What should be your corporate blog's URL?
A reader emailed me with the following question:
I was wondering if you have a POV, on if a blog should live on a corporate domain name (ex. company.com) or if it would be better to have the domain name be different from the corp. (ex. companyblog.com)?
That's a great question.
My answer is this: if the blog will get more links by being at an arm's length from the corporate site, then I'd have it on a totally separate domain.
Let me supply a hypothetical example... If a life insurance company has a blog about health and wellness and it's at www.stayinghealthy.com, that will garner many more links than one at blog.lifeinsuranceco.com, IMHO.
This may seem like an oversimplification, since I haven't discussed the branding implications, but I believe the "link-ability" of the blog is what will give the blog a long productive life in the blogosphere. Anything else is peripheral.
8 comments
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The better question may be, 'When should a company's website BE a blog?' Advertising Agency Hill Holiday just replaced their site with a blog, essentially choosing a conversation over a brochure to win new clients. I've done the same with my website - I ditched it and now direct prospects to my blog.
It doesn't work for every business, of course. But if we think of a blog not as a separate site, but a publishing tool that encourages social interaction, the fun part is when we don't think of blog and site separately, but begin devising instead ways of integrating social networking into everything we do online, letting conversations take place on the product pages of online retail catalogs, in the FAQs or tech support pages on product suppliers' sites, following news articles and restaurant reviews, even within search listings.
Why are we working hard to silo off conversations rather than integrate them into every customer touchpoint?Comment by Mike May [Visitor]
· http://www.e-venting.net —
03/20/06 @ 09:02
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Great comment, Mike! Someday in the not-too-distant future, "blog" will leave our vernacular and ALL websites (except a few remaining stragglers) will have blog features embedded into them. Trackbacks, pingbacks, comments, etc. will be as integral to the next generation of websites as Forms and JavaScript are today. I'm looking forward to that!
Comment by Stephan Spencer [Member]
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03/21/06 @ 03:45
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I think keeping the word "blog" out of the url would be a wise choice.
Comment by Peter T Davis [Visitor]
· http://www.petertdavis.net —
03/21/06 @ 09:34
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It must be late at night - I forgot to read the comments following your interesting post before I posted a response to it.
I'd still go with "blog.whatever.com" until 2007 or 2008, but I can see the wisdom of not using the word "blog" in the URL, especially as the term "blog" will likely change or lose meaning.
That must sound funny coming from a kid who blogs at Business BLOG Wire dot com.
Thanks, Stephan, Peter and Mike, for stirring the mental juices in this tired brain. (Off to sleep ...)Comment by Easton Ellsworth [Visitor]
· http://www.businessblogwire.com —
03/23/06 @ 02:17
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Morning, you look a nice guy. One I won't be ashamed to ask what the hell is a Blog URL & how do I get one? I've just tried to Blog & can't because of this omission in my otherwise exemplary life.
Thank you in anticipation of you replying. Won't be surprised if you don't though.
Happy Days,
Linda.Comment by Linda [Visitor]
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02/22/07 @ 05:38
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I would definitely put it in a folder on your corporate site. Never make it a separate site. you lose all the connection between your blog and corporate image. Well I think most people have figured this out by now.
Comment by Macke [Visitor] · http://www.eventsetter.com — 11/11/08 @ 06:17
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Why a folder. What is wrong with making it seperate?
Comment by Dan Davids [Visitor] · http://www.ctgoldandsilver.com — 03/08/09 @ 07:53
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Making it separate means less traffic to your site. I think a corporate site's blog should be used to attract traffic = more customers.
Having a blog in a complete separate site (domain) means the search engines (ie google.com) will index your blog and your site separately. Therefore, every time a user gets a link to your blog in a search results you might be missing a chance to get that user into your corporate site. Not to mention that if your blog is related to the product/service you provide (which should be) then having it in the same URL will help you get a better "Ranking" with the search engines. (Read on Search Engine Optimization SEO)
Whether or not it should be in a folder or just part of your main site, IMO that depends what your intentions are with the blog. As we get more and more into social networking I think we'll see more often that blogs are just an integral part of a Corporate website. People like the "personal" feeling this days. However, (IMO) I think making your Corporate site look like a blog is (most of the times) just wrong as you're delivering the wrong message unless you are running a newspaper/magazine type of company. Rather I think the Landing page should still provide the corporate look and feel while integrating a section on it with feeds of your blog where people can see right away your latest posts, but not make it an in-your-face kind of way.
Comment by Rolando Lopez [Visitor] · http://www.rolando-lopez.com — 04/09/09 @ 13:20
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