Wordpress V Blogspot For SEO

NathanKingerlee

I had a Blogspot blog which, in conjunction with my website, did great for us in online searches.

I then migrated to a Wordpress blog, attached to my website.

Just using the Wordpress blog I started to notice we were slipping in online searches; so I began posting on both blogs (identical blog posts).

We are still not doing as well as we did a couple of years ago, depsite regular blogging and careful key words.

What is the best thing to do here?

Thanks, Nathan

Mrs OBumble

You're probably being penalized for duplicate content now.

Why not just delete the Wordpress and stay with Blogspot? Obviusly it's not at "terrible" for SEO as some (hosting providers and Wordpress developers!) would have you believe.

NathanKingerlee

Thanks Mrs OBumble

SirJobey

Well I use Blogger because you can make money with it, I would think of the future is you gain an audience

PaulPinnacle

NathanKingerlee wrote: »

Just using the Wordpress blog I started to notice we were slipping in online searches; so I began posting on both blogs (identical blog posts).

I'm a little confused on what exactly you did.

You had been posting on a Blogspot subdomain, stopped posting there and then started posting on a Wordpress subdomain instead? If I've picked it up wrong, do correct me. Everything I say from here on is based on the above assumption, so if I'm wrong ignore what I say below.

When you noticed rankings starting to slip (you were using a new WordPress subdomain with no history so you had work to do there and had stopped adding recent/fresh content to your Blogspot account so would have been slipping there, so I'm not sure why this was surprising) you then started posting all articles (identically) to both of them? (In this case, the history and authority of the Blogspot 'domain' would/should push the WordPress posts into the supplemental listings and shouldn't cause any duplicate content issues for your Blogspot domain... but things don't always go so smothly so it's something I'd certainly advise stopping straight away)

NathanKingerlee wrote: »

We are still not doing as well as we did a couple of years ago, depsite regular blogging and careful key words.

SEO has changed dramatically over the last couple of years (as it does every couple of months). Things that might have helped you in the past might now be of negligible value or even a negative signal, while your competition might now be getting big rewards for activities that in the past were of negligible value. There's also more competition, more knowledge and more money online (looping back to even more competition); it's a different world than it was a few years ago.

NathanKingerlee wrote: »

What is the best thing to do here?

Pick one blog: Place all the content there, from the old to the new. Focus on this going forward.
Given your history is with Blogspot, that's perfect. If you were starting from scratch, I'd have edged towards WordPress myself but that's far more about UI reasons (especially where a user may later want to migrate from wordpress.com to a self hosted wordpress.org site). Both are just fine for SEO (thinking realistically, do you actually think Google would prioritise WordPress sites over their own Blogspot sites? It's all about the site itself and what value it provides for the user [therefore picking up all those great positive SEO signals], not the platform it's on).

(If you were just starting out, I'd actually suggest going down the route of having a self hosted WordPress solution where you gain far more powerful tools in terms of customisation and personalisation of the blog. However, if you're happy with Blogspot and aren't actively looking to move away then in your situation I'd suggest sticking with the account you've already built up and gotten used to)

Remove the duplicate stuff: It's more than likely not a big deal, but seeing as you have control and ownership of the content... remove it. It's not doing you any favours and could just lead to users getting confused, linking to the wrong domain and you losing out on valuable link equity due to the canonical issues having duplicate content online causes.

Focus on the basics: Something I tend to say very often, don't get tied up on the technical side of SEO and instead focus on the basics of simply marketing your site. Whether you do that through Social Media platforms, word of mouth, crazy promotions, traditional PR or any other method, this is where your attention should be.

You've very little room to tweak or play with your settings on a hosted blog platform (be it WP or BS), so the only thing you really do have control of is how you get the site out there. Come up with fantastic content people actively want to share, come up with creative ideas that create a buzz around your brand (online and offline), keep providing a high quality service/product that delights your customers and you'll notice the impact it will have on your rankings will be far more significant that anything you do messing around with your platform.

NathanKingerlee

Thanks for this detailed reply.