domain.

I'm shocked though that this site is on a server that can't handle basic PHP and MySQL. That's a tough thing to find.

[weslinda]

One note, you'll see in my signature that I have seperated my blog and domain, but this is strictly because my blog is by me and not my company. I wanted them seperate for that exact reason, because I'm looking to build a name for me.

[hostBrain]

I agree with you, mjtaylor
The blog should be a part of the company site.

One simplistic approach I use to explain to clients, is more pages = more bot crawling and better odds of serps. 36 pages is better than 12.
If the blog is on its own domain, you'll be stuck at 12 pages, whereas if it's a part of the domain, then you'll have the 36 +++++

Better start hunting for that host

[Ne0]

I would definitely change hosts to accommodate a wp blog... that being said - You could go either way!

If your going after branding why not use a sub-domain? That's how we're running our podcast... But I do have a blog (that's updated on a semi-regular basis) And I can talk about things that aren't exactly business related (that's why the separate domain)

I will also point out that Bruce Clay shared an interesting study about Unique IP's and ranking... (which I just looked for and couldn't find to link to) the basics I took from the article though was this - More of the top ranked sites all share one thing in common (a unique IP address)

That being said... as inexpensive as Unique IPs are you might just want to look into that and find a domain that reflects the company's branding scheme...

.02

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by Ne0

That being said... as inexpensive as Unique IPs are you might just want to look into that and find a domain that reflects the company's branding scheme...

.02

Absolutely! I have, and always do, recommend unique IPs ...

Thanks for your two cents. Much appreciated.

MJ

[incrediblehelp]

MJ so you cant install PHP on the server? Why, no control?

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

MJ so you cant install PHP on the server? Why, no control?

Correct. No control. I am a consultant on this client. No hands on.

[dean]

For what it's worth, Blogger,(owned by google), will allow you to host a blog on your own domain without having PHP. You do have to give it an FTP name and password, but that's all. They'll host all of the back-end and you can write your own custom front-end and host it on your domain/site.

[bj]

Definitely keep it on the same domain. All that content, all those keyphrases, all those additional pages people can enter the site through, all that linkbuilding via pinging the update services, all those rss subscriptions that lead right to the main domain . . . you don't wanna dilute any of that by putting it a domain removed.

Blogger can be hosted on your own site, as Dean said, but Blogger, as far as I know, only pings one update service, which, to me, is such a downside I wouldn't use it. I'm also not sure what the status is with their feeds since they upgraded to blogger beta. Old blogger offered only atom feeds unless you went through a third party for feeds (like feedburner) which took away some of the advantage. This might be an okay fallback position if they absolutely won't move the site, but it's far from ideal.

[tenkiya]

You are 100% right here. The SEO benefits from having a blog on the same domain are huge, absolutely huge.

Any host provider not offering PHP is not worth paying for.

[amabaie]

Although I tend to agree that same domain is best, it depends on the purpose of the blog. For instance, if the company website is ecommerce and the blog is infotmational, arm's length might work to the client's advantage. From the SEO perspective, I agree with most people here that there are benefits to having the domain seen as active, but beyond that the link value is no greater whether you have three links from your blog tmeplate to three business pages on the same domain or aon a different domain. This really is not a black and white case.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by amabaie

Although I tend to agree that same domain is best, it depends on the purpose of the blog. For instance, if the company website is ecommerce and the blog is infotmational, arm's length might work to the client's advantage. From the SEO perspective, I agree with most people here that there are benefits to having the domain seen as active, but beyond that the link value is no greater whether you have three links from your blog tmeplate to three business pages on the same domain or aon a different domain. This really is not a black and white case.

The site is for a tour company that ferries people to an island 70 miles Key West; the blogs will have to do with activities on the island such as birding and the site is for online information about the tours, the island and ferry reservations.

Thanks, everyone, for your input. Very helpful.

MJ

[Christian_SEO]

Sounds like a Windows host....

