Guest blog better than owned blog?
-
Say I write a great article about The Best Colleges at X
and in the article there is a keyword linking to www.mydomain.com/productX
my hunch is that it would actually be better for www.mydomain.com/productX if the article wasn't promoted to the colleges through www.mydomain.com/blog - instead it was promoted through www.yourdomain.com/blog
my thinking is that the authority of another site linking to /productX with a popular post is higher than my own domain linking to /productX with a popular post.
Am I right? Does it not matter? Am I completely wrong?
-
As long as the "other guy's" page gets lots of attention and drives as much or more value to your product page as your own blog could have, then nope - in my opinion it doesn't matter. The problem occurs when a not-so-authoritative blog outranks you with your own content but doesn't send ya much value.
You're right to focus on the end goal which is improved rankings for the product page (and then improved conversions from those visitors!).
Sounds like your site is really cookin'. Good luck!
Paul
<object id="plugin0" style="position: absolute; z-index: 1000;" width="0" height="0" type="application/x-dgnria"><param name="tabId" value="undefined"> <param name="counter" value="163"></object>
-
Yes, I have started developing some very strong relationships, so I have a good stream of my stuff being linked to from elsewhere and requests to have guest posts on mine (takes some pressure off, lol).
As far as the "credit" - One time I had an article re-posted on a super-authoritative blog and it got a ton of comments, likes, tweets, etc...
In the article was a link to my product page - which shot to the first page and has held steady at number 4 for over a month
So, even though another blog got the "credit" (if you type in the name of the article my blog is nowhere to be found) - I got what I really wanted. In other words, even though I really enjoy doing research and writing good content, my main goal is to get the product pages to rank highly, not the blog.
So given that, does it matter which version of the article gets the "credit"?
-
We're thinking alike, Avraam. The one additional thing to think about doing... Since you've assessed the other blogs as being related and valuable, maybe you can start developing a relationship with them so that when you write on your own site, it's valuable enough for them to link to from one of their own pages. Then you're getting the best of both worlds.
Also to consider - if you're getting others to repost your articles, you run the very real chance that their website's will get the "credit" in Google - i.e. become the primary result for your content. Not a good thing.
Search Engines are "supposed" to be able to give credit to the original piece of content. But in my experience, unless you're a very authoritative site to start with, others can and often do rank higher for your own content than you do. Having them repost your content just to earn the backlink probably isn't the best way to go about it.
Paul <object id="plugin0" style="position: absolute; z-index: 1000;" width="0" height="0" type="application/x-dgnria"><param name="tabId" value="ff-tab-17"> <param name="counter" value="152"></object>
-
Yes that definitely helps, thank you.
I think I may be putting too much emphasis on the power of the domain, and not enough on the power of the page itself.
I've been trying to get a bunch of other blogs of the same subject to re-post my articles, thereby adding to the number of linking root domains.
But you're saying that it may be more worth my time to focus getting any one of those (or even my own blog) to get a lot of shares, likes, tweets, etc... and build the authority of the linking page itself.
Makes sense
-
You're essentially talking about 2 different purposes for the article, Avraam.
Posting your guest post on an outside site may mean that the individual link might carry more juice than the link from your internal page.
BUT! The big question is whether the external page will have as much authority as your internal page. If you can get your own blog's page ranked and attracting links, it can develop strong authority. Then, when you link from it to your product page, you are passing more juice than an external page that is just posted and then ignored.
It's unlikely you'd want to spend as much energy promoting the external site as you wold promoting your own page. And if the other site doesn't work to raise their page's authority, a guest post by itself doesn't bring you much benefit. (Unless the other site is so powerful that your guest post gets enough of a "halo" of authority.)
There's no right or wrong answer here. If "colleges" is completely unrelated to your site except for the potential use of that one product, the guest post might be better. If people might be looking to your site for "colleges" info as it relates to your product, I'd put the post on your own site and work to build some authority for your own page so it's link to your product page is more powerful. Or write another related post and do one of each
That help?
