Is it better to have a blog on my site or to guest blog and submit articles to other sites?

[ezrine]

for the purpose of SEO and site traffic which option is better, a blog on my own site or a seperate blog alltogether or writing blog posts on other sites and articles on sites like squidoo etc.

[Jake]

A blog on the same url will generate more link juice than linking a separate blog to your main site.

Those article directories which took a hit from the Panda filter are not as powerful, a site for redistributing articles with author links like ezinearticles,com might be better for solid material people would want to reprint.
Some say negotiating to write guest articles for influential sites with better ranking than your own may be the best use of your effort, along with content for your own site.

[Hal Smith]

Definitely blog on your site, will give you much better results than having a blog on any other site no matter how higher in ranking it is.

I've heard people talk say good things about some article submission sites specially squidoo. If you have time after your other SEO efforts and after creating and maintaining a blog on your site, then yes perhaps it will be a good idea to submit to squidoo or ezinearticles. People read that stuff and share it so it will market your site all the while bringing in more visits. But as said, on do it if you have time after doing the essentials, and the better-of-the-bunch that is creating your blog on your site. I personally think that updating and maintaining a good blog like that should totally be enough for SEO. Good luck on your new blog !

Hal Smith
URLdreamer Consultant

[skellams]

For SEO purposes it is best to do all of the above. Blog on your own site as well as Squidoo, Ezine Articles, etc. Link back to your own site in the author bio box on all articles you publish on Ezine Articles and write relevant content and link back to your site from Squidoo for your website to rank higher in search engines.
Guest blogging on popular high ranking blogs is important for SEO too.

[Roger]

Hi! Both are very positive for your SEO, but in slightly different ways.

Having the blog on site means adding more quality content to your site - content is important for your rankings and visibility, especially if you run a web shop where text content may be limited. It gives you the chance to talk about the products or any promotions you might have on and also give a bit more detail that people will be searching for. This will help catch additional people searching for these types of keywords

Guest blogging - or writing content elsewhere on social media sites (such as creating a Squidoo lense as you mention) benefits your site through the backlinks it has to your site. Unlike standard links from places like business directories, these links occur in very content rich areas (which you have created by setting up the Squidoo lense - or Wordpress blog of whatever).

I would say that both are necessary and essential for good SEO - along with your other activities, and there is no particular reason for choosing one over the other except to ask how much content you currently have on the site (if you have a lot already, then maybe post elsewhere as articles etc)

But if content is limited, I would put the blog on-site

I hope this helps!

[Richard P Best]

To help your on page SEO -> blog on your site. This can also act as link bait, attracting in bound links.

To help off page SEO (link building) -> submitting contextually related content, and linking within that content back to your website (not just the home page) helps to build your in-bound link profile. Guest blogging on sites that have a higher page rank than you, helps your site.

On page SEO and off page SEO are important - but off page SEO more so.

[Renan]

for me guest post is really one of the best way but you have to look for a quality website and email those owner to guest post. But other way is Social Media Marketing as CEO of SEO company we done Social Media Marketing strategies to become more popular gain huge traffic of a website.

[george]

You should do it all, each one of the option will benefit your rankings, while external articles and guest posts will also help to improve your traffic and your online reputation (as long as the posts are good, original and add some value to the reader)

[Adam]

You need a onsite-blog, guest post and article submission. Do not re-publish onsite blogs on other sites to avoid dup flag.