Blogger was what I was going to recommend also. I have a number of blogger blogs both stand-alone and also as part of a site. I see little difference between them, but I never thought to wonder if one worked better than the other. Either way the get good traffic.

I didn't get the comment about a "12 page" limit...? I have post pages enabled and get a page per post that way.

Blogger also won me over with it's post via email feature. Once you understand the limitations it works well. I also have a couple of WordPress blogs and my hat is off to their superiour features and plugins, but the post via email does not work well for me, and I find the features get in my way more than make my life easier.

Blogger may only ping one place, but something else is going on because I just launched a Kevin Ham Fan Club Blog last night and it was geting a lot of visits from blog spiders and bots. About 4-5 I think and I do see nice traffic to these sites despite no extra promotion beyond a few links here and there and frequent posting.

For a company with authorized blogs I think having them on the main site is best since they should "add" and not 'distract". Other wise, having them be remote might be better, especially if they are going to be on a specific topic like a single product or service.

[toprank]

If the blog content will always be directly related to the web site content, then stick with the blog as a subdirectory and use software like WordPress or Movable Type installed on the server. Blogger works too via FTP as has been mentioned above.

When a blog is SEO centric in it's purpose, this is the hierarchy of URLs from best to worst that I typically go by:

www.yourdomain.com/blog
blog.yourdomain.com
yourblog.com
yourblog.someotherdomain.com
www.someotherdomain.com/yourblog/

The first three can work fine for whatever mix of branding and SEO that is appropriate for your situation, as long as you have the resources to promote your site and you blog as two different destinations.

Also, business blogs should avoid sub domains or sub directories on other domain names no matter what.

[MicalJohnson]

I think you should have it on the same domain. My recommendation is to make each one a subdomain with a keyword for the niche topic

[Peter (IMC)]

Content is King, but not because it´s content.

I mean that you need to have some consistency in your content.

Your website isn't going to benefit from the blog if the only thing that gets updated is the blog.

A blog is a cluster of pages that has its own structure. It often even will sit in its own directory making it a completely separated part of the website. You will basically have 2 independent collection of web pages in your website and that´s how a search engine will look at it.

Links in between the site and the blog will of course give some additional links to your home page and perhaps some other pages in the site, but don't expect miracles in positions in the SERP's.

In my opinion, if the objective is to use the same design, look and feel to the blog it´s better to use the same domain, if the objective is to give information about the market as an "independent" informative source, another domain is no problem. It all depends on the purpose of the blog.

In no way there is an obligation to put the blog in the same domain. Look at the goals of the blog and base your decision on that. In this case, SEO is not a deciding factor. But what ever you decide, SEO should be applied.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by Peter (IMC)

Links in between the site and the blog will of course give some additional links to your home page and perhaps some other pages in the site, but don't expect miracles in positions in the SERP's.

In my opinion, if the objective is to use the same design, look and feel to the blog it´s better to use the same domain, if the objective is to give information about the market as an "independent" informative source, another domain is no problem. It all depends on the purpose of the blog.

Thanks for your input, Peter. Much appreciated.

No miracles expected. The site already does very well in the SERPs on its most relevant keywords. The blogs are intended to help develop community and interest in the site and its "destination" and support placement around some additional keywords in newer market niches.

Originally Posted by Peter (IMC)

In no way there is an obligation to put the blog in the same domain. Look at the goals of the blog and base your decision on that. In this case, SEO is not a deciding factor. But what ever you decide, SEO should be applied.

Well, for the sake of this thread, SEO *is* the deciding factor - that is, the question posed here is whether SEO is better served by a blog on domain or off. Whether we should make a decision based on SEO is a separate issue and a valid one, of course. Nonetheless, your point is well taken.

Again, thanks, MJ

[jeffposaka]

It would be a waste to have it on another domain. Move it to the domain and they will think you are a genius for getting all the extra traffic and improved rankings.

