Is it TRUE? Website/Blog Combo better than Stand Alone Site?

[Pubster]

For Google / SEO purposes what kind of site should I use with only 1 domain?

I started building with a website at www.mywebsite.xxx and then I heard it was better and Google loves Blogs....so I went www.MyThesisBlog.xxx and now I'm hearing that it is better for SEO/Google to have a website with a blog in a sub-directory such as www.Mywebsite.xxx/Blog I hear that if you do just a blog that Google only lists it on their Blog page and that Websites get listed on their Main page (I'm not talking about the search pages, I'm talking about some kind of internal Google list pages? Not sure about the pages or list being talked about).

So now since I'm not too far along I'm thinking of doing the www.Mywebsite.xxx/thesisBlog and BTW I'm thinking of using Joomla as the website portion...

****But my question remains the same is Which Method is Best for SEO/Google purposes?
My proposed site will contain Pictures, Articles. maybe a place for comments and about (10) Six minute videos and a few Non adsense related products for sale. The products are self-produced pack and ship.

Let me mention I know how to put up a Blog and Plug-ins for that Blogs purpose more or less. Also, I know how to put up an HTML Website using NVU or something of that nature.

The MAIN Question I have is SHOULD I COMBINE the WEBSITE with a BLOG in a Sub-Directory as opposed to Stand Alone Website or Blog?
such as: www.MyWebsite.xxx/Blog ????

Appreciate any input here. I think I posted this originally in the wrong forum.
Thanks
Pubster

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Pubster

The MAIN Question I have is SHOULD I COMBINE the WEBSITE with a BLOG in a Sub-Directory as opposed to Stand Alone Website or Blog?

You've gotten confused by a lot of on-site SEO BS and are now overthinking and second guessing. It doesn't matter which you do for SEO purposes. What matters is getting links, both in terms of quality and quantity, to your site and having relevant content to your target keywords.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

You've gotten confused by a lot of on-site SEO BS and are now overthinking and second guessing. It doesn't matter which you do for SEO purposes. What matters is getting links, both in terms of quality and quantity, to your site and having relevant content to your target keywords.

If people realized that, this part of the forum would immediately take a 50%
hit on thread starts.

Paul

[Pubster]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

You've gotten confused by a lot of on-site SEO BS and are now overthinking and second guessing. It doesn't matter which you do for SEO purposes. What matters is getting links, both in terms of quality and quantity, to your site and having relevant content to your target keywords.

Hey thanks...So there would be NO advantage for a Blog in a sub-directory and linking pages of the blog to the website????

[Pubster]

Originally Posted by paulgl

If people realized that, this part of the forum would immediately take a 50%
hit on thread starts.

Paul

Hi Paul....So does that mean your "ditto" to bgmacaw's
answer or what would you do if you were building a site as described? Would you build a Blog, Website or Combo?

[paulgl]

You got me! Touche!

I was looking at this on a pure SEO standpoint.

I believe in my own version of a wheel.

I have a website, connected with a blog (same domain),
connected with a twitter, and many connect with a squidoo.

I do that to get as much traffic as possible, not
necessarily SEO.

If you did one website, just added content in any way or form,
then got quality backlinks, there would not be much difference.

In my wheel scenario, I use them all for backlinks as well.

So, they kind of feed on themselves. But that's me. Everything
I do is thinking about backlinks.

Point being, instead of worrying about blog, etc., the number
one thing (after quality content) is quality backlinks. Expand your
site in any way you wish.

Paul

[dmtaylor247]

Yes just build both if you must, one in subdomian and link it to your site this will help. Personally I would just go for wordpress now, this system is the future and websites are the past...

[Pubster]

Originally Posted by paulgl

You got me! Touche!

I was looking at this on a pure SEO standpoint.

I believe in my own version of a wheel.

I have a website, connected with a blog (same domain),
connected with a twitter, and many connect with a squidoo.

I do that to get as much traffic as possible, not
necessarily SEO.

If you did one website, just added content in any way or form,
then got quality backlinks, there would not be much difference.

In my wheel scenario, I use them all for backlinks as well.

So, they kind of feed on themselves. But that's me. Everything
I do is thinking about backlinks.

Point being, instead of worrying about blog, etc., the number
one thing (after quality content) is quality backlinks. Expand your
site in any way you wish.

Paul

I guess I may have worded my question the wrong way, but you hit on what I was getting at exactly...thanks for coming back to reply!!

