What is the best location to host a corporate blog in order to maximize search engine positioning of the main site (ecommerce): subdomain, alternate domain, or other location? why?
- will be a "real" blog with real content, not just a brochure duplicating catalog content
- ecommerce site is at http://www.certifiedbattery.com
- could host at blog.certifiedbattery.com, blog.pccapital.ca (owner of ecommerce site), or other location as recommended.
- ultimate goal is to drive sales at ecommerce site (big surprise :) )
Thank you for your help
Answers (3)
Christopher H
Strategic Sales Executive & Communications Designer
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Todd - Both of your websites have a few hundred question marks at the top of the page... something's up with your servers.
The best, current resource I've found for blog SEO optimization is linked to below...
Hope this helps!
Chris
Links:
Teresha A
Marketing Manager and Owner, InfoActive Media
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There are a variety of ways you can do it and they all have pros and cons. Since you are hoping to drive sales at the ecommerce site via the blog it may be wise to keep the blog "close to home" so there is a clear and expected link between the two. If the blog and ecommerce site are skinned the same and use the same fonts, logos and layouts (or near enough the same to clearly be the same company/site) it helps users understand where they are and trust the ecommerce site when they move there from the blog.
From an SEO perspective, having the blog on the main site as a folder/directory is helpful as anyone linking to the blog is also linking to your main site. If the blog is hosted elsewhere the links only count for the blog. Of course you can intelligently interlink but it's not as weighty from a link popularity perspective as if the blog were on www.domain.com/blog.
There are many sites that wouldn't dream of linking to your ecommerce site but will happily link to your blog regardless of where it's located. It's worth considering the benefits of this in regards to your main site. Using a sub domain will not have as much effect link-wise.
But like I said, there is no one right way to do it. It's really comes down to the goals and restrictions involved.
Clarification added December 1, 2007:
One other point in favour of having the blog as a directory is that it adds unique and usually high quality content to your site thus helping to better theme it. Ecommerce sites often have little to no real content beyond product names and prices, rarely enough to establish a strong theme. The blog content can help.
Eylon I
at ICS Panama
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Blogging on your own domain will be more likely to improve its overall ranking and exposure:
- New content added regularly is good for ranking.
- A blog gives you more organic versatility in employing keywords intelligently.
- When you get people to link to the blog, your domain gets the credit.
However blogging on one of the popular platforms has its own value as far as getting readers and subscribers relatively easily and quickly. Choosing where exactly is another question and depends on your topic and flavor.
I do both.
