Moving Blog from www.topic.domain.com to www.domain.com/blog
-
Hi Fellow Mozzers,
Just started off here on seomoz.org and am super happy to have joined the community! I've recently started a new job as web optimization manager for an education company. There is a lot to do and one of my first tasks is to figure a better strategy for our current blog.
I've convinced our management to move our blog from topic.domain.com to domain.com/blog. My research has shown that this is a better strategy so that our blog can receive the DA of our root domain, get more people to click through our site, and even receive more natural searches (PLEASE, someone correct me if I'm wrong on this).
Anyway, our blog is currently hosted as a Wordpress blog and we're wondering if it's more worthwhile to build a blog platform ourselves or continue using Wordpress. I am not a technical guy and don't know the backend stuff to make it happen, but my concern is primarily for the optimum search capacity. Also, our bloggers frequently put links to different portions of our website - does this hold any negative SEO value in terms of too much internal linking? I personally wouldn't assume so, but then again I could be wrong. Finally, we also track our main website using Google Analytics- currently, the only tracking we have installed on our blogs is the default provided by Wordpress (yes yes I know, but that's why i'm here -- to fix these weaknesses). I'm assuming we will be able to better track using GA when the switch is made.
So, I guess my questions are:
(1) Is my research correct in that it's better to have our blog hosted as domain.com/blog over topic.domain.com
(2) Are there any best practices in making this switch and/or any negative implications with continuing to use Wordpress or should we build our own platform (we have the internal resources to do so, but would prefer to take the easiest and best route in terms of SEO and community building).
(3) Will it still be just as easy to track using GA.
Thank you!!
Pedram
-
Thank you!
-
It is usually a good thing to do some natural internal linking from your editorial content to your main site or product/service pages. Be careful not to "over-optimize" the anchor text when you link internally or you stand a high risk of an over optimization penalty.
-
Along these lines, we do a lot of internal linking from our blogs to other content on our website. Can this serve to hurt us in anyway?
-
Thank you both!
-
1. Yes you are correct about moving the blog to /blog so you can get the DA value from the root domain. It also will help your root domain more to have the content at /blog b/c any links you generate to your content will go back to the root domain DA.
2. I wouldn't recommend switching from wordpress. There is just no business case (SEO-wise) for switching away from Wordpress. The Yoast SEO plugin makes on page optimization and technical seo for wordpress a no-brainer and the WP community support will more than make up for any advantages you might think of on a propreitary system.
3. Yes tracking on GA will be suffice. You may want to setup a custom profile to track just the blog content in google analytics if you have someone who you want to be able to view blog analytics but not the entire site analytics. Just a suggestion!
Sounds like you are on the right path, hope this helps!
-
Hi Pedram. Complex looking questions, but I think that the answers are fairly straight forward.
1. Short version, yes. As you say, this will allow your blog to benefit from the authority of your main site. I say short answer, as it is a little dependent on what you want to achieve, but presumably you want to rank the blog posts, so "Yes".
2. I'm not personally a bit wordpress fan. I am also a big fan of bespoke build. Despite those 2 facts I would struggle to find any justification of bespoke over wordpress other in some very specific circumstances.
Best practice would mostly revolve around updating inbound links and 301ing from the old address.
3. Yes. Possibly even easier, as there are plugins that will set it all up in the right places for you.
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
-
Passing "link juice" from old domain to new domain
I am purchasing several websites from the company I work for and starting my own company. 1.The websites have not been updated in several years
Branding | | RoxBrock
2. The websites have poor SEO rankings
3. Though bad inbound links have been removed, there may still be some added by a black-hat SEO company I would like to start a new website and move all the content to that site. My questions are: 1. Will it hurt my new website rankings if I redirect the old site content to my new site and delete the old sites--due to possible bad inbound links, losing rank due to redirects (I have lost rank from redirecting in the past)? 2. If related, isn't it better to put all the content on one website? Thank you.0 -
High Profile Entity (Actress) w/ incorrect Birthdate
I would like to see if you have any recommendations on a unique case that you might be able to advise me on. I have a high profile client who has the knowledge graph appearing for her keyword. This client is from another country originally - Denmark . She now lives here in the USA and is working on her acting career with very well known actors. On her knowledge graph, her birthday is displayed incorrectly. I have proof of identification of client. Based on my research, it looks like Birthday typically is tied to Wikipedia Page. Client does not have a wikipedia page in google.com but previously had one in google.dk. Her page was taken down on google.dk because of users (journalists) adding gossip and false information to her wikipedia page as well as false stories - all in another language. After being attacked online by gossip magazines and journalists, they have posted (jealous women) content making my client seem as if she is much older than she is. At this time, what is displaying on the knowledge graph makes her 20 years older than she is. Any ideas on how we should approach this. She reached out to google and provided documentation but nothing has changed. Based on what I can see this information is directly related to the google.dk information formally posted online. Since wikipedia is now down, her birthday still appears incorrectly. Any recommendations on how to resolve this issue with Date of Birth. Thank you
Branding | | InternetRep0 -
Should a company's online tool be hosted on their own domain?