Paul
<object id="plugin0" style="position: absolute; z-index: 1000;" width="0" height="0" type="application/x-dgnria"><param name="tabId" value="ff-tab-6"> <param name="counter" value="98"></object>
-
You should do both. External and internal links are valuable if the content around them is relevant and unique. Depending on the quality of the external blog, that link might be more valuable.
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
-
Content Creation For Blog & Ranking Locally
Hey Everyone, I'm trying to rank for specific long tail key words such as: lower back pain treatment exercises lower back surgery options herniated disc exercises and etc. My question is: If I create a blog or article on these key words and integrate content and video within it and on youtube, will these blog posts come up locally when someone searches it within my area?
Content Development | | backinmotion1231 -
What are the effects of posting on a blog site using copied content from your site if you source the site on the blog site?
I have noticed that some of my pages from my site are posted to different blog sites and directory submissions they are word for word what is on my site but at the bottom of the page it does list my site as the source and there are links in the text back to my site. Is this going to negatively effect my rankings or is it ok since my site is sourced in the article?
Content Development | | steve2150 -
Company blog relaunch. Best practices with Google Algorithm updates in mind?
We have a company blog living on our corporate domain. The blog contained many posts with keywords and we believe google is penalizing us for over optimization as we use to be ranked in the top 5 for our main keyword now we're on page 8. Keeping this in mind, we are planning to relaunch the blog and we wanted to get some tips on best practices that addressing the following questions. Should we archive _all _of our previously published content and start fresh with this relaunch? Should we keep 50 or so published blogs visible? Where should this blog live (on our domain or a wholly separate domain)? We'd love to get thoughts and opinions, and any insight about best practices for a blog relaunch.
Content Development | | plumvoice0 -
How much do you pay for a 300+ word blog article?
I am considering outsourcing some of the blog writing and would like to get some idea of what is a reasonable amount to pay someone for writing say a 300-350 word article? Also any recommendations on where to find good writers? Thanks!
Content Development | | Clicksjim0 -
Short Meme/Image Posts on Blog - Will this hurt me?
Hey guys, I use Hootsuite to cross-post to twitter/facebook/google+/wordpress. It's mostly short one-sentence posts (http://minecraftserverfinder.wordpress.com/). But it's updated about 5-6 times a day and the images are relevant and interesting to my followers. Currently the wordpress page is not hosted on my main site minecraftserverfinder.com, it just links to it. I do have another blog on minecraftserverfinder.com/blog that has a couple of lengthy articles. My questions are thus: Should I keep going with these posts? Should I consolidate the blogs and host them on my main site? Thanks in advance.
Content Development | | HamburgerHelper0 -
WordPress Guest Post Admin Access?
Is there a plugin or function in WordPress for a guest poster to just get admin access to control comments? Example: Big Brand X writes a guest post on www.yoursite.com. Big Brand X wants admin access to approve or delete comments on their guest on www.yoursite.com. Big Brand X doesn't want access to edit their guest post or any other post on www.yoursite.com, they just want admin access to manage the comments on their guest post. Is this possible? Thanks for the help!
Content Development | | explorionary0 -
How to get a blog into Technorati
Hi This again is probably a naive question, but here goes anyway. I've searched around a lot to find out how to use 'Technorati' with my companies blog posts, i.e.extend their reach. I have discovered, from lots of querying, that WordPress does an automatic RSS feed which 'Technorati' will automatically pick up on once it has been told of an update to the blog by WPs automated Ping. In a WP forum I found a discussion about the problems of getting your blog into 'Technorati'. http://wordpress.org/support/topic/tags-do-not-update-technorati/page/2?replies=52 In it basically it states that you blog post should be there. If it isn't it is due to errors in coding on an individualized theme. I ran a W3C validater suggested, that did pick up 90 errors for my 'home' blog page. The link even explains in practical terms how to correct the errors. However, the designer is not convinced this is the problem. As a novice I don’t know if this is the reason for definite. Does anyone have an opinion on this problem?
Content Development | | catherine-2793880 -
Blog as sub folder or subdomain
Is it better to set up a blog using a sub folder on the website's domain or by using a subdomain: http://www.domain.com/blog/ http://blog.domain.com
Content Development | | yourspares0