All Entries in the "Blog Hosting" Category
What Kind Of Server Should Your Blog Be On?
When it comes to blogging, you can’t be too safe. The type of server you put your blog on can go a long way to your success. It helps to know what can kind of servers are available. Generally, you’ll run into one of the following types of servers, but which one is right for you?
I won’t get into the different types of broad category servers such as chat, application, and server platforms. This post is concerned with the types of servers you’ll find through web hosting companies. The kinds of servers you’ll use for storing your blog information.
I’m not an IT guy so if I get the technical defnitions wrong, please forgive me. But in general you’ll find shared hosting, dedicated servers, cloud computing, and colocation services, aka root servers.
Shared hosting is the most popular type of server environment. It’s usually cheap and that’s why many companies opt for this type of server, but it does have its risks. There are security risks as well as SEO risks associated with hosting on a shared server. If another occupant of the web server fails to update their blog or CMS software, it could pose a security risk to you. A hacker could gain access to that server through another company’s out of date software and your blog could spend a few days out of commission as your host scrambles to fix the problem. That’s why a dedicated server is usually your better option.
A dedicated server is just as its name implies. You have the server all to yourself. It is more expensive, but you know who your neighbors are. You don’t have any. You and you alone are hosted on that server. This is ideal because you can control what happens on that server by not engaging in risky behavior that could pose a security or SEO risk.
Cloud computing, like shared hosting, poses security risks. It essentially uses the Internet to disperse your information across multiple servers and possibly even providers. However, generally your blog will be hosted on one server while other web properties may be hosted on another server. This could have SEO benefits if your blog is on one server and the website it hosts is on another. But you’d still want both your blog and your website to exist on dedicated servers. Most cloud computing systems use a shared hosting format for all its servers.
Root servers, also called colocation services, provide managed server space for your servers. This can exist in a shared or dedicated format, but the idea is that another company manages your server at a location they provide. Another version of colocation is for a company to rent server space from the company that owns it.
When it comes to hosting your company blog you want to minimize your risks. That means ensuring that you don’t end up in a bad neighborhood or associated with companies and individuals that engage in risky behavior. To learn more about SEO hosting for blogs, visit SEOHostingProvider.com.
Why Do I Need a Blog?
Why do I need a business blog and why should I hire someone to manage it for me?
By now, most business Website Owners have learned there are advantages to having a company blog. But why do I need a company blog? How will it really help me?
Most bloggers, even those who have been blogging for a long time, do not truly understand all of the ways a blog can benefit your business. They are good bloggers. They even may know a little about SEO and can put all the keywords and phrases into your blog. But do they really know about blog marketing and what the benefits are for their clients? Do they really know SEO or the technical aspects of operating a blog?
Do you know all of the benefits of having a business blog?
Let’s see;
Why does my Business need a Blog?
A business blog is the most cost-effective way to add fresh content to your website daily.
It is the most affordable way to build link popularity.
A business blog can make you money through Conversational Marketing.
A business blog will help drive more traffic to your website.
It gives you a place to offer special deals, make announcements, issue press releases, and get feedback from customers.
You can have a private blog that your employees or shareholders read.
There are way too many ways your company can benefit from a business blog to list on one page. As they say; “Think Outside The Box” and create new ways blogs can be used. All the uses for a blog have not even been invented yet. Be the first to try something new. Call us at 786-317-8774 and get a free business blog consultation. We’ll brainstorm with you!
Your business blog can be within your website or on it’s own domain name.
Your company blog can be used to help capture a specific search phrase or phrases in the search engines.
You can have a company blog in your website and one on its’ own domain name, each achieving a different purpose.
You can have multiple blogs all working for you at the same time. The options are endless.
It is not a one-size-fits-all deal. Our Blog Consultant will talk with you, analyze your business, and come up with a strategy that benefits your business. Click here to get a free business blog management quote.
