Blog and TGP on same domain?

[Hammerhead]

A question for the blog experts here: is it generally a good idea to have a blog and a TGP sharing the same domain?

Just as example, lets say I own domain names GayBlog.com and GayTGP.com.

I was thinking keeping them separate would make it easier to sell them down the road, e.g. someone might want to buy the blog but not the TGP.

But now I’m wondering about google and SEO, and if there is any advantage to having both the blog and the TGP running on the same domain?

[Gaystoryman]

A question for the blog experts here: is it generally a good idea to have a blog and a TGP sharing the same domain?

Just as example, lets say I own domain names GayBlog.com and GayTGP.com.

I was thinking keeping them separate would make it easier to sell them down the road, e.g. someone might want to buy the blog but not the TGP.

But now I’m wondering about google and SEO, and if there is any advantage to having both the blog and the TGP running on the same domain?

In my own view, separate is better.

My reasoning is that they are two distinct operations, one mostly images, the other more text. By keeping separate it allows you an opportunity to experiment more in your SEO. Of course you could simply use sub domains but that is a 50/50 argument of whether G sees them as separate or not.

If you are planning to sell them later on, as you say, one may be selected and not both, again a good reason to keep separate.

You can always have the 'blog' feed to the 'tgp' as well, and for SEO if the 'tgp' is separate, then you have the benefit of sending a true 'one way link' to the other. So that would be a big plus in SEO.

my 2 cents

[Bec]

Based on the example of owning two different domains makes them independent just by that fact alone. If you actually own a domain with tgp in it, then I'd only put a tgp ON it. With a blog site, the options get blurry. In many ways, a blog script is a CMS (content management system/script) and with plugins, or permanent pages that you can add php scripting to, you can have just about any sort of site your little ol' heart (and talents) can create.

What Ian suggested for the SEO is good advice. Having a TGP on a seperate domain allows for the single link over to it from your blog. But that doesn't limit you to just having a tgp type page on just that domain either. You could run a text list of galleries on a "page" on the blog site. You could join and setup a "fake" tgp on the blog (one that can't accept submissions) over at Zipped Sites, http://www.zippedsites.com/tgp.html?ref=demonduck ... and it may help bookmarking along with additional traffic.

[rawTOP]

From an SEO perspective you absolutely should have them on the same site.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/subdomains-subfolders-and-toplevel-domains

I love the quote from that article... "When to use an entirely new domain... When you don't want it to rank at the search engines."

These days the search engines want to link to authoritative sites - sites they can trust. It's the reason why even stub articles in Wikipedia can rank for some search terms.

Yes, you may have a business reason to use separate domains (like you want to sell one of them), but there are other ways around that, like 301ing the directory when you do the sale. If you chose a different option make sure you know what you're potentially giving up by doing it...

So, from an SEO perspective - keep everything on the same site...

[Gaystoryman]

From an SEO perspective you absolutely should have them on the same site.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/subdomains-subfolders-and-toplevel-domains

I love the quote from that article... "When to use an entirely new domain... When you don't want it to rank at the search engines."

These days the search engines want to link to authoritative sites - sites they can trust. It's the reason why even stub articles in Wikipedia can rank for some search terms.

Yes, you may have a business reason to use separate domains (like you want to sell one of them), but there are other ways around that, like 301ing the directory when you do the sale. If you chose a different option make sure you know what you're potentially giving up by doing it...

So, from an SEO perspective - keep everything on the same site...

I will disagree with your conclusion here.

The article is basically referring to products or topics within the main site theme, not separate entities. A TGP and a Blog may indeed be related based on the subject of porn, but that is as far as it goes. TGP's are links, and we all know Google is on a link witch hunt, so putting a 'linking site' along a 'blog' is like announcing you want a penalty or worse.

Granted, if the site exists now, is cached, then consideration should be taken as to whether or not to split them, but only if they already exist.

If starting out, split them because neither is ranked, neither is cached, so there is NO downside to it.

If you sell VOD, and want to blog about it, then sure use a sub folder or if you want to categorize the VOD into niches, sure use a sub folder, but if you want to blog about VOD and run a MGP, I'd separate them.

That is the beauty and pain of SEO, it is subjective.
My 2 cents

[rawTOP]

I will disagree with your conclusion here.