Our company is developing a web-based tool that will provide good value for its users and generate leads for us. The tool is large enough in scope and different enough than the main service that we provide that we're considering putting it on its own domain. I have two questions: 1. Does it behoove a company to put their online tool on a separate domain if the tool is large enough in scope and different enough from their website's core function / business's core service? (Examples of this would be Hubspot's Marketing Grader or Open Site Explorer before Moz rolled it back into its domain.) 2. If yes, should the domain name a) describe the function of the tool or b) build a brand for the tool itself? Thanks for your help!
Branding | | APM-SEO0 -
How to turn a good blog into link bait
Hello, I don't really believe in spending a lot of time link building (and maybe that's a limitation of mine). I believe, at least for the small businesses I've been running, that producing targeted, thorough, very very helpful, useful, unique, authority based, knowledgable, transparent content is what most of the time should go into. I'm sure there are many exceptions in industry and company size. We use a blog and feature it really big and solid on the home page. So we're making a blog that has the qualities above (useful, unique ... transparent). How, while we're doing the writing, can we make the content also be good link bait? We need an awesome link profile. Also, what free easy afterward social or email outreach am I not including to maximize exposure (The only content marketing I do is posting blog posts right now on Facebook and Google+)? What would you do with the first $100 in this context? The first $300? (We're low budget always) Thanks, Bob
Branding | | BobGW0 -
Sorting out a proper domain - changing from .org
I have a client with a business.... normal business and he has a .org address. .com and .co.uk are taken buy sites trying to sell those for £100000 each. So.... What would you do... Original - mybusinessname.org OR my-business-name.co.uk mybusinessname.uk.com mybusinessnameuk.com You get the point... Suggestions greatly received on what to recommend to the client...
Branding | | JohnW-UK0 -
Do Dashes in Domain names hurt SEO ranking?
I have found conflicting reports online whether or not dashes in domain names hurt/help ranking. Example yourbrandonline.com vs your-brand-online.com? I found Rand's write up on how to select a domain and he suggests staying away from hyphens but mainly because its hard to remember or people my enter it in wrong. Here's his comment. "Reject Hyphens and Numbers
Branding | | JoshKimber
Both hyphens and numbers make it hard to give your domain name verbally and falls down on being easy to remember or type. I'd suggest not using spelled-out or roman numerals in domains, as both can be confusing and mistaken for the other." Aside from people possibly struggling to get there directly because of the domain name, are they OK to use? Or, are domains with hyphens considered spammy? Thanks in advance.1 -
Should I put my "brand" in every one of my posts / pages?
I've heard different thoughts on this and wanted to see what you the seomoz group thought. I have been leaving my "brand" out of my titles so I could create longer titles (without my "brand" taking up precious space.) I've also read that adding your brand can take away from the words you want to optimize for in the title / post. I've read other places that you want your brand in every page title to "strengthen" your brand. Long story short, I'm trying to figure out if I should add my brand to the my page / post titiles, or leave them as is. Feel free to check out my site and current title template if you'd like. Thanks!
Branding | | NoahsDad0 -
Branding/Domain Challenge
A year and a half ago, SEO was all new to me and I may have made a mistake that looks to be a problem now. In a misguided quest to rank higher and faster, I used a domain for it's keywords and quick ranking potential rather than using my business' name URL. I've built the links and authority to where I'm now ranking well for many of my local search terms which is important for my local business success. The situation is that now I want to expand my business nationally as a franchise which will require my company's name in the domain(?), and the addition of entirely new pages and terms. My company's name' URL> www.ImpactMMAfitness.com is pointed to my site www.austinfitnessgyms.com and GA shows a significant # of visitors type our name in to find us. I also think it would be odd for someone outside my town looking for franchise info to be pointed to a different domain with Austin in it. I was wondering what option would be best: Keep as is Change domains - ouch!? Make a new second site ? I have 'ImpactFranchise.com I could use for a new site just for franchising but I would be starting at the bottom for any rankings. Is there a solution, or did I dig myself into a hole?
Branding | | OhYeahSteve0