Blog Management and Marketing
Blog Content
Your blog content will make a lot of difference to how well you do with both the search engines and with visitors. Whatever your goal is for your blog, to make your blog popular to read, to make sales, to drive traffic to your website, to get people to sign up for something like a newsletter or affiliate program, or something else, you will need good, original content.
Not only do you need good original content on your blog, you need it every single day.
Blog search websites like technorati.com and Google’s BlogSearch list blogs by the most recent posts that match the user’s keywords. If you are not posting daily, you can get buried beneath all of the other blogs that do one post or more every day. Our daily blogging service will make sure your blog is updated every day or more often if you choose that option.
Blog Posting is more than just writing. If you want your blog to be interesting to user and also rank well in the search engines, you need to know how to structure your blog posts properly.
Do you know the proper way to write your blog post titles?
Do you know how to use keywords in your blog post for the search engines without seeming spammy or obvious to your readers?
Do you know how to use good anchor text and a proper linking strategy?
Our bloggers are trained to write relevant, interesting blog posts that are also optimized for the search engines. Read more about our Daily Blog Posting Service.
Social Bookmarking and Social Networking
Social Bookmarking and Social Networking are extremely beneficial to your blog. It can help you with link popularity, attracting more visitors to your blog, more comments on your blog posts, and even help you rank better with the search engines. However, social bookmarking is time consuming.
Many people try to automate the process for that reason. Automated social bookmarking will not get you all of the benefits that social networking will get you if you take the time to do it yourself. Most business owners do not have the time it takes to participate on these social networks. That is why Blog Content Provider does it for you. Our basic social bookmarking package comes with our Daily Blogging Service, but we also offer social bookmarking as a standalone service. Read more about our Social Bookmarking Service.
Professional Full Service Blog Management
Let our staff completely manage your business blog for you. We will handle everything. We will choose a domain name for you where necessary, provide blog hosting, do the installation, create or choose a blog template, optimize your blog for the search engines, provide the daily content, and do the social bookmarking. You turn your business blog over to us and we do it all for you. Read more about our Complete Business Blog Management Service.
Blog SEO and Programming
Blog Installation
WordPress claims you can install wordpress in just 7 minutes. Some cpanels have fantastico that will automatically create a database and install wordpress for you. But is that all there is to installing a wordpress blog? No. There are better ways to securely install a wordpress blog on your server.
Then you need to choose the right plugins to enhance the usability and improve the SEO of your blog. Every blog is different. Every blog has different goals and obstacles. So choosing the right plugins is more than just going to someone’s favorite list of plugins and using them all.
Some blog service companies brag that they install wordpress with more than 80 plugins! Wow! 80! How many of those plugins do you really need? Usually just a few. We securely install your wordpress blog and choose plugins for you that fit your specific needs. Read more about Blog Installation.
Blog Setup and Configuration
A lot of people will tell you that choosing the settings in the admin area of your wordpress blog is self-explanatory. To who? There are a lot of choices to make in the admin area.
An experienced Blog Manager knows which settings are best to use from experience. For instance;
Do you know the best sites to put into your ping list?
Do you know the proper way to create categories?
Post Slugs?
Is time-stamping a good idea?
Do you know how to configure all of the plugins or get an API Key?
Our Blog installation specialists will set everything up for you. Read more about Blog Configuration.
Blog Theme Installation and Editing
Here again, it sounds easy. You choose a theme, upload it to your themes directory, and voila! You’re done right? No. Choosing a theme isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are tons of free themes on the web. You could buy one from a designer. You can have one custom made for you.
Do you know a good theme from a bad one? I mean besides how pretty it is. Did you know that sometimes free themes have hidden malicious code in them, put there by the programmer/designer?
Are you able to determine good code from bad code? Is the code in the theme written in a way that will hurt your chances in the search engines?
Do you know how to edit the php in the header.php file, sidebar.php, or footer.php to add the enhancements that will make your blog both more attractive and more productive?
