Internal vs external blog and best way to set up

[mamacassi]

I have a client that has two domians registered - one uses www.keywordaustralia.com the other uses www.keywordaelaide.com He had already bought and used the first domain when he came to me I suggested the second as being worth buying as going for a more local keyword would be more appropriate.

Now I have suggested to him that a blog would be a worthy use of the second domain and a way to build links to his site - however I am reading that as all links will be from the same site it wont be worth much in the long run and an internal blog is better as it means updated content on his site.

should i use the second domain for blog, or just 301 the second domain to his first domain.

Or is it viable to use the second domain as the blog and just set up an rss feed on his page ?

Is there a way to have the second domain somehow 'linked' to his first domain with the blog so that google sees them as connected ?

NOOBIE o_0

[mamacassi]

Thanks Everyone. I think for the ease of set up - and so the client can do it himself a wordpress is going to be the way to go. We only really got the second domain so that no-one else can and we maight as well use it I figure.

[AdeLewis]

Thanks Ryan,

I also use Joomla and AceSEF looks perfect!

[RyanKent]

It would entirely depend upon which software you build your site upon.

I use Joomla and AceSEF is one example of an extension which provides automatic internal linking. There are numerous other extensions which provide that functionality as well.

I would guess all major CMS solutions have at least one extension which provide that functionality. I know Wikipedia uses MediaWiki and all of their articles use automatic linking.

[AdeLewis]

Thanks Ryan.

So basic rule is - If at all possible, keep your blog within your domain.

On a brief aside, you said in you last post "With a single site, there is software which can automatically generate all your internal links as appropriate."

Are you able to tell me which software?

[RyanKent]

An offsite established blog such as Google's blogspot or WordPress.com can benefit your site. Those types of sites overcome several of the challenges which arise when you try to set up a blog.

Advantages: quick and easy to set up, a unique C block for hosting, no worries about site maintenance, etc.

Disadvantages:

• your blog content would not be on your site so would not benefit from the main site's DA. Also, your main site wont benefit from the links your content will hopefully generate. While you can link from your blog to the main site, it is not as beneficial as having a direct link to your site.

• as Alan shared, your main site would also lose out on the freshness benefits a quality blog can offer

• internal linking is also a fantastic means of properly directing the flow of PR throughout your site. With a single site, there is software which can automatically generate all your internal links as appropriate. For an external site, you would need to manually create all the links which is a lot more work.

Overall the best results should be achieved by integrating a blog into your existing site. You could choose an external blog and it can benefit your site, but not as much as an internal blog would.

[AdeLewis]

Hi.

Sorry Cassi, my post doesn't answer your question for you but raises another one based on Ryan's answer.

The main attraction for using 3rd party blogging solutions is the ease at which they can be set-up compared to setting up a blog on a domain from scratch even with the help of wordpress.

Some blogging services such as Posterous will allow you to use a sub-domain address for your blog. Would this help? or would this still be classed as splitting the blog away from the site?

[RyanKent]

Hi Cassi.

My highest recommendation is one site owner, one content focus = one site. By keeping the blog and the main site on the same URL, you will have the benefit of building up domain authority. Higher DA will allow all of your content from both sites to perform better in search results.

Maintaining one site is usually cheaper and easier then multiple sites. You have one set of software, one host and only one place to look if something goes wrong.

If you attempt to split the blog and main site, Google will recognize they are both owned by the same person and your interlink value will be diminished. It also can cause confusion for visitors, along with the natural loss of link value as sites links pass from site-to-site.

You can establish relevancy for a given area with your content and backlinks without depending on your URL.

[AlanBleiweiss]

sites need regularly fresh content and inbound authority building.  So in this scenario, an internal blog would make sense and provide more long-term value than an external blog unless you've got another plan for a high volume of long term content freshness on the main site.

The exact match keyword domain aspect isn't as important as it used to be since Google has slightly devalued exact match domain importance.  Even when it carried more weight, it shouldn't be a primary means for long term success because it causes the illusion that a diverse strategy isn't as important as it in fact really is.