Off-Site or On Site Blog?

[Mark Z]

When I say off site blog, I'm talking about your own personal off-site blog that you own and control. With that being said, can your on-site blog on your own domain eventually carry as much authority as an off-site blog? Some people have an off-site blog that shows up on google within half hour on page 1 or 2 for the keywords, does anyone have that authority on an on-site blog on their own website? Or can that only be done on an off-site blog?

[Sam Chapman]

I have a blog from within my Point2 site. The site is on page 1, fluctuating from 3 to 4 to 6 and back again. The blog comes in #3 for Austin real estate blog consitently. I think the site helped the blog rank fairly quickly and the blog's constant added content helps the site. Does this help you?

[Eric Blackwell]

Mark;

a (non REW) example would be bloodhoundrealty.com/bloodhoundblog ...by your definition that is an onsite blog. It ranks. Is this what you mean? I am trying to figure out, but if you mean that can domain(dot)com {which is a blog} rank posts in minutes and can domain(dot)com/blog rank a post in minutes. The answer is YES-either can. It is a matter of the authority of the domain.

Does that help?

Eric

[HomeStomper]

hey mark,

as eric said, both can work and rank well. but i totally understand where you're coming from and it's a tough decision. one that i think can best be made once you've laid out your marketing strategy.

if it's a matter of ranking in the SERPS, domain authority is key and i really don't think it matters too much whether they're both on 1 site or 2. keep in mind, a separate domain that hosts your blog can outrank your own website, even if registered after your website.

now, if you're going to use a blog as a personal marketing tool (rather than a SE ranking one) then i' definitely consider creating it front and center and not "hidden" behind a static front page.

one thing to note about the example eric gave:
if you take a look at http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com they've incorporated a blog format for their front page, plus have their blog at http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/bloodhoundblog.

[Mark Z]

Do you think the fact that the blog is on the front page on not behind some static page, gives more authority to the domain? I'm thinking because of the fresh content being added to the homepage that, this gives a better page rank and better rank in the SE's in general because it looks like the home page has fresh content being added to consistently rather than just a static page deep in the site. Any thoughts?

[HomeStomper]

my thoughts would be that yes, it would rank better. but that's just a guess, i don't have anything to back that up. from the standpoint of drawing visitors deeper into the site and increasing page views, totally.

[jay.robinson15]

Do you think the fact that the blog is on the front page on not behind some static page, gives more authority to the domain? I'm thinking because of the fresh content being added to the homepage that, this gives a better page rank and better rank in the SE's in general because it looks like the home page has fresh content being added to consistently rather than just a static page deep in the site. Any thoughts?

I think you are correct in coming to that conclusion. Google does factor in fresh content on the homepage more than deep pages, so having your blog update constantly on the homepage should give you better and quicker temporary rankings. I have no personal experience with this though, just from what I've read on blogs and such, it should work that way.

[Susan Zanzonico]

Front page...deep page, doesn't "pinging" address this?

Mark, great reproduce of Brian B's presentation!

[Tsena]

Do you think the fact that the blog is on the front page on not behind some static page, gives more authority to the domain? I'm thinking because of the fresh content being added to the homepage that, this gives a better page rank and better rank in the SE's in general because it looks like the home page has fresh content being added to consistently rather than just a static page deep in the site. Any thoughts?

I am sure you can go either way with it and either way should work but like Eric stated, it all depends on the authority of your domain.

I decided to add a blog to my domain and we feed the blog posts to the homepage to keep the homepage updated and consistently changing. Even though the blog is only a few weeks old, google is indexing the blog posts within 20 minutes of being published and they are ranking usually in the top 10 for their title. So this goes to show that the blog doesn't have to be on the homepage to do well.