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Pubster

Hey thanks...So there would be NO advantage for a Blog in a sub-directory and linking pages of the blog to the website????

There's no advantage one way or the other. Most blog based sites I create are either magazine style, like the first two in my sig, or single page per article blogs, like my 'boring memo' theme or the 'otter mail' fan site, also in my sig.

One thing to consider is that most visitors from search engines and referrals won't be entering on the index/home page of the site. They'll be entering on interior pages. Therefore, spending a huge amount of time on a fancy frontend page will largely be wasted for most sites.

Remember, the most important things in SEO are links, followed by relevant content. As long as your site is structured well enough for search engine bots to follow it, you're fine.

[Goatboy]

I can't tell you if it is better to do one or the other or both. I can say that to the best of my knowledge and testing the reason you give for doing both is urban legend.

I have three sites operating that are built on WP. All show up in both Google regular search results and Google blog search results. Google search results are important because that is what we are building all of our businesses around. I have never heard of any Google internal pages and have no idea why I would want to show up anywhere other than in the SERPs since that is where people will find me.

My two cents is: be careful "buying in" to everything that you read here. There are many theories thrown around and sometimes they are right and sometimes not. I spent a lot of time chasing non-working suggestions before I figured out I needed to trust myself more.

I don't think it will make any difference if you build a static website, a blog, or some combination of both. The only thing I have found that seems to make ranking a bit easier is to set up Wordpress to operate a static front page and then point my links to it. Others have had great success without using a static front page. Find what you are comfortable with and give it a try. This is kind of like learning to ice skate, we are all going to fall down sometimes.

[WareTime]

As bgmacaw said the answer is Max. Max no difference whether you build a blog or site.

I would pick which ever lends itself to the type of site you are planning. Is it an information site, then the traditional time organized blog style is out as people can't easily find anything once they arrive at your site. If it's this type of site you either need to build a traditional site or a blog such that it's organized in the same manner as a traditional site.

A blog in a sub directory in addition to a traditional site gives you a nice place for those little one off type posts or if you want to show a little more personal side of yourself.

Which you choose really depends on the type of site you are building. Either one or both are fine.

[Pubster]

Originally Posted by WareTime

As bgmacaw said the answer is Max. Max no difference whether you build a blog or site.

I would pick which ever lends itself to the type of site you are planning. Is it an information site, then the traditional time organized blog style is out as people can't easily find anything once they arrive at your site. If it's this type of site you either need to build a traditional site or a blog such that it's organized in the same manner as a traditional site.

A blog in a sub directory in addition to a traditional site gives you a nice place for those little one off type posts or if you want to show a little more personal side of yourself.

Which you choose really depends on the type of site you are building. Either one or both are fine.

Thanks, that makes sense.

[Pubster]

Goatboy says
testing the reason you give for doing both is urban legend
All show up in both Google regular search results and Google blog search results.

Thanks Goatboy THAT is the pages they were talking about showing up in, but you say that is myth....glad to hear that.
Not to sound too stupid...I have always just did a Google Search....Is there a special search term for Blogs and regular Search results to see if your site is listed in both as you mentioned about your 3 sites? Thanks a bunch!

[Goatboy]

To use Google blog seach, go to the regular Google search page. At the top left is a tool bar. The last position on the tool bar is <more> with an arrow. Select that and a scroll down menu will appear with a "blogs" setting about 1/2 way down. From there you can search away.

[mbphoenix]

Maybe a little off topic but...

Does it matter much whether you use a subdomain name for building sites vs a top level domain?

It would sure save a lot of money to just use subdomains, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by doing so.

[Pubster]

Originally Posted by mbphoenix

Maybe a little off topic but...

Does it matter much whether you use a subdomain name for building sites vs a top level domain?

It would sure save a lot of money to just use subdomains, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by doing so.

If you are talking about what I think you are talking about you can use ADD-ON domains with a Host Gator "Baby" account. Then your sites will show up on any domain you add-on without a Main Domain-Prefix. You can have unlimited add-on domains with only one hosting acct and the public only sees a singular domain. Then you can link / back-link to that Add-On domain pages just as you would your main/home domain as these guys are talking about in this thread. This IMHO, but someone may have additional info here on the thread.

[Goatboy]

There are a lot of different ways of doing it. When I started, I was talked into getting a reseller's account so I can easily split off my sites or host sites for others. I've been happy enough with the reseller account and I have just set up new cpanels and accounts whenever I have started a site.

