Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Should a business blog be on a separate site or on the ecommerce site itself?
-
Hey there. I'm a new Pro member and this will be my first question on the Q&A. Thanks in advance for your responses.
I'm the owner of an ecommerce site that sells custom candles. www.prometheancandle.com in case anyone wants to take a peak. I've become somewhat of an expert on all-things-candles over the past 4 years and I am thinking about starting a candle related blog.
My question is this. Should I build this blog on the ecommerce site itself, say @ www.prometheancandle.com/blog.php, or should I devote a separate site to answering candle related question, history of candles, etc?
At first, I was thinking that the blog should remain on the ecommerce site so readers would have easy access to the shop to be able to purchase products. But then it occurred to me that people who may be interested in reading up on candle history, candle making, meditation & candles, etc., may not want to go to an obviously ecommerce site to do that. I know Google values informational sites more than ecommerce sites (at least I think they do), so that encourages me to lean towards the separate site.
Well, I may have just answered this question myself, but I'd definitely be interested to hear feedback and opinions. Thanks so much guys and I look forward to hearing from you.
-
Mark and Francisco are both providing valid reasons to keep it part of the main domain. There are other reasons to split it out as well though, beyond "in case you want to sell the blog at some point". First and foremost if the primary objective is to build additional paths for potential customers and related to that, establish yourself as an authority on the subject matter in a broad sense, that's great - the blog belongs in a /blog folder of the main site.
Be sure however, that you really do write content relevant enough and "on-topic" enough to keep it highly related to your target market and your product vision. Too often I've seen blogs end up meandering into "related" topics that aren't truly related enough to be a very good match - they become diluted.
If the possibility exists in a big enough way that the subject matter could grow beyond your primary market, in that scenario, it's much better to have a separate unique domain for the blog, because a diluted blog will ultimately dilute the main site's topical focus and intent of visitors.
IF you split it out OR keep it in a /blog folder, either way, be sure not to over-link from blog content into the main site. So don't just make blog articles that talk about new products and duplicate product descriptions, don't put more than one link in articles that point to the main site's products. Be sure each article has very high quality content that really does offer valuable information in its own right.
-
But what I'm wondering is would it make more sense to build an authoritative blog with a unique url, gain subscribers and flow traffic through the blog to the website?
/ index
/blog
That's the way I would go. Your statement above basically says "I want to get people from my blog to buy on my website". Build an authority blog on your main domain. I wouldn't do it any other way unless I planned on selling the blog.
-
Thanks for the reply Mark.
I suppose in the end I would have to say the main objective is to bring customers to the ecommerce site. However, the goal of the blog would be to position myself in the industry as an expert by answering relevant questions regarding candles.
I realize that if the blog is directly on the site, than links to the blog will increase the overall authority of the ecommerce website. But what I'm wondering is would it make more sense to build an authoritative blog with a unique url, gain subscribers and flow traffic through the blog to the website?
Or would it be make more sense to focus on SEO and build the blog on the site, even though the blog would be obviously associated with a product, and perhaps be construed as biased information only meant to sell the product. I know personally I would trust the information on wikipedia.org as opposed to the information in an article on an ecommerce site. This is my biggest qualm about having the blog on the website.
I can definitely appreciate arguments for both sides, but can't see to pick one. I seem to be running around in circles here.
Thanks for the input and I would appreciate any other pointers if you have any.
-
My question to you - why do you want to blog about candles? Is this as a hobby, passion, or is this a method of bringing in customers to ecommerce site. You have to look at your goals for blogging - branding? Customer acquisition? Positioning yourself in the industry as an expert?
If customer acquisition is important to you, I'd recommend building the blog on the site itself, in a folder called /blog - this way, as an expert in your niche, you've positioned yourself in that manner, and people will want to buy from you due to your expertise.
From an SEO perspective, your high quality blog should naturally gain links, and can certainly be promoted through outreach and gather links in that way. This will help your ecommerce site's visibility and reach in the search engines, and will strengthen the domain as a whole. You don't get this if you blog offsite on a different domain - you won't be gaining this link strength for your site, which should be an important consideration.
Mark
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is it possible to do guest blogging on moz blog?
Hi, I know it used to be possible but now i don't find any contact to submit an article to the blog. How does that work? Is that still possible to do it? And if yes, what are the conditions to be writer for Moz blog? Thanks. Stephanie
Content Development | | steph_ba0 -
At what point to stop comments on a blog? Do too many comments hurt the page?
I have a page that's ranking pretty well, and driving sales. That page is starting to get 10+ comments per day and is starting to get quite long. I was wondering if there is a point where I should disable the comments? My gut tells me that people interacting with the page, and Google seeing responses with the users SHOULD be a good thing not bad. But, then I think that a majority of the content of the page is no longer the article, but the comments. All the comments are good, non spammy and directly related to the topic. People just asking questions, etc. Good engagement, I should be happy right?
Content Development | | DemiGR0 -
Can I post my MailChimp articles on my blog without getting hit for duplicate content?
I would like to post my newsletters on my blog, but am afraid of duplicate content since you can click a link on the MailChimp email blast to view the Newsletter online. Is this considered dup content?
Content Development | | RoxBrock0 -
How many categories should you have within a blog / Wordpress Site for SEO?
Hi Guys I am just wondering whether or not for SEO purposes it is better to have a small number of categories for your blog posts to fit into as opposed to numerous ones. The reason I ask is that I have one site which is fairly new to the search engines - 8 months old which has 7 general categories within the blog for instance "rail contractors", "railway construction" "airport construction" etc I have another site which is 10 years old which has built up 25 different types of categories for instance brand design, brand development, brand management (i guess you could put all these under 1 category "branding"? We've been writing lots of press for both sites... yet the younger site is getting more coverage on Google page 1. Would this be because the blogs / press are more concentrated under a specific category as opposed to being spread thinly throughout the site? Any help would be appreciated. Debs 🙂
Content Development | | lethalmarketing0 -
Is there a way to repost content (with permission) to another site without being penalized by Google?
I write a monthly Social Media Marketing column for a local Business Journal and the column is printed in their paper as well as posted on their website. Is there any way I can repost these articles on my website's blog without being penalized by Google for "duplicate content"?
Content Development | | vyki0 -
How many pages is too many to add to a site at one time?
I have quite a bit of excellent content articles at my disposal and we would like to increase the number of pages on our site. I could, theoretically add 100's of pages at a time. Does anyone have a good sense of how much content added to a sight in mass looks bad to Google? My plan is to add approximately 50 pages a week to our site, which already has 4000 pages of content. This is relevant content, since we are a custom writing service and all topics are covered. Our content is what gives us great organic hits and orders. However, I would like to add more than 50 a week...how many is too many? Thanks and I appreciate thoughts and feedback! Karen
Content Development | | eworld0 -
Simple question: How many words optimal for blog posts
Hello, We're adding a blog to one of our sites. How many words should be in a blog post for it to be optimal for the search engines? If it varies from industry to industry, please give a couple of examples. We were going to do 500 words but that seems a bit long. Thanks!
Content Development | | BobGW0 -
Blog for SEO: embedded in the site or separate
Hello, For both ecommerce and sites that sell services, I've seen a lot of people recommending a blog for SEO. Should this blog be inside or separate from the main website for the most results? I can see how adding one to a site would create more unique content and an opportunity for link bait, but perhaps there is a reason to have a blog separate from the main site Thank you.
Content Development | | BobGW1