The article is basically referring to products or topics within the main site theme, not separate entities. A TGP and a Blog may indeed be related based on the subject of porn, but that is as far as it goes. TGP's are links, and we all know Google is on a link witch hunt, so putting a 'linking site' along a 'blog' is like announcing you want a penalty or worse.

The fact that HammerHead is considering putting them on the same site means they've got more than porn in common. I'm assuming the blog and TGP are in the same niche.

As far as links - do a rel="nofollow" on your links and you're completely safe. What Google is actively penalizing are people who have paid or affiliate links and don't use nofollow on them. They want to be able to tell the difference between organic links and commercial ones. - you could have an affiliate link to Osama Bin Laden's donation site and Google woudn't care... That's what nofollow is there for. TGPs are only dangerous if you don't use nofollow...

If you don't use nofollow and they can't tell commercial links from organic ones they'll penalize you by not letting your pages pass PageRank. In the case of link exchange networks, they don't view those as organic. So you need nofollow on those links too. Once again, if they don't like how you link, they'll just not let you pass PageRank. The aggregate result of that will look like they're penalizing the link exchange network.

TGPs can be somewhat "useless" from a content perspective unless the images have accurate alt tags on them. But the TGP will perform better in organic searches if it's on the same site with a blog. The text in the blog will tell the search engines what the site is about...

[Gaystoryman]

Sorry but nothing is 100% safe, or completely safe.

Yes, 'nofollow' might indeed work for stopping Google from crawling further, when it comes to your site, but not when it finds the link from one of those pages at another site, like oh say a free site linking to the TGP's internal pages or directories?

Then there are 'naughty' bots that ignore the nofollow, and list the pages, that somehow G finds and then goes to.

If you were to place the 'nofollow' on every single page, it would simply stop G and the other biggies from going further, not from crawling that page, and perhaps indexing it.

As to 'pagerank' well, it is a depreciated criteria as it does not guarantee diddly, not authority status, nada. It does not mean increased bot traffic, or higher rankings in the index, mainly due to the abuse by webmasters who used it as criteria for whether to do link trades or not. There are many PR0 sites taking top honors in the SERPS,

[rawTOP]

GayStoryMan... You're getting apples and oranges confused...

The issue (you brought up) was whether a blog would be penalized if it were on the same site as a TGP. The answer is no, if the TGP uses nofollow in it's links. That is completely safe - all the major search engines have said so.

How you jumped to crawling I'm not sure. Your site will not be penalized if the same link is found on another site. While nofollow does stop them from following the link, that's not the reason why it's being used in this case. It's being used to say it's not a link you endorse - it's helping the search engines identify and exclude non-organic/commercial links.

Who cares if a bad bot follows the link? It doesn't hurt your site...

There are two ways to use nofollow - in the link itself (rel="nofollow") and as a value in the robots meta tag. Either way, the pages with the nofollowed links will be indexed unless you put noindex in your robots meta tag. That's not a problem - you want the pages on your site indexed. It's a good thing if your TGP gets organic traffic.

If you think Google's not using PageRank you're completely mistaken. It's still a vital component of their algorithm. It's public ("toolbar") PageRank that's becoming less and less informative because it's a single number as opposed to the multi-dimensional concept of PageRank that Google uses internally.

PR0 in the toolbar doesn't mean the page doesn't have PageRank...

PLEASE go read up on this stuff... WebmasterWorld.com, SEOmoz.org, etc...

[Gaystoryman]

GayStoryMan... You're getting apples and oranges confused...

The issue (you brought up) was whether a blog would be penalized if it were on the same site as a TGP. The answer is no, if the TGP uses nofollow in it's links. That is completely safe - all the major search engines have said so.

How you jumped to crawling I'm not sure. Your site will not be penalized if the same link is found on another site. While nofollow does stop them from following the link, that's not the reason why it's being used in this case. It's being used to say it's not a link you endorse - it's helping the search engines identify and exclude non-organic/commercial links.

Who cares if a bad bot follows the link? It doesn't hurt your site...

There are two ways to use nofollow - in the link itself (rel="nofollow") and as a value in the robots meta tag. Either way, the pages with the nofollowed links will be indexed unless you put noindex in your robots meta tag. That's not a problem - you want the pages on your site indexed. It's a good thing if your TGP gets organic traffic.

If you think Google's not using PageRank you're completely mistaken. It's still a vital component of their algorithm. It's public ("toolbar") PageRank that's becoming less and less informative because it's a single number as opposed to the multi-dimensional concept of PageRank that Google uses internally.