I haven't bothered to try doing a subdomain primarily because it seems like it would be hard to split it off and sell it to someone. In other words, if I get tired of working on a site and decide to throw in the towel I can sell both the domain name and the site as long as it has its own cpanel. With the reseller account I can even offer hosting. If I simply do a subdomain, I give up the opportunity to sell the site and I am left with only the value of the domain name.

[mbphoenix]

Originally Posted by Pubster

If you are talking about what I think you are talking about you can use ADD-ON domains with a Host Gator "Baby" account. Then your sites will show up on any domain you add-on without a Main Domain-Prefix. You can have unlimited add-on domains with only one hosting acct and the public only sees a singular domain. Then you can link / back-link to that Add-On domain pages just as you would your main/home domain as these guys are talking about in this thread. This IMHO, but someone may have additional info here on the thread.

Yes you are correct, I should have said "Add-ON" domains.

So for example, if I already own DogTraining.com and create a free ADD-ON domain called LearnToFetch.DogTraining.com and build a site around it.

Would it rank lower that if I got the domain LearnToFetch.com ?

Logically I would think so, but if it is just slightly ranked lower it may be ok considering the money saved on domain names. you a

[Pubster]

Originally Posted by mbphoenix

Yes you are correct, I should have said "Add-ON" domains.

So for example, if I already own DogTraining.com and create a free ADD-ON domain called LearnToFetch.DogTraining.com and build a site around it.

Would it rank lower that if I got the domain LearnToFetch.com ?

Logically I would think so, but if it is just slightly ranked lower it may be ok considering the money saved on domain names. you a

No no that was not what I was trying to say. I was saying you could buy the domain ie..learntofetch.com without having to buy separate hosting. You could host and build the site named www.LearnToFetch.xxx and host it on the same account as your Dog Training account and all people would have to type in is www.LearnToFetch.xxx and not a combo of the two.
If you don't want to buy the domain you could just add a directory to DogTraining.xxx such as www.DogTraining.xxx/LearnToFetch . Sorry for the confusion.

[mbphoenix]

Originally Posted by Pubster

No no that was not what I was trying to say. I was saying you could buy the domain ie..learntofetch.com without having to buy separate hosting. You could host and build the site named www.LearnToFetch.xxx and host it on the same account as your Dog Training account and all people would have to type in is www.LearnToFetch.xxx and not a combo of the two.
If you don't want to buy the domain you could just add a directory to DogTraining.xxx such as www.DogTraining.xxx/LearnToFetch . Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks for clearing that up, but I still did not ask the right question.
Ok, so lets say I own and host DogTraining.com and I create the folder DogTraining.com/LearnToFetch.

Then I build a site around LearnToFetch.

Would it Rank lower than if I bought the domain instead of using a folder?

So the real question, following this example is:
If I use a "Folder Name" for the URL

[tony-raymondo]

Originally Posted by Pubster

The MAIN Question I have is SHOULD I COMBINE the WEBSITE with a BLOG in a Sub-Directory as opposed to Stand Alone Website or Blog?
such as: www.MyWebsite.xxx/Blog ????

folks might be asking this question because this is the way Matt Cutt's blog is structured.

Admittedly, it is very bizarre that he does this, and it does give one pause.

But I wouldn't worry about it.

If you want to worry about something in your directory text, worry about Wordpress permalinks.

[Pubster]

Originally Posted by mbphoenix

Thanks for clearing that up, but I still did not ask the right question.
Ok, so lets say I own and host DogTraining.com and I create the folder DogTraining.com/LearnToFetch.

Then I build a site around LearnToFetch.

Would it Rank lower than if I bought the domain instead of using a folder?

So the real question, following this example is:
If I use a "Folder Name" for the URL

I think ranking higher or lower depends on what you do with your page. Each page on your site has the ability to be SEO'd as good as the home page. You have Meta Tags to optimize on each page such as Title Tag which I feel is the most important. Then description tag, H1, Anchor Text..utilize your Keywords in these Metas. Link and Backlink to your page. IMHO I think any given page can outrank the other no matter if it is your home page or not. Yes, I think you have a slight edge if your Domain is your main Keyword phrase, but that is only one part of SEO or only one piece of the puzzle. People don't always enter your site via the home page. Depending on their search, they could enter on any page or directory of your site if that page is optimized for their search phrase.