Blogger, WordPress, Sub-Domain, Sub-Directory, New Domain - Oh My!!

When it comes to setting up your Blog, there are many options and it's enough to drive you crazy.

Here is some information for each option...

Blogger Versus WordPress

- WordPress offers a lot more customization and has more marketing and SEO power.

- Some people think since Google owns Blogger it gives you a boost - that is not true.

- Blogger has more rules you must follow and it could potentially limit a marketing technique or tactic.

My experience and personal opinion is that any Blog is better than no Blog but if you want to get the most out of your Blog - go WordPress.

There are other Blog platforms as well, but I consider the two main contenders to be WordPress and Blogger so that is all I have commented on.

Once you've decided on your Blog platform, you then have to decide on your Blog structure.

There has been a lot of debate about a Sub-Domain versus a Sub-Directory versus setting up a new domain.

A sub-domain would be: blog . yoursite . com

A sub-directory would be: yoursite . com/blog

A whole new domain would be: newdomain .com

If you go with a whole new domain, then you have no "trust" and history built up and it may take longer for the Blog to get picked up.

It used to be that a sub-domain was treated as its own separate site with a root directory so you got the benefit of link juice and you potentially got more listings in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Since December 2007, Google states this is no longer the case. So you aren't really getting any extra link juice from this structure.

Matt Cutts, the public face of Google had this to say about sub-domains versus sub-directory (as related to the December 2007 change):

"Note that this is a pretty subtle change, and it doesn't affect a majority of our queries. In fact, this change has been live for a couple weeks or so now and no one noticed. The only reason I talked about the subject at PubCon at all was because someone asked for my advice on subdomains vs. subdirectories."

He then goes on to say: "My personal preference on subdomains vs. subdirectories is that I usually prefer the convenience of subdirectories for most of my content.

A subdomain can be useful to separate out content that is completely different. Google uses subdomains for distinct products such news .google. com or maps . google . com, for example.

If you're a newer webmaster or SEO, I'd recommend using subdirectories until you start to feel pretty confident with the architecture of your site. At that point, you'll be better equipped to make the right decision for your own site."

Although his feedback wasn't directly related to setting up Blogs, it still applies. So, based on that feedback, and my own personal success and experience I too vote for a sub-directory.

Don't forget, you may as well make it as search engine friendly as possible and rather than just call the sub-directory Blog (ex: yoursite . com/Blog) you could use a keyword or short keyword phrase (ex: yoursite . com/keyword-Blog or yoursite . com/keyword-phrase-Blog)

So in summary - any Blog is better than no Blog, but to get the most power from your Blog, go with a WordPress Blog in a sub-directory named with a keyword on your own server. Make sure you learn about all the necessary plugins and configure them properly to get the most out of your Blog. Hey - that sounds like a great article topic. Stay tuned!