There are many initiatives adopted for engaging tour target audience by implementing human and organic SEO tactics. Blog posting is a significant part of such initiatives. Blogs need to be highly informative while being able to build signals for boosting your SEO attempts.

There are three major choices you will have to consider for hosting your blog in relation to the main site. This is going to be a major decision because a slight mistake can lead to loss of all SEO benefits that you have been expecting. However, the right approach can instantly reward you with remarkable volume of incremental hits that can only be attributed to your blog.

Defining your objectives of blog posting

Before you set out to compare the three prominent approaches of blog posting in relation with your main site, you should be able to understand and determine objectives of your blog by considering the following alternatives:

- Need to boost your image by way of online reputation management (ORM) to defend negative brand positioning in association with Search Engine Ranking Position

- Posting blogs for enhancing though leadership position for a brand or an organization.

- Need to facilitate channel to boost deep linking for particular website pages.

- Targeting human queries by establishing tool for building depth of content for corporate site.

- Promoting yourself as an impartial and unique voice in your industry vertical.

- Once you have gained clarity as to what are you going to achieve the vital decision of choosing a proper residing place for the blog needs to be finalized.

There are some very simple and clear-cut options:

- Subfolder- www.yourdomain.com/blog

- Subdomain- blog.yourdomain.com

- Separate domain- www.yournewdomain.com

Subfolder

Pros

This option has been recommended by many SEO stalwarts for adding fresh online content as well as to generate RSS feed of fresh blog posts right on the website’s homepage. This option enables blog to inherit parent site’s authority for instant ranking in relation to terms that are part of the post.

Another advantage is in the form of prompt crawling of new blogs by Google. Option of subfolder is also ideal for enhanced user experience due to superior integration with main site. It will also boost ranking of product pages due to social mentions and back-links that are generated by blog content.

There is a minor yet significant advantage of the option of subfolder. It is a well known fact that Google analytics facilitate first party cookies in terms of every single Subdomain or domain. This implies that Subdomain is an integral part of subfolder. By setting up a profile with a filter for subdirectory, it is possible to differentiate traffic for that particular part of website.

Cons

There is no direct ability of attracting back-links from external sites. In addition to this the option has no impact on additional listing of brand in terms of SERP. Hence there is no benefit of online reputation management

Subdomain

Pros

Posting blogs to Subdomain is relatively easier if you consider the technical aspects of blog posting. It does inherit advantages of subfolder in terms of parent domain authority as well as generating back links. You need not build authority for new site since the blog on Subdomain will leverage root website’s authority to help ranking of posts.

If you want to handle negative brand mention that is affecting your rankings, then you should have an additional real estate piece in SERPs. Blogs posted on Subdomain are highly effective for managing online reputation since search engines view the same as an independent web presence.

Cons

There is no significant value addition in terms of links to root due to enhanced ability of content to get good links as well as promotion. This approach lacks freshness of blogs that are posted on domains and also lacks high ranking ability of subfolder.

Separate domain

In order to establish an apparently ‘impartial’ voice and to build an isolated any unofficial presence for blog the option of posting blogs on a separate domain is exercised.

Pros

There is an occasional link generation to the main website with an ability to build an unbiased resource. The blog has all the potential to develop into an authority depending upon the quality of content. The authority can be transferred to your website subsequently via impartial linking.

The option is extensively sought after for controlling and generating external back links that enable you have control on anchor text. It also helps you build a distinctly differentiated brand image that is viewed independent of the main site. You can use the option for targeting another country. It is possible to achieve competent ranking for a long period by posting quality content.

Cons

The option of posting blog on separate domain demands perseverance and a long term commitment for development of back links and creation of engaging content. There is always a lurking probability of the separate domain to be perceived as a paid exercise due to presence of back links. This can lead to a negative impact.

Conclusion

If you are able to understand or define the purpose of your blog clearly, then you will able to choose the right position for the blog to gain the most optimum benefits. It is also important to appreciate the benefits of branding by way of posting your blogs on separate domain if at all one needs to go beyond the SEO.