What is the best way to run a blog?

[BeytzNet]

Hi,

I was wondering what is the best way to run a blog?

The options I thought of are:

1. Completely separate domain with many links to my main site.
2. blog.domain.com
3. www.domain.com/blog

Thanks

[BryanCasson]

If you want to increase the domain authority then I always suggest option 3. The reason for this is that Google has most likely already assigned some authority to your main domain name www.domain.com. If you decide to use blog.domain.com or a brand new domain then you will have to build both up with their own separate authority (yes some authority goes transfer but nothing worth the effort). So rather use option 3 am make one primary domain stronger. Far less work on your part and far better results. Lastly, by adding a blog to your main domain you in turn offer fresh content to your domain and we all know that Google loves fresh content.

[Linwright]

Completely agree with Bryan. Speaking from experience, the greatest results do seem to come from option 3. Yes, your main domain will probably already have some authority attached to it, but I truly believe that the main benefit is getting that fresh content directly onto the main site. By going with option 3, you give yourself the opportunity to not only add fresh content, but to focus on a variety of keywords through different blog topics, right there directly on your main website.

[vforvinnie]

I came here to mention the importance of fresh content, so I am glad you both brought it up.  I run a comparison site that has about 240 products that don't see a lot of updates, but I run a blog alongside the site.

For a while I got complacent with it and wouldn't post for months on end, and my rankings were disappointing.  The past two months I have been adding at least a page of well written content a week, and put deep links within the content to some of my more popular products.  As soon as I started adding pages the rankings began trickling up across the entire site, but especially the blog and homepage.

That's why I'd say url.com/blog.  You can put a feed on your homepage to show recent updates, so visitors can see you are updating regularly and the search engines will see fresh stuff on the homepage as well.

[BeytzNet]

Thanks all, it makes lots of sense but it brings me to ask another question...

What do I put in the Blog and what do I put as an article in my articles section?