Blog On Main Domain Or As /blog ?

13 replies
I have a brand new blog designed. I want to know if it's better to put the blog on

www.domain.com/blog or www.domain.com

Right now I have an optin form on the main domain. So an optin form on top domain or blog on top domain ?

I am planning to put more focus on the blog. So wouldn't it be a better idea to put blog on top domain and put a subscription form in the blog itself ?

Which one's better, why ?

Thanks...
#blog #domain #main #or blog
  • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
    I would say it all depends on what you want to do; meaning, how you
    plan to generate traffic. You may want to send people to a squeeze page
    for some purposes. In that case, you need to have the page as a standalone.

    Do you want to rank in the search engines? If so, then you would want
    your blog to be the root domain and not a subfolder of the squeeze page. At
    least that's what I would think most people would prefer as well as myself.

    You could have a static site in the root, and then put the blog in the subfolder;
    staticsite.com/blog. Using that approach will help your static site with seo. But
    you would need to have a static site with content.

    You can put the optin form on a different domain and promote. Then, develop
    the first domain as you want.


    Ken
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    • Profile picture of the author emmedi
      Originally Posted by KenThompson View Post

      I would say it all depends on what you want to do;
      [...]
      Ken
      Ken is right. However, assuming that your #1 priority is to build a list, put the optin page in the root and the blog in the /blog directory.

      So you can promote your optin page even by word of mouth (subdirectories don't work by word of mouth).

      Best,

      Marco
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  • Profile picture of the author homeworkin
    The most effective combination for me is to have the blog in the root directory and use pop-over forms to gather contact info. SEO really does work better on sites that have real pages instead of squeeze pages with no outgoing links. A squeeze page on the main page will build your list the fastest though. You just need to pay a little more attention to getting traffic there through methods other than SEO.

    If you plan to drive traffic in other ways and don't care about the SEO of your main page, it matters less. Each page of your blog will, ideally, be a separate entry point to your site with good SEO. Over time your home page becomes less important as you get more key word rich entry points.
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    • Profile picture of the author emmedi
      Originally Posted by homeworkin View Post

      The most effective combination for me is to have the blog in the root directory and use pop-over forms to gather contact info.
      Yes, you can have the optin in the root and the popover in the blog + form on the sidebar and on the footer bar as well. The more the better, but I go for optin in root so I can promote the website and get leads even offline.

      Best,

      Marco
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      Make Your Brand
      "Learn how to create your Fortune 500-like Brand even if your office is in a closet"
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  • Profile picture of the author TaceThompson
    Best of in root, and when using canonical naming will show as domain/blog anyways.
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  • Profile picture of the author Spencer Jones
    Thanks everyone for you reply. just returned home after church. This is my blog...

    Online Income Startup System

    Just had the redesign for the blog completed yesterday, still some things left to do there including the optin page at the top of the content area.

    My goal is to build up a name for the "Online Income startup" site. Thinking of it as a real business which will grow over time. This morning I created a fanpage on facebook for the site, have a youtube channel with the OnlineIncomeStartup name and also twitter. All working towards building traffic to my site.

    But I know that building a responsive and growing list is key element and everything i am doing must work towards that, I am confused if i need to shift the blog to the main domain or just let it stay there. By having the optin page in the main domain I can ofcourse do other things to focussed on building list... Already have one on my main page here - :: The Online Income Startup Systemâ„¢ - Kick Start Your Dream Income Online In 30 Days

    But still working the followup emails... Hope that will help you guide me in the right direction.
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    • Profile picture of the author emmedi
      Originally Posted by Spencer Jones View Post

      But I know that building a responsive and growing list is key element and everything i am doing must work towards that, I am confused if i need to shift the blog to the main domain or just let it stay there. By having the optin page in the main domain I can ofcourse do other things to focussed on building list... Already have one on my main page here - :: The Online Income Startup Systemâ„¢ - Kick Start Your Dream Income Online In 30 Days

      But still working the followup emails... Hope that will help you guide me in the right direction.
      If this is your main goal, then focus on the optin/squeeze page and put it in the root. You won't be able to do Google PPC for that niche, so it's not a great problem. With this setup (optin in root and blog in /blog) you get maximum exposure to your optin form and get leads.

      A blog is much less effective at getting you leads, even with all the tricks you can use (popovers, sliders, form everywhere). Its purpose is different (it contains the texts of your email followups).

      Best,

      Marco
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      Make Your Brand
      "Learn how to create your Fortune 500-like Brand even if your office is in a closet"
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  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    The only problem with having a squeeze page as you root page is that getting ppc approval from Google to send traffic there is next to impossible now unless you know exactly what you are doing.
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  • Profile picture of the author William_Razer
    SEO really does work better on sites that have real pages instead of squeeze pages that is no outgoing links. And less outgoing links always help to make SEO work on it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrea Wilson
    I like the idea of putting the blog in your domain name. If you would like to focus on the blog itself, i dont think it should be in another page. Readers like blogs better than a plain homepage.

    Andrea
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  • Profile picture of the author joshuagan80
    You have PR1 for your squeeze page which is good, but PR0 for blog. I would recommend create a graphic that can grab your blog visitors attention to click the graphic that would lead them to your squeeze page.

    Focus on link building to your blog & squeeze page, make sure you know which keywords are buying keywords and use them as anchor text.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    I would put the blog on the main domain if you are planning to put a lot of focus on it. You can always add your opt-in form prominently on the blog sidebar.
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