Are you sure moving a wordpress blog to a main website is a good idea?

[GardenBeet]

Sorry to ask this question again but I left out some background info......

My blog sits at www.gardenbeet.wordpress.com

I have been using the blog as my main linking page for my main website at www.gardenbeet.com  - the blog links to relevant sites in both blog articles and on the side of the blog.

The blog links to industry websites that in turn link to my main website at www.gardenbeet.com.

If I was to move the wordpress blog to my own domain will my mainwebsite loose its strength. Will all those blog links pour my link juice out of my website?

Will the current three way links become two way links and thereby lesson their linking importance?

Is the previous recommendation (combine the blog and the main website) still the best course of action?

Should I keep the two sites or perhaps close entries on the existing blog and start another on my own domain?

thanks for your time AGAIN

[anthonydnelson]

I would definitely create a new blog at gardenbeet.com/blog. This will drive traffic and links to your main site, which appears to be your ultimate goal.

Do not worry about linking out. If the link goes to a relevant site, linking out can actually be a good sign of credibility for you. Not to mention link karma.

What you do with the old blog is up to you. I would recommend moving the content and 301ing the URLs to the new domain. Here is a link to help you out. http://en.support.wordpress.com/site-redirect/ This would result in the current links pointing at the blog to pass juice to your main site.

Simply put, optimizing one site (gardenbeet.com) is easier than optimizing two (gardenbeet.com and your wordpress blog).

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Felicity

If moving the blog is a huge problem, then keep the existing one, and just start blogging and concentrating on your main site. There really is no good reason to maintain two sites and all you are doing is doubling your work.

Concentrate on making one site that is a great resource for your visitors and don't worry about cross linking, linking out and all of this other business as long as what you are doing is intended to create a great experience for your site visitors.

Hope it helps
Marcus

[Phil_]

I absolutely agree that linking out is not to be feared and the benefits may outweigh any dilution of link juice. However, I would never use keywords (that I am competing for) in an external link anchor text - that's feels like just giving it away.

[GardenBeet]

hey thanks - perhaps this is a grey issue? I have been told that I should not link from my mainwebiste to other sites - when I look around at other e-commerce websites I see very few links on other e-commerce main websites either -

[EGOL]

On my blog I link out to six to ten websites every day.  I believe that those links do very little damage to my rankings.  In fact, I believe that making my website a great source of information is far more valuable for attracting links and repeat visitors.

Also, if google would compare two identical pages, one with links out to great sources of supplemental information and one without, which do you think would rank higher?  My vote is  for the page with the outlinks.

I believe that linking out is powerful and it often add keyword rich anchor text to your pages.  Whatever you might lose in linkjuice comes back to you in many other forms.  "The Web" is all about links, not hoarding.

[GardenBeet]

hey thanks for the reply - yes i understand your point but my concern is that perhaps all my linking out to other websites from my blog may remove the strength of my main webiste (if I were to combine the two websites).

[EGOL]

If you have the blog on a separate domain then links into the blog will not benefit your main site (except in just a small way through links between the blog and the main site).

However, if the blog is on the main site then links into the blog will empower both the blog and the main site.

The result will be like uniting the clans.