Best way to handle blogs for a customer with a chain business?
-
I have a new customer who owns three local gyms. Each one has its own unique url.
I intend to do some blogging for him, and would like it to be effective for SEO. Obviously, publishing duplicate content is out, but writing tons of new posts each month is beyond our scope.
Would you recommend having one separate blog (with its own url) that is linked from each of the 3 main sites, or would it be better to create a blog on each site and alternate publishing articles on each one, putting a unique intro and link to the main post on the other two?
-
In a situation like this it is very difficult in my opinion. One thing I was unclear on, does the client own the brand, or are they just a franchisee? That makes a bit of difference as to what I would suggest.
-
If the client is not open to consolidation you're left with a difficult challenge. Not atypical of site owner thinking though. Sometimes SEO is just not given the trust value to be able to implement a best case solution.
So - in this case, I'd suggest it comes down to resources. Are there enough resources to devote to three separate blogs consistently enough with enough content unique to each site to justify three? Likely not.
More likely, a single blog would be best. This way, content can be created for all three locations as needed, and any "generic" content that doesn't apply to a specific individual location can all be kept on that one resource.
I would then link to the blog from each of the three sites as a main navigation link - make it the last one to the right in top nav. Or a footer or sidebar link on those sites. And then on the blog, I would include links to all three location home pages on the sidebar or in the footer.
Caution is needed to ensure no problems with link penalties (algorithmic or manual). So no keyword stuffing of links back and forth. And ideally, I would even consider a nofollow attribute on the navigation, sidebar or footer links to be absolutely sure.
-
I would still like to see some more answers regarding the best way to handle the blog as the sites are currently structured (versus the suggestion to unite them all as one).
-
I agree that that is probably the ideal structure. They came to us with the three separate domains to work with, and I think they would like to continue on that way, but I can always mention the possibility of a unified home page.
-
Hi there, thanks for your question! You've received some great responses. Has your question been answered? We'd love an update on the status of this issue, thanks!
Christy
-
To answer your questions: they have three area-specific domains (www.location1gym.com, www.location2gym.com, etc), and the gyms are all part of one franchise. We're not planning to stray too far from the franchise branding, and of course, each location has its own site as part of the franchise (we'll be able to link those two pages together).
-
Prestashop asks valid questions here.
The issue for me is why three separate sites? That seriously dilutes brand identify, and makes it infinitely more difficult to get any one of the sites to rank with the most strength in a sustainable manner.
If you're going to even consider one blog that all three sites link to, unless there's some extraordinary other factor, the proper solution is to have one site for all locations, and a location page devoted to each location. Then have the blog within the site as well. One site - serves all needs. Every task done to improve any one location or any other aspect of the site would benefit all others.
-
Interesting situation, let me ask a couple of questions to get a better idea of it. Are all of the domains area specific like gymvirginabeach.com gymwashingtodc.com, ect. Or is there one main name, like gymsite.com and then like gymsitevirginabeach.com. Also, is this a franchise or do they own the gym brand?
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
-
Duplicate Blog Content
Hey Mozzers! I have a client who is a dentist, with multiple offices, and wants to use an identical blog post (including images, alt text, text, tags, everything pretty much) from one of his office's website on his other office's website to save time and mimic the success of the original content for his other office. Everything I've researched says this is a HUGE no-no, but I'd love to hear if anyone else has tried to do something like this and if they were successful in doing so (implementing rel=cannonical or 301?). Also, if he is the owner of both sites and they both receive low traffic will Google even notice? My biggest worry is that if I did post the content on his other site, identically, that it would dilute the visibility of the original post, which has and is continuing to surpass our organic search goals... The main goal though, is to drive traffic to BOTH sites via organic search using the same content. Would love to hear everyone's opinions if this is possible or unrealistic... Thanks! -D
Content Development | | Derrald0 -
SEO for a Deal Blog
Hi, I have a deal blog that is several months old. My established and successful "competitors" have a high Domain Authority (43, 46, 63) but most of their blog posts are very short. Our readers want to know about the coupon, deal, discount, code etc - they don't want 250 + words for each post. However I am concerned that lots of short posts will label my blog as low quality and that Google Panda will get me. My competitors easily get on page 1 of google. Yes they also write articles but majority of their posts are short. I deindexed quite a few short blog posts but my audience googles for coupons and deals like crazy. I try to give as much info as I can without being wordy and annoying but sometimes that still gets me only 100 words. I also write a lot of articles relevant to my niche (mom/baby/maternity) that are high quality and several hundred words. Just looking for input on deal blog SEO. Thanks!
