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.
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
-
How do I get more traffic for my blog?
Hi there, I would like to know how to work on my blog to get more organic traffic. Thanks!!
Content Development | | lucywrites1 -
Using different sections from all over your site to compile a blog post, bad idea or ok to do?
I have a large site that sells various products, I have been on a kick creating new content relating to the many aspects of upkeep with these products after purchase, I wanted to create a blog post combining all the info for the group of products, but will be reusing some of the FAQs and even tips, since I'm more or less relocating the info. Since this blog post is using many different sources on our site, using a rel=canonical isn't possible. Is there anything I should watch out for, Will rewording / phrasing here and there be enough or should I steer clear of this as a whole?
Content Development | | Deacyde0 -
Why did Moz remove thumbs down from blog posts?
You may have already noticed one of the decisions we made when we redesigned the Moz Blog:
Content Development | | Trevor-Klein
We removed thumbs down from the posts. And it was largely in the name of transparency. Wait, HUH? You took away a method of critique, and you're calling that transparent? Yes. Here's the scoop: Thumbs down are one of the most cryptic, uninformative, and often passive-aggressive forms of feedback on the Internet today. By removing the mud from the water, we make the entire picture clearer. It's so easy to see a handful of thumbs down on a post (we would almost always get 1-2), and begin hypothesizing what went wrong. We shouldn't have published that one. The topic was too tangentially relevant; it was too long or too hard to follow. There wasn't enough evidence to support the claims. We could dive into analytics, attempting to glean clues about what happened, but in reality, any one of the following are reasons someone might thumb a post down: The title is confusing The topic is one that I'd like to deny exists (algo update, e.g.) The milk I poured on my cereal this morning had gone bad, and I need to take out this frustration somehow I once had a falling-out with the author of this post I still have a bad taste in my mouth about yesterday's post, which is skewing my thoughts about this one I found one of the comments offensive My finger slipped on my phone while I was trying to thumb this post up (we've confirmed this happens) I didn't like the author's self-promotion in this post I saw the new Star Wars trailer, and am terrified that Disney might think including Jar Jar's long-lost brother in the new film is a good idea. I hate everything right now. Okay, the last one might be a stretch. But you get the idea. Sometimes a post would receive a disproportionate amount of thumbs down simply because the author was proposing an idea that wasn't popular, no matter its importance. One great example: Carson Ward wrote a fabulous post in 2012 titled "Guest Blogging – Enough is Enough," divining what Matt Cutts would write about nearly 17 months later. The response? 45 thumbs down – one of the most maligned posts in the history of the Moz Blog. Authors have emailed us in a tizzy, asking if their thumbs down meant they weren't quite right for the Moz audience, and in replying to them we came to this overarching realization: We didn't know why they got thumbs down, and we couldn't find out with any certainty, but more often than not it just didn't really matter. We were confident in their points and their presentation, and real criticism would nearly always show up in the comments. All that said, we love it when people offer up constructive criticism. We always take it to heart, and hearing directly from you all is the best way we can improve. For that reason among many others, we'll always have the comments below the post. If you feel like a post wasn't up to snuff, please take a moment and tell us why in those threads (please keep it TAGFEE). One last note: Thumbs down remain available on comments, though that's a temporary stop-gap while we work on a more informative system for flagging comments that are offensive, or facepalm-worthy attempts at links (they're nofollowed anyway!), or otherwise inappropriate for our community. We'd love your questions or comments on this change, and hope you're enjoying the new look of the Moz and YouMoz blogs!11 -
Blogs, blogspot, tumblr etc
We currently have our own wordpress blog on our site using wordpress, is it worth while having others such as blogspot, tumblr etc for seo purposes? Or would I be wasting my time and efforts?
Content Development | | Shuffled0 -
Same content on site blog as a separate blog. Will unpublishing on one blog evade duplicate content issues?
I just discovered my client was posting the same content as the site I'm working on for him on a separate blog. I don't want to run into duplicate content issues. Both are Wordpress sites. Will it suffice to simply unpublish duplicate entries on the other blog and leave the posts as drafts?
Content Development | | locallyrank0 -
Having Blog and Forum for Store is Beneficial or Not
Hello ! I am building a cosmetic store. I have blog.storename.com , forum.storename.com. i started both to make my store content rich. On my blog we are personally reviewing cosmetic products. and forum user are sharing experience and problems related to beauty..... But i was reading this post http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/uncover-competitors-using-multiple-sites-for-multiple-first-page-rankings . it has this " Alright, Google dislikes pages, subdomains, and domains with substantially duplicated content. Got it. " Any way my content is not going to be dup at all. but Product which we are reviewing on blog. ll also be on our store for sale. and might be people sharing own experiences about same product on forum. do u think i should worry?
Content Development | | vinku0 -
Blog and seo
hi this is my first ever dip into the Q & a section of this website so go easy on mew please my question is , is it better to have a blog seperate fron your own site or within your website many thanks
Content Development | | Westernoriental0 -
Duplicating Articles/Blogs
Two years ago, some articles and blogs were written and submitted to certain tech and news sites relevant to our field. Will it be fine to submit those to other sites now. It is our content only and not some one else, but would it be penalty to submit the copy to other article sites whereever those articles/content are relevant today also?
Content Development | | sayeed0