Ask Why…Questions About Blogs and Websites

Why do you want a blog for your business?  For that matter, why do you want a website for your business?

A business website, whether it’s coded in HTML or is utilizing a CMS (content management system) such as Wordpress… is nothing more than a tool.  Just as a rake does a great job of moving leaves but a terrible job of making holes… your business website can act like a rake or a shovel.  You have to know which you need for your business.

That is why used the term “want” above…. because it’s possible that you don’t NEED a blog or a website for your business.

Yet asking the question, “Why do you want a blog for your business?”  or the correlated, “Why do you want a website for your business?”  reveals much about the structure your business web presence should take.

Both the rake and the shovel are useful tools when working in the garden… but both are lousy as cleaning dirt from floors inside your home.

So why do you want a web presence?

If you want a web presence to act as a way to communicate with potential clients and customers, that’s a GREAT start!

I love blogs.  I adore them.  I adore how easy they are for non-technical people to use.  If nothing else, that is reason enough for ME to love blogs.  That’s because for almost 10 years I ran myself ragged trying to piece together pieces of a puzzle for business owners who hadn’t thought to ask the question, “Why do I want a website for my business?”

As a result, the websites I created for these business owners would sit for MONTHS with empty pages which declared that they were “under construction”.   Those were pages created because the business owner thought they should be there, but couldn’t provide any content to fill the page.

Which is why I began my love affair with setting up blog sites for clients.

Now, don’t get me wrong… there are plenty of GREAT reasons why you would want to choose a blog over a traditional “static” web site.   Those reasons include:

  1. Self hosted Wordpress blogs are much more search engine friendly.
  2. Self hosted Wordpress blogs can have a plug in installed which automatically creates an XML sitemap which updates every time you post.
  3. Self hosted Wordpress blogs are easy to edit… creating new content and editing old content is a breeze.

But probably the BEST reason to have a blog as a website is how EASILY the site owner can not only change content, but also change the appearance of the blog as well.

As I look back on the hundreds of “first” websites I’ve created during my career… I can see that the reason my client was building the website wasn’t clear in THEIR mind.

Today, since clients can add and edit pages on their Wordpress blogs, they don’t feel the need to create empty pages that hinder their communication with their potential clients and customers.  When they’re inspired to write about their business… their blog is waiting.

Best of all, what my clients have found is the ability to focus on the core reason they’re in business.  I recently had a client who “got off track” in his focus… and it showed in his blog.  He got his head back into the game and was stunned at how quickly things turned around for him.

Blogs as business therapy tools….  another reason to love a blog for your business!

Posted by Kathy | Filed Under Blogs As Marketing Tools, Blogs and Niche Marketing