In-house vs 3rd party hosting

[fleming]

Hi Everyone,

My company is interested in creating a blog. We're torn between hosting it within our own domain (www.company.com/blogname) versus a 3rd party host (www.3rdpartyhost.com/blogname).

From an SEO standpoint, what are the pros and cons for both scenarios?

I'm not sure if this question has already been beaten to death (I couldn't find it through search). If not, please provide me with your thoughts or direct me to an appropriate area.

Thanks!
Fleming

[RedClown]

The first option is obviously better. When you'll write blog posts, people will link to them. And Google (& others) will count the links. It's obviously better if all these links include your company's main domain :) The blog can slowly lift your domain to the top of search results.

One more thing. When people will come to read some of your blog posts, in case they want to know more about your company, they'll just delete all the path from the URL and go straight to your company's homepage. Hosting it on other domain won't make it.

[jimbeetle]

Or just simply include a link to the company home page to make it a bit easier.

[fleming]

Thanks, everyone. I figured it sounded like a pretty "duh" question :). I just needed some other opinions when backing up my claim.

There is one thing that comes to mind though. Would it be more beneficial if the blog was setup within a well known 3rd party domain (e.g. WordPress) first and then moved to a private domain?

Would doing this allow my blog to be found by the web crawlers a lot easier? This can then generate an audience quicker. And once we gather a large enough following, we could then move it over to our own personal domain, right? Or would the effort not be worth the reward?

[jimbeetle]

No. If you're going to set up a blog that is ultimately going to be on the company server, set it up there in the first place. (Otherwise you'll be coming back asking what the best ways to redirect a Wordpress-based blog are -- and there really ain't none. ;-} )

[fleming]

Perfect. Thanks again, guys. I consider this thread closed :)