I was originally going to go with the title, “The Benefits of Having a Blog Based Site,” but I’m trying to work on my blog titles, hoping they grab more attention. Let me know your thoughts on that.
Having a site that is primarily driven by it’s blog might not be the best way to go in every situation, but I think for most businesses and people, it is an incredibly effective way to better develop your online identity. Here are 5 reasons why I think so…
1. Sheer Volume of Content
Just talking about square footage on the web, having a blog on your site helps you dynamically. For example, maybe when you first had your site created it might’ve only had 10 – 15 pages of relevant content for Google to take a look at and index. Say you, or someone at your company contributes 2 – 4 blog posts a week about the company’s products or services. At the end of a year’s time, now you’ve got maybe 100 – 200 pages of relevant content for Google to take a look at. Hmmmm, impressive.
2. More Stuff for Google
The cool thing about blogs these days is it’s not always just a page of your latest posts. For the blog based sites I design, I use WordPress (self hosted, not WordPress.com hosted) with the Genesis Framework (affiliate link) and StudioPress child themes (affiliate link). This allows me to set up more of an online magazine type layout that is more visually exciting that just a coming to a page of your recent blog posts. It is more of a complete website than just a blog.
The cool thing about using this set up: Now, when you post a new blog entry it…
- creates it’s own page
- displays a teaser/excerpt (this is actual content to Google) on the home page
- displays a teaser/excerpt on the Blog page
- displays an teaser/excerpt on any category page you’ve assigned the post to
- and might also display a post teaser/excerpt on any page where you’ve included a “Featured Post” or “Recent Post” widget. (this could mean it actually adds fresh content to every page on your site)
Google loves fresh content. If you put up a site that is constantly adding fresh content throughout it’s pages, this is a good thing. Much better than a site that just has static information about you, your products and services.
3. Direct Connection and Dialogue with Your Audience
Having a blog based site, or at least an active blog on your site, this gives you a direct pipeline with your audience, for lack of better term. (I’ve heard Chris Brogan say that “audience” isn’t a great label because it makes it sound like they are just there to observe – instead you want to engage them; have them participate so you can learn too. I agree with that.)
If you’re not engaging with your customers and clients you are missing out on information that could really determine your company’s future and the level of value you could be offering (and revenue you could be generating).
4. Keeping Your Information Current
Blogs allow you to continually provide the most current information about yourself or your products and services. If people know there is always new information on your site they are more likely to come back from time to time. This doesn’t hurt.
5. Demonstrate Your Authority
Continually putting out helpful and insightful information about what you do can help you to develop a role of authority. The more useful information you’re putting out there, the more people can look at you as an authority in your field; the place to go when people need information about your industry. This helps build trust. Kind of significant.
Okay, these are just 5 reasons having a blog based site is a way to go. As mentioned in reason #2, having a blog based site doesn’t mean it’s just someone’s blog and when you get there you just come to a page of their latest posts. It can be complete site that just revolves around a blog at it’s core. This site, www.ImagePerceptions.com is a blog based site.
Now I want to hear from you. There are many other reasons a blog based site could be the way to go. What are your reasons?