Content Development | | dealblogger0 -
Content: Best Blogs Article
Hello, For an Ecommerce site, I think a good way to get known is to write a "Best X Blogs" article, where X is a topic in your industry, and then letting the people you link to know about the article. I got the idea from a Mozinar. My question is, how close does the X from above have to be in your niche? For example, if your product is running shoes can you write a "best athlete blogs" article? I'm worried about them reading the article, then leaving. In some smaller niches the topics closest to the product don't have much in the way of blogs out there. So how close to your niche does the Best X Blogs topic have to be?
Content Development | | BobGW0 -
Should we be using a blog for news
Our domain has/had a blog on a seperate subdomain. However we were a little slack in always keeping this up to date when we are particularly busy. Rather than reinstating the blog, I have been adding all our new articles directly onto the website rather than as blog posts. Is there any advantage from an SEO perspective to posting articles to a blog rather than as content on a site?
Content Development | | dsmdesign0 -
Best places to get pictures for blog posts?
Well I'm really sick of reading people questions saying "help my sites been affected by penguin" So I thought I would ask something about blogging, where is the best place to find and buy pictures for blog posts? I already use Wikimedia commons. But I'm interested websites that have a bigger range that aren't too pricey. What do you recommend?
Content Development | | charles10 -
Harder and harder to get articles approved on My Blog Guest
Hi People, So I got a My Blog Guest account (paid) and have now for a while, I do back the service as its a great system and works well BUT mods are making it very hard work. I put up around 20 articles a month on this site which costs me £300+ to have produced by a professional copywriter and the standard is very high, I get feedback from bloggers commenting on how good the articles are because of the quality of the content (articles are 500 - 550 words). So all I ask in return is 1 link in the body and 1 link in the byline. I ask the copy writer to put a particular keyword somewhere in the content where it best fits, if its a top 5/top 10 article the keyword sometimes fits best in the first few paragraphs before it flows into the list. This is where the problem is: Now these articles are good, they have to be as there for a company with products in major high street retail stores so quality is not an issue. If I put the link in the first paragraph I get these kind of responses: "Linking from opening paragraph is rude to say at least" If I put the link in the second paragraph I get these kind of responses: "Please move your body link to the bottom of the article or better the byline" "The normal procedure is to Hide articles with links in the first few paragraphs like this one...Please edit to put the link in the second half of the article" "Links should be in the second half of the post" Then the articles are taken down until I do what they say! It's my article I can put the link where I want its up to the blog owner whether they want it or not, its not the content you want to administrate its the quality of the blogs, I got users private emailing me asking me to buy links, I've got users applying for articles where there using blogspot and wordpress free sites with content scrapped from the web. I think they got bigger problems then a link in the second paragraph and not the third.
Content Development | | activitysuper0 -
On-Site Blog or Blog Service for Best SEO Results
I had a blog associated with my site, then I had to merge two Google accounts and to make a long story short, my old Blogger page won't transfer to the new account. So, I'm starting fresh. My Question: Would I benefit most from an on-site subdomain blog, adding content to my site on a weekly/monthly basis, or an off-site blog such as Blogger, linking back to pages and resources on my site? Then, any other juicy tips would be great. Honestly, I won't expect a large subscription base. There will be a natural draw for some trade associates, and I'll be linking and promoting them as well. Thanks for any input. I'm new to the community, and SEO, but really impressed with this community.
Content Development | | honestabejosh0 -
Sub Domains or Multiple Domains? Which is a better way to go for blogs?
We just can’t decide what the answer is, particularly from an SEO perspective. We want to run multiple blogs on different categories, please assist on deciding should we go with different blog domains or create subdomains for each category.
Content Development | | amitjain0