3
18 Comments

Should A Blog Be On Separate Domain?

What are your thoughts on the best URL for a blog?

Currently all these URLs go to my blog which is hosted on a different .com domain. Looking for feedback on what is best experience and SEO.
Separate Domain: tdotly.com
Subdomain: blog.t.ly
Primary Domain /blog: t.ly/blog

Should Blog be on different Domain?
  1. Separate Domain tdotly.com
  2. Subdomain blog.t.ly
  3. Primary Domain t.ly/blog
Vote
  1. 6

    Primary domain 100%. Subdomains are treated as a totally separate domain in the eyes of Google. So all that SEO juice and credibility that you build up on the blog sub-domain will no be shared to the primary domain and likely won't really help your SERP.

  2. 2

    Always have it on your primary domain!

    1. 1

      The hard part is hosting two separate codebases on the same domain without some sort of proxy. I wonder if Cloudflare can handle this?

  3. 2

    I've done quite a lot of reading about this and I support what @timsayshey writes about this. It seems pretty crucial for a startup to make sure the blog is a page at your primary domain, instead of a subdomain. That's why I'm currently in the middle of the hellish experience of trying to reverse proxy a Ghost instance to https://cloak.ist/blog.

    There's a product there waiting for someone to make it...

    1. 1

      Yes, this is my issue. My blog is on WordPress. What type of proxy setup are you using to get this to work?

      1. 1

        Finally got it working using Cloudflare as a reverse proxy. Some instructions here: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/img-vision/ghost-blog-is-now-hosted-on-main-domain--M6Gt3CSAp3nIFeZKOC-

        Going to write something up about this soon.

        1. 1

          Thanks, I will check it out!

  4. 1

    Always on the Primary domain, to consolidate SEO authority on a single domain.

    If for technical reasons you need to set it up under a subdomain, add a proxy in front of your primary domain so that requests get translated from /blog/ to blog. -- and then hide blog.t.ly

    Aesthetically, though, if you have the domain t.ly, blog.t.ly is pretty sweet!

    1. 1

      Good info! I may in the future change it to be t.ly/blog but for now, I switched it from tdotly.com to be blog.t.ly

      1. 1

        This is awesome. I'd say it's the exception that makes the rule though.

        You'll have to work to make sure you're tracking your funnel / conversion across domains as you build authority to your blog.

        1. 1

          Thanks! Not sure if its related but blog stats are up today.

          Stats

          1. 1

            This is awesome. Keep going!

  5. 1

    Here is a great video from Google on Subdomain or subfolder, which is better for SEO?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJGDyAN9g-g

  6. 1

    Primary domain is good option because people can go to home page of your product in one click...
    In case of subdomain if they click Home button or let's say logo so they go to your blog home page.
    so if you want to promote your product via blog or need leads via blog host it on primary domain..

  7. 1

    In this order

    Primary
    Sub
    Separate

  8. 0

    It depends!

    If your focus is on organic traffic, use the blog within the main domain. Google will give your site greater relevance.

    If that is not your focus, using a subdomain makes it easier to understand the access data in the Analytics tools.

    1. 2

      This makes sense. Thanks!

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 16 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments