Hi Dexter

It really depends. I generally say to keep your blog closely linked to your website as it will drive people to where they need to be in order to purchase your product/service. 

I do understand what you mean about boxing yourself in on topics however, but even in your example you could easily cover other topics and have the blog embedded into your website. 

I am not sure where you heard about the Google penalization, but it may have been for other reasons as I have never heard of Google penalizing a website because they generated more content – unless it was duplicated or spammy. 

As I said, it really depends on the purpose of your blog. But if your goal is to drive people to buy what you are offering, then I would suggest having it closely bound to your site. 

Cheers!

thanks for your opinions @juleswebb and @russellallert

what i find with many sites is that the owners get “told” they need a blog and so add another page.  they may then choose to blog on it and it never gets read as people land on the home page.

ive viewed client sites dozens of times over and ive looked over some that have had blogs for months.

the google hit on the blog side i think comes from keyword stuffing.  a page with 10 blogs posts all repeating your keywords multiple times is sure to cause issues.  (but dont quote me im not an seo expert)

I agree with @russellallert

@dextereugenio Hi Dexter.  I haven’t heard of sites getting penalized by Google for a blog unless they are abusing something like over pinging, scraping content at a high volume, or otherwise duplicating content.

There are two ways to look at it.  Having a blog off of your main domain makes it look more like a blog and less like a business which can be good for attracting and keeping loyal visitors.  But having a blog on your main domain can mean better search value because your site will have fresh content for visitors and search bots to come to regularly.  Plus you’re likely to get links to your blog posts (assuming they are high quality) and if the blog is on your main domain, that means those links will help boost your main domain’s rankings in search.

Hi Dexter!

Since first time home buying and mortgages are similar, what about writing about both on your blog and use “categories” to begin organizing the different types of articles/content on your blog.

Additionally, you could create a page for “first time home buying” that is more static. Like a 10 item to-do list when going to purchase a new home for the first time. Then you can link to that page in your posts regarding “first time home buying”. 

@dextereugenio

@abigailgortoni agree with you there.  100%.  but thats another thread! 

@blogsbyheather hence why a stand alone blog is more flexible (in my opinion).  if your business is very niche, wanting to start a blog about it could be difficult due to the content aspect being difficult.  what youre saying would work (and i understand it) but for the avg small business owner, its gonna be tough.

@everyoneelse i think both arguments are valid and have their merits.  me personally, im a blogger at heart and so prefer the flexibility to have a stand alone site with which i can do whatever with (change themes, invite guest posters, have cool widgets).  as such i have some high expectations with company blogs and are almost always let down.  (most either never update, arent setup right, or cant be found unless i troll their website).

@hayleymonsellGood luck with the new blog, Hayley! Let me know if you have any questions about blogging or on the promotional side.

@deairbyI agree, Dea, great discussion!

Cheers!
Russ

Good discussion topic @dextereugenio

If you have a standalone blog and it is popular and attracts traffic, then any links that appear on that blog to your mortgage broker site will pass along page rank and happy Google juice. But you’ll always be managing two separate spaces so if you get +1s on the blog, then you’ll also be working to get +1s on the website whereas if these two properties were the same, then you’d be collectively amassing more relevancy in google. 

My advice to new clients who don’t blog but plan to, is to have the blog and website together. For clients who’ve been blogging separately but don’t have a lot of traffic or audience, then I also say to combine the two. 

But for someone in your case with a blog with attention and following and historical presence, keep it separate and work on the cross promotion aspects. 

Google shouldn’t penalize a site that is updated often. In your example above, I agree with the others that the “blog” must not have been installed properly or was otherwise creating duplicate content issues (whether intentional or not). 

Cheers,Monique

@dextereugenio

I hear what you’re saying Dexter. Sounds like you prefer having a “personal” blog, rather than a business blog.

I would do that, but also make sure you have fresh content on your business site also. Blogs are perfect platforms for doing that and don’t require much, if you just sit down, schedule out what you need for a year’s worth of drip feeding.

If you don’t want to write, no prob. You can find some excellent writers on iWriter.com, if you research a bit and look at writers’ reviews. Make sure you pick one that has a lot of details in the thank you’s they get in their reviews. For $5 an article, you can keep fresh content in there once a week for a year for $260. I wrote a series for a real estate / mortgage entity outside the USA like that. When you buy it all at once, you can either pick your writer… or throw it out there, let them submit articles to you, and just pick the good ones. But do it all at once and you’ll be set for the year. You get a blog for your business site, and you get to write fun stuff for your personal blog. Win-win.

Just a thought…

Robin Carlisle