Domain Talk

I’m about to showcase my ignorance in a spectacular way. But I’d really like some clarification on this, so here’s my question:

Does hosting your blog on your web site increase the site’s page rank?

I’ve been told that hosting a blog on your site (as in: www.mysite.com/blog) will raise the site’s PR, and boost all the site’s other pages in SERPs.

The claim is that search engines see fresh content on your site, and raise your site’s legitimacy, thereby raising positioning, thereby raising traffic.

So. Here’s an example:

Many of my clients use Blogger (Please, no comments from the WordPress and TypePad people about your platform’s inherent superiority. I already agree with you).

Usually, we customize their blog templates to match their sites, set up an RSS feed to display on their site’s home page, and interlink their blog and web site so navigation between the two is seamless, but we leave the hosting on Blogger.com

My theory has been that since Google owns Blogger, it’s going to rank Blogger-hosted pages higher.

Plus, many surfers use the Next Blog navigation link on the Blogger bar to discover new content, and we wouldn’t use that Blogger bar if it was hosted on the clients’ site. If the client’s web site is not ranked high, people aren’t going to know to find it through a regular search, but they might come across it through the Next Blog link on Blogger.

And, I’m a sucker for free. Some of our clients are very busy bloggers and all that volume adds up. Blogger offers free hosting space, so why not use it?

At least that’s been my thought. But now, I’m not so sure.

What say you, SEO gurus?

Has keeping these blogs on Blogger robbed my clients of PR and search engine positioning??

I’d love to hear your thoughts,

Kelli