PR0 in the toolbar doesn't mean the page doesn't have PageRank...

PLEASE go read up on this stuff... WebmasterWorld.com, SEOmoz.org, etc...

Please, let's not try to confuse this issue. The question was, was there any benefit to having the tgp and blog on the same domain, my reply was that there was a 'risk' of penalties for having too many outgoing links.

As to the rest, well, let us leave it this way. You have your opinion based on your interpretations, and I have mine, based on my interpretations.

[basschick]

i agree with gaystoryman 100%

there is no advantage that i know of the having a blog and a tgp on the same domain, and there is room for disadvantages down the road. i think they would do better as distinct entities unless you're trying to build a mega free site like gaydemon.

[rawTOP]

Please, let's not try to confuse this issue. The question was, was there any benefit to having the tgp and blog on the same domain, my reply was that there was a 'risk' of penalties for having too many outgoing links.

The "too many links on a page" issue has to do with the fact that the amount of PageRank a page passes is related to the number of links on the page. If you've nofollowed most of the links I can't see that you'd encounter that situation.

[rawTOP]

there is no advantage that i know of the having a blog and a tgp on the same domain.

The quote I heard at Search Engine Strategies last year was "better to have a big battleship than an armada". However, if organic traffic isn't your goal, then all of this is irrelevant.

Go read some of the artlcles under "domain authority" seo (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22domain+authority%22+seo)... Here are some of the quotes...


"Where you publish a post matters. No question about it."

"Domain authority rules the rankings."

"Domain authority is the single most important thing in the recent SEO advances."

"a page published on a strong domain is likely to be more trusted"

So, long term the TGP will do better on the domain with the blog, and the blog won't be hurt in any way by the TGP if the TGP uses nofollow on it's outbound links. Think about it... Two domains means your inbound links are split and not working in unison. Combining content will get you domain authority more quickly... Otherwise, each site will have to establish itself on its own. If you want to bring out new content and start up yet another domain, you'll go through the infamous sandbox period...

Again, if organic traffic isn't much of an issue, do whatever you want...

[gaydemon]

I do actually agree.

If you split it into two domains you got to work twice as hard to get them anywhere close to as high rank as a single domain would have.

If you have for example worked out traffic trades to the TGP and Blog seperatly they would bot indirectly benefit from it. What counts in the bigger picture is amount of incoming links. So not only would have have sites pointing to different main pages but all together a greater amount of links.

Its always going to be easier to do one domain rathern than several..



The quote I heard at Search Engine Strategies last year was "better to have a big battleship than an armada". However, if organic traffic isn't your goal, then all of this is irrelevant.

Go read some of the artlcles under "domain authority" seo (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22domain+authority%22+seo)... Here are some of the quotes...


"Where you publish a post matters. No question about it."



"Domain authority rules the rankings."



"Domain authority is the single most important thing in the recent SEO advances."



"a page published on a strong domain is likely to be more trusted"
So, long term the TGP will do better on the domain with the blog, and the blog won't be hurt in any way by the TGP if the TGP uses nofollow on it's outbound links. Think about it... Two domains means your inbound links are split and not working in unison. Combining content will get you domain authority more quickly... Otherwise, each site will have to establish itself on its own. If you want to bring out new content and start up yet another domain, you'll go through the infamous sandbox period...

Again, if organic traffic isn't much of an issue, do whatever you want...

[rawTOP]

I do actually agree.

:)

One other thing I thought of... When you're just starting out a site you can tank it (at least temporarily) if it gets too many inlinks from spammy/untrusted sites (you'd be considered to be in a "bad neighborhood"). Once the domain is established and is trusted it's not really much of a problem, but early on it can be a big problem. Black hat SEO'ers actually use this tactic to cripple competitors' new sites.

So, to the extent you do automated link exchanges for your TGP (or blog) you might want to bounce these off a junk domain with a 302. The 302 (unlike a 301) is the equivalent of a nofollow in that it doesn't pass PageRank. And better yet, return a 404 to the major spiders so they don't follow the link at all.

The setup would look something like this...

PotentiallySpammySite.com -> (link) -> YourJunkDomain.com -> (302 redirect, 404 for spiders) -> YourGoodDomain.com

Of course any quality links you get you'd want to have link directly to your site. It's just the untrusted ones you want to limit.