Where to Put a Blog on (or off) Your Domain

Where to Put a Blog on (or off) Your Domain

So you already have a website up at your domain, but now you want to add a blog. Where should it go? You’ve got a number of options:

1) Replace your current website with a multi-functional blog that includes pages

2) Create the blog on a new domain

3) Put the blog on a subdomain (http://blog.yourdomain.com)

4) Put the blog in a directory (http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/)

There are benefits and downsides to each of these options, so read on to find the best solution for your needs.

Replace Your Current Website with a Multi-functional Blog

If your website is outdated, in need of a revamping, or simply not that useful to you at this point, consider replacing it with a blog or content management system. Popular content management and blogging solutions such as WordPress are a great solution.  This allows you to include a standard blog plus static pages that you can use to replace the content currently on your website.

Using a blog as your primary website  is a good solution for a smaller website and for people who want an easily customizable look and feel without the need for creating a site from scratch.  However, if you have an online business, company page, or other website that you don’t want to replace, this probably isn’t the option for you.

Create a New Domain for Your Blog

If you want to start a blog but keep it separate from your current website, creating a new domain is probably the best way to go.  Many web hosting plans (our Deluxe and Ultra Plans included) allow you to host multiple domains with only one hosting account, so the only additional cost is adding a domain name.

If you don’t want to replace your website with a blog or start out on a new domain, you’re left with two very basic options:

Put Your Blog on a Subdomain

This is the go-to choice for those who want to keep a blog separate from their primary website while still hosting it on the same domain.  Putting a blog at blog.yourdomain.com is fairly easy as long as your web hosting supports subdomains, and is a good way to categorize and brand your website. However, if you want your blog to be an integral part of your website, putting it on a separate subdomain may not be the best option.  You probably won’t receive the boost to page rank and search engine rankings that you might if you:

Put Your Blog in a Directory

This has become the most popular and generally most successful option for many people who want a blog as part of their website.  Google and other popular search engines give more weight to content that is in directories rather than on different subdomains, so consider using yourdomain.com/blog/ and a similar yourdomain.com/category/ structure for other sections on your website if you’re concerned about improving your rankings in search engines.  This structure is also very simple to put into place.  In most cases, all it takes is creating a new folder on your web server.

It’s tough to come to a conclusion about which option is superior to the others – it completely depends on your plans for the blog.  However, putting a blog in a directory is generally the safest bet if none of the other options stand out as a better choice.

Thoughts?  Please feel free to leave a comment.