Choosing the right theme for your blog is more than just finding one that looks nice. You do not need to have a custom blog theme built. You can use a free blog theme. But you need to know how to choose the right one. Our Blog Installation Service includes choosing and installing the right theme for you. If you want a custom theme, you can read more about Custom Blog Themes here.
Blog SEO
You need to optimize your blog for the search engines. That means editing the code of your blog theme, setting up proper permalink structure, creating the right categories, and even choosing the right plugins, among other things. Our Blog SEO specialists go over your blog theme line by line to get rid of unwanted or unnecessary code.
We fix the blog title structure. We install and configure your blog plugins. We create a proper permalink structure. We edit your blog template to install feedburner, email scripts, affiliate buttons, or whatever else you need. Our clients are very happy with the search engine rankings their blogs are getting. Let us show you how we can improve your results. Read more about Blog SEO.
If you are not sure what you need, call us at 786-317-8774 for a free business blog management or SEO consultation.
Should Your Blog Be In A Folder Or A Subdomain?
Where you place your blog can be critical to its SEO success. There are three places, technically, to put your blog so that it sits on a server and does what it is suppose to do. It can sit in a folder on your domain, it can be a subdomain, or it can sit on the root of a domain. Here’s what your blog URL will look like in each case:
In a folder:
http://domainname.com/blog
As a subdomain:
http://blog.domainname.com
On the root domain:
http://blogname.com
There are benefits to placing your blog on its own domain name and using it to drive traffic to your main website, but that’s a separate discussion. Let’s assume that you want your blog on the same domain as your website. Should it be in a folder or operate as a subdomain? I think you’ll get more benefit from putting your blog in a folder. There are several reasons why.
First, subdomains do not always receive the same benefits as the domain under which they sit. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. For instance, if your site’s PageRank is a 6, your subdomain may receive that same benefit or it may not. If your site has 1 million inbound links, they may tranfer to your subdomain or they may not. There is no clear policy or trend on how subdomains are treated by the search engines. Some subdomains are dismissed altogether.
A folder, on the other hand, always gets the benefit of the domain on which it sits. If your site is a PR 3 then that will benefit your blog. The blog could have a higher or lower PR than the website itself. Individual blog posts could have higher or lower PRs and each will have its own link popularity, but the link juice that flows from your main website to your blog and each page on it will be real benefits.
Another reason you want your blog in a folder and not on a subdomain is because if your blog is in a folder then it will benefit your entire rank’s search engine saturation numbers. A subdomain won’t do that. A subdomain is often treated like a standalone domain and doesn’t always carry the same benefits as a standalone domain.
There are plenty more reasons why a folder is better than a subdomain, but these are the big reasons. Can you think of any more reasons why you’d want your blog in a folder as opposed to a subdomain?
Why Is Your Blog Hosted By The Same Company As Your Main Website?
You decided to start a blog and buy a separate domain name so you can build links from your blog to your website. Good. Your knowledge of link popularity is beginning to show. But why are you hosting your blog with the same hosting company that also hosts your website? That’s not good.
The reason you want your blog hosted by a different company than your website’s host is to ensure that they sit on separate IP blocks. You can request that your web host put your blog on a different server, but that doesn’t mean they will do it. Some will tell you that they will then not do it. But if you are using the shared hosting plan that many hosts offer, most hosts will tell you that they can’t guarantee a separate box for your blog unless you pay for the dedicated hosting plan. It is just safer and more secure to go with a different host to begin with.
You might also register your site with a different registrar. The reason is because your registrar’s contact information shows up in your Whois data. That could be a clue to Google that both your website and blog are owned by the same company, especially if they have similar domain names (i.e. mywebsite.com and mywebsiteblog.com). Be sure that you register your blog under a different name; that way your name is not associated both with your website and your blog.
These are just precautions. There is no proof that Google uses Whois data to connect ownership of sites. But there is no proof that it doesn’t either. If you want the links from your blog to your website to count, it would behoove you to take these suggestions under consideration.