[craigmn3]

I have to agree with the others. One of the chief purposes of a blog is to opne yourself up to the viral side of things, without a feed (which you can get in PHP or WP) you are missing part of the benefit.

Change Hosters and get control

[vagabond]

I believe the only local hosting company in the Keys uses IBM servers with ASP and Cold Fusion. I don't use either, but does WP have a compatible version version? Or does it only run on UNIX servers with PHP.

[bj]

I believe the only local hosting company in the Keys uses IBM servers with ASP and Cold Fusion. I don't use either, but does WP have a compatible version version? Or does it only run on UNIX servers with PHP.

If php is installed on a windoze server then wordpress will work. However I do understand that there are certain features that won't work if WP is installed on windoze, though I'm not sure which ones they are. It's not ideal. A quick search on the wordpress.org forum will tell you what the problems are. If it's with the xml-rpc function or with rss, I'd call it a dealbreaker.

I have to ask, why would anyone need to use a local hosting company in the Keys??? Geez, one hurricane taking a wrong turn and there goes your website . . .

I have a hosting account with servers outside of Detroit, and another one with servers in Texas. I'm in PA. It makes no sense to use "local" hosting. You go with the best you can get at a fair price, and if you're in the US there are many to choose from. And the vast majority of them are Linux hosting and will work just fine with WP.

[visser]

Originally Posted by bj

I have a hosting account with servers outside of Detroit, and another one with servers in Texas. I'm in PA. It makes no sense to use "local" hosting.

Funny thing is I'm using US server hosting's for Australian sites! We're able to get around the localised search issue by using .com.au 2LD's. Locally hosting sites down under costs an arm, leg and first child! :X

[idansh]

An easy access to the website after and the lack of extra maintainence is more productive wahy to implement a blog into your website, other ways are jsut not necesary

[visser]

Originally Posted by idansh

An easy access to the website after and the lack of extra maintainence is more productive wahy to implement a blog into your website, other ways are jsut not necesary

Come again? I can read scrabble but that just pushes it too far... :P Have another go at it.

[edhan]

I agree with everyone else that it should be hosted in the same domain. The advantages are much better in a long run. Indeed it is strange that their hosting services does not include PHP. I would like to suggest to switch another hosting service.

[dharrison]

Hi MJT

I would say find the hosting package that can accommodate, and keep it all on one domain.

My blog has been running for 2 years and although my energy is currently being spent on revamping the entire site, I have reaped the benefits and without having to promote 2 different sites.

HTH

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by vagabond

I believe the only local hosting company in the Keys uses IBM servers with ASP and Cold Fusion. I don't use either, but does WP have a compatible version version? Or does it only run on UNIX servers with PHP.

If you're talking about keys.com, that's not their host ... and there are a couple of other local hosting companies in the keys, but I believe the client is running their own server. I could be wrong. Happens all the time! Waiting for more info on that.

For now, what I know, is that PHP is not installed on the server, whereever it is ... and as far as I know, WP requires PHP ... I don't *believe* there is another version.

Thanks for your support and feedback, everyone! It is enormously helpful!

Cheers, MJ

[bj]

If it's a no-move windoze host no php issue, you might want to take a peek at this:

Forest ASP Blogscript

Disclaimer-- I've never used this and never skinned it, but it came up on one of my webdev lists as an ASP alternative to WP, and got a fairly good recommendation from some devs whose opinion I trust. It does allow css layout, according to the site. Has RSS features, but I don't know if it pings update services.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by bj

I have to ask, why would anyone need to use a local hosting company in the Keys??? Geez, one hurricane taking a wrong turn and there goes your website . . .

Actually, I never said they where the site is hosted. I don't know where it is hosted. I just know the server doesn't have PHP installed.

A hurricane really isn't likely to wreak the sort of havoc that would take out servers. A reputable host would have the servers in a building that would withstand all but a freak Cat 5 and would be placed well above flood risk.

MJ