Blog on domain or sub-domain

[landonkahn]

Hi,

I am looking to incorporate a blog that currently sits on another domain into my site. I am not sure whether to do this as part of my domain or as a sub-domain e.g.

mydomain.com.au/blog

blog.mydomain.com.au

I can see the benefits from an SEO perspective for both but just wanted some advice on the best way to go.

[landonkahn]

Thanks Paul. I do agree with a lot of what you have said, however, interestingly enough we created a blog on a separate domain (not even sub-domain, but completely separate) for various reasons late last year - and it already has a PR of 2 (which surprised me).

But we are going to go with the sub-directory

[ThompsonPaul]

Putting a blog on a subdomain gives you all the disadvantages of it being a separate site, and none of the advantages.

It will still have to work to earn it's rankings on it's own, separate from the prime site, but because the search engines can clearly see it's directly owned by and related to the main site, it's heavily discounted as far as passing ranking influence. In general it also no longer helps as a way to try to earn extra spots in the SERPS for the same keywords.

Plus, as a standalone site, it's going to take quite a while for its pages to earn any authority of their own, so links will have very little influence to pass in the first place.

Paul

[landonkahn]

Thanks Nakul and Daniel.

This was my line of thinking, however I do know that some large blogs use it on a subdomain and although you will not get the SEO value from incoming links to the blog, it is viewed as a separate site so therefore links from the blog to the actual domain would be viewed as external rather than internal links (am I correct in saying this)?

But I think I will go with the subdirectory.

[NakulGoyal]

Landon

I agree with Dan. I would go with mydomain.com.au/blog

I answered a similar question earlier today.

See:

http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-it-better-to-have-a-blog-under-your-main-website-s-domain-or-should-the-company-s-blog-have-its-own-domain

Also see:

http://www.seomoz.org/q/blog-on-a-separate-domain

and

http://www.seomoz.org/q/subdirectory-vs-subdomain

I hope this helps.

[djlaidler]

Hey,

I would most definitely run the blog in the folder (mydomain.com.au/blog) over the sub-domain...

Sub-domains are considered a separate site, and therefore offer little SEO benefit between sub-domain variations. That said, it is great for branding and breaking up very distinct elements of a business.

Hope this helps.

Dan