Blog vs. a website … which one should I have?

This is a recurring question I get asked again and again and, it really is a valid question … one I asked before setting up my own blogs.

First of all, I need to make this ultra clear … a blog IS a website. In fact, I want to take that a stage further and say that blogs are “dynamic” websites. You can have pages on a blog and, with some of the great blog software on the market today, it can sometimes be difficult to tell some blogs and websites apart.

For those of you who may not know what a blog is, it’s short for web log, and is a frequently updated website consisting of blog posts, or entries (more often than not, dated entries) that are arranged in reverse chronological order. So when a reader comes to your blog, they see your most recent article or post first.

The advantage of a blog is that blogs allows you to post written text, audio and video and have it online within minutes, unlike traditional static websites which can take hours to update and cost you each time - unless you’re familiar with building or editing web sites.

Some months ago, I decided to put up a new website for one of my new services. I was using a template (something I rarely do) and, it came with very clear step-by-step instructions. Now, I hit some snags, which I eventually resolved, but the one thing I had to do which drove me crazy was sit at my PC for hours writing content for the site since I couldn’t upload it to the server without ensuring all the pages were complete.

And to me, this is the one of the biggest “plusses” of having a blog … you get the site up, write your first post (I always recommend 5 to start with though) and you are ready to do business online and invite the search engines to come visit you.  I do also suggest you complete your “About” and “Services” pages too since people are naturally curious and will want to know more about you.

This brings me to another Big plus of having a blog …

Optimizing Your Site For The Search Engines is Much Easier With a Blog

Each time you publish a blog, you do what is called “pinging” the update services. In other words, you automatically notify the search engines (sometimes indirectly) that there is new content on your site so “come and take a look!” This gives the search engines occasion to come and visit your site to index it. So, another benefit is that blogs tend to be indexed much more often than traditional static websites and, blogs show up 10 times more often in organic searches than static websites do.

On a tight budget?

Then a blog is something you should definitely consider. Blogs are cheaper to build than static websites and even if you get your neighbor to build you a site for free, you will still need a budget to maintain the site and keep the site updated. Also, there is no “pinging” with static websites so you have to do much more of what is called “on page” and “off page” search engine optimization than is necessary with a blog, if you want your site to show up in the natural search engine results.

And don’t think just because you paid thousands of dollars or worst thousands of UK pounds (real money!! Sorry my US friends) to have a website built that you’re going to get people flocking to your site. In fact, I’m going to dare say that most designers have no clue whatsoever about search engine optimization. Their strategy is to make your site look good … “build it and they will come.” And, I’m not exaggerating here … I had one designer tell me this! But, I’m not using that example as a generalization … just do a Google search for web designers and take a look at their offerings and you’ll find that most of them will sell on “look good” rather than “get found.”

One more benefit (though there are many more) before I “bust” some myths … Bloggers establish credibility much faster static website owners because blogs by their very nature build a stronger and more vibrant knowledge base. Sure you can do this by adding articles to your static site but it comes down to cost again and in my view, “findability”. Finding articles on a blog is usually much easier than navigating your way through a static website.

With a blog, you log into your back office, write your blog post and click the “publish” button and your article is on the world wide web ready for anyone who cares to read it and, you can categorize your posts making it easier for people to find you both online and, when they reach your blog.

With a static website, you have to open up your editor, such as Front Page or Dreamweaver, write the article (and, I’m assuming you’re using the existing website template), update the page properties before uploading that page to your site using FTP software. Once you’ve done all of that, you have to “wait” until the search engines do their rounds again, visiting your site to get it indexed. This could take months, depending on the strategies that you employ.

I have had one of my clients blogs indexed within 36 hours and all she did was posted about 10 blog posts which were mainly snippets from her book. The crazy thing was that the posts were not even properly optimized but, her blog got the attention of the search engines.

Now for some myths about blogs and blogging:

1. Blogging takes too much time. What!! Do you know how much time it takes to properly maintain a website!? If you’re building a business then the act of blogging should be an aspect of your marketing so spending 2-4 hours each week researching and writing blog posts should be seen as a plus, not a negative. That is not to say you have to post so often … I don’t but I had to in the early days to build my credibility.
2. Blogs are fads and will die away soon. Boy … you would have thought these proponents would have cried off by now. But, let’s forget about them … just take a look at the direction the online world is taking and you will see that it makes sense to have a blog EVEN if you decide to build websites too (and, I do encourage both … more on that later) because blogs make podcasting, videocasting and social networking a lot easier if you are non technical.
3. No one reads blogs anyway. This is what some of speakers of The Professional Speakers Association used to tell me when I asked about building a site for my services. Now, I will tell you what I would tell them if they were to give me that same “cookie cutter” answer today … No one reads YOUR blog! If this is you it’s time to spice it up. Give your blog a voice, not a corporate makeover! Humans work in corporations so even if you’re targeting them, they have a sense of humor, they don’t all have MBA’s and use long “unarticulaterable” words (like this one I just made up) and, they want information they can use. So save the Guardian style editorial for your press releases but give them great tips in your blog.

I could go on, but I hope I’ve given you enough information to make an informed decision on whether you should have a blog or a website.

However, if you are still undecided because you want a website for a salesletter to promote your product, you really do have two choices … you can create a mini website (one with less than 10 pages) and then add a blog to it in a subdirectory and market your product or service (by way of giving great tips) from your blog. Or, you should most definately check out the WordPress Semiologic Pro theme which enables you to write an ordinary blog “page” (not post, though the process is exactly the same) and save the page as a Sales Letter Template. Hit the publish button and you have a sales letter online.

Go and check out the Semiologic Pro theme and find out how you can have the best of both worlds.

To your online success,

Trish Jones, MBA, is an online marketing consultant who has built and managed her own Internet business, since 2004. Trish teaches entrepreneurs, independent professionals and small business owners how to attract more clients and make more money using a simple blog. For more blogging tips, go to www.trishjones.com

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