Corporate Blogging Internet Marketing for Internet Retail : The Preston Blog

Corporate Blogging

Filed under: marketing |

Recently I was asked by a friend whether a company starting a blog should host the blog on their primary domain or use another domain. I have been asked this question a few times now and ~~as unhelpful as this may sound~~ the answer is really that it depends.

First of all you should decide what the purpose of your company blog is. Here are a few common examples:

1) To communicate with your customers (provide support, free information, etc.).
2) To improve your search engine rankings by developing unique, informative content. This is especially helpful for a site that has very few pages (to allow for deep-linking, ranking on tail terms, etc.).
3) To build a ton of backlinks to your sites through services such as technorati, icerocket, etc.
4) To have a SEO resource that will allow you to write an informative article and build a powerful link to your site with killer anchor text.

Most likely you are considering a company blog to satisfy a few (or all of these). If you are most interested in either 2) or 3) then you will probably be better off hosting the blog on your main site, i.e. www.yoursite.com/blog. If option 4) appeals to you you should definitely start the site on another domain (as a side note you should make sure that you host the blog on a different Class C IP Block - if you don’t know what this means then just make sure that you have different companies host your blog and your main website.

If option 1) is your main goal I would just decide which other option is most important to you as a fringe benefit. It may be easier for your customers to find you if you keep everything on the same domain but most people tend to be more relaxed and open with their customers when the blog is not hosted on their main site.

Blogging can be a powerful tool for increasing your internet presence and remember that anybody can start a company blog. For a great example of an internet retailer blogging check out The Vintage Tub and Bath Blog, an extension of the Vintage Tub & Bath brand.

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