Which way is best for SEO...to have a blog with a separate domain like www.Yourdomainname/blog.com or to have a blog directly located on the client's company website?

I have a client who has a site in his company domain name but when I click on his blog, the name of the blog is not the same as his domain name; it's something all together different. So I feel that needs to be changed.

In the meantime, we've been talking about getting him a domain such as I mentioned above and host it separately from his website.

Would this give him better exposure or should the blog be attached to the website? (He may have to change the name of the blog to match the website.) But I am not sure way would be best.

Jan

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I read somewhere, possibly on this site, that it's better for SOE to have a blog hosted on your site rather than having it hosted somewhere else. That's also one of the things taken into account here:

http://website.grader.com/

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I'm speaking specifically about Wordpress here, but I know there are plug-ins for Wordpress that enhance SEO. Has he had his blog for a long time? In SEO terms, there's a lot of value in keeping a site or blog that has been indexed for awhile and has been consistently updated. When you start changing things up or start over, you sort of lose that history. Also, if you put some work into it you could make a blog look really great and have it function as your website as well (saves time vs. updating both a website and a blog).

BUT...I think that both you and Michelle are correct in that the prevailing thought is that you should have a blog within your website if possible. Just giving some other thoughts to add in the mix...

Angie

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Virtual Assistant 3.0

I recall when I viewed the www.becomeablogger.com video from a suggestion here on VAF, the instructor said it was better to have a blog located on a separate domain outside the website. So that is where I got that thought from.

Angie, no he hasn't had the blog for very long so there is no history that's why I want to make it right for him now.

Jan

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Jan - The much respected HubSpot.com and a bunch of others all recommend absolutely positively always no exceptions host your blog on your own website. I went against their advice for a year, but have now moved my blog over to my site, because I want my site, and not Wordpress (God bless 'em), to get the SEO credit for it. A blog that's regularly updated is hugely more active than the average website, and search engines love activity. So a blog on your site = higher search engine rankings = better traffic.

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

I also took the advice of HubSpot and others and recently moved my website and blog from free sites to a paid host so that I could host my wordpress.org blog on my own site. Everyone says this is best for SEO. We'll see how it works

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Deb Frawley
Gem's Virtual Office

I'm not making myself very clear, sorry about that.

My question is whether the blog should be separately hosted (paid host) with a domain like www.Yourdomain/blog.com
or should the blog be on the website with the same domain name. Or it doesn't matter?

I'm not referring to any of the free blog sites as being the outside blog and then creating one on the website.

Jan

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The blog should be on your website. So the address is something like http://www.yoursite.com/blog.
Is that what you meant?

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

Originally Posted by Your Virtual Wizard

I'm not making myself very clear, sorry about that. My question is whether the blog should be separately hosted (paid host) with a domain like www.Yourdomain/blog.com or should the blog be on the website with the same domain name. Or it doesn't matter? I'm not referring to any of the free blog sites as being the outside blog and then creating one on the website. Jan

A blog is just a file that can be added to your domain. If your domain is www.yourdomain.com and you want to add a blog to it you will add the file and call it www.yourdomain.com/blog or www.blog.yourdomain.com It's all the same. You just need "yourdomain.com" in the mix.

It's not the same if you have www.yourdomain.com and www.theotherguysdomain.com/blog because the two domain names are not the same. You need to have the blog "attached" to your domain otherwise you are promoting 2 separate websites which means diluted SEO credit and double the marketing effort.

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Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)

Originally Posted by Your Virtual Wizard

I'm not making myself very clear, sorry about that. My question is whether the blog should be separately hosted (paid host) with a domain like www.Yourdomain/blog.com or should the blog be on the website with the same domain name. Or it doesn't matter? I'm not referring to any of the free blog sites as being the outside blog and then creating one on the website. Jan

If your blog relates to what your website is about, then definitely hosted under the same domain and on the same webspace. This will help your overall page ranking and people come to recognise your blog, your business and you as being connected.

If your blog topic has nothing to do with what your website is about, then definitely different.

For example, I write a blog specifially for the the Virtual Assistant industry. So my website is http://www.vadirectory.net and my blog is http://www.vadirectory.net/blog/. I do write other blogs and they have separate domains and aren't connected to websites in most cases. Sites such as http://www.soho-life.com which is about working as a small business but is not VA specific and http://www.muchaboutmelbourne.com which is about my home city and written to my readers who don't live in Australia and want to know more about where I live.