Will a blog at mydomain.com/v/blog help SEO?

[AHH888]

Volusion doesn't allow messing with the main directory so I could only put a page at /v/blog. They do allow you to set up a 301 redirect so I had set up a 301 redirect from www.mydomain.com/blog to www.mydomain.com/v/blog. Is it worth starting a blog like this for SEO?

Thanks

[SimonCullum]

Hi there

To answer your specific question, "Is it worth starting a blog like this for SEO?" :

When contemplating starting a blog, it's imperative to really consider just how much resource will be required to regularly post new content to the blog and to moderate and engage with the readers of your blog.

All to often, a blog is started with great intention however soon becomes too much to maintain and starts to dry up.

• A blog with regular high quality posts that gain a lot of readership, comments and sharing can provide some SEO benefits to the main site that it supports, if setup and run in a professional way.

You'll find a really insightful blog post here on SEOmoz from July this year, it's entitled:  "Blog Design for Killer SEO - Infographic" and is by Cyrus Shepard. It includes an awesome Infographic with full explanations of all 15 points covered.  Well worth a read, is probably just what you're after.

However before embarking down the path of creating a blog, ensure that the resource is there to make it a sustainable blog that will add value and gain readership through high quality content.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

[AHH888]

Great article and I am very motivated to make a killer blog. From what i've read on SEOmoz it looks like the best place for the blog is on the same domain. Ideally i'd have it at mydomain.com/blog, but due to Volusion constraints I have to put the blog at mydomain.com/v/blog and add a 301 redirect from mydomain.com/blog to mydomain.com/v/blog. Is this a bad thing, or is it just fine since the blog is in the domain?

Thanks

[SimonCullum]

Indeed, the general consensus seems to be to host a blog at eg. mydomain.com/blog

Depends on the purpose of the blog really, plus the relevance to the main website. Sometimes a subdomain is the better option.

RE. a 301 Redirect from  mydomain.com/blog  to  mydomain.com/v/blog  it will make very little if any difference on the SEO side, so long as any inbound links to your blog to go straight to the actual location rather than through a redirect (thus not loosing any link juice through the redirect).

On the Usability side, the /v/ directory will likely be confusing to some people as to what it actually means, they won't know the reasons for it being there.

So likely no direct issue on the SEO side, however may put a few people off on the Usability side.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon