What are the advantages/disadvantages of a blog residing on a website as opposed to free-standing and linked to site

[thirsty3]

I have a cleint with a web site and with 3 freestanding wordpress blogs - should we be housing those blogs on the site? should we combine them (its an insurance compnay with several business units). thanks

[activitysuper]

The main website wont get any benefit from the unique content you are using on the 3 blogs.

Personally myself, I would be inclined to create 1 blog on the website or even create 3 sub-domains for the blogs if they are not relevant.

For example if the 3 blogs were caravan, classic car and 4x4 insurance I would be inclined to create 1 blog with the different types as categories.

If the 3 blogs were car, house, life insurance I might create 3 sub-domains and link to each one in the footer or something.

But thats just me.

[USHoleInOne]

I would include at least one main blog to your site. Not only are you putting out fresh new content on your website but maybe one day you will have a huge following of people interested in what you say in your blog. Blogs are great in helping your potential clients but sometimes really fun to read.

[activitysuper]

To expand on this, you could also guest blog to generate relevant traffic, which could help start what Brett's talking about.

[SEOPA]

Having the blog on a subdomain, e.g. blog2.site.com also runs the risk of not benefiting the primary domain, in terms of inbound links to the blog.

The best bet is to have the blog at site.com/blog or have it anywhere and setup a reverse proxy so it resolves at site.com/blog.

Here is a great article/infographic on the reverse proxy: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-is-a-reverse-proxy-and-how-can-it-help-my-seo

[activitysuper]

My mistake I was just thinking of making it tidy, taking into account UX when on the site.

I guess in this case you would want:

.co.uk/insurance/car-insurance

.co.uk/insurance/house-insurance

.co.uk/insurance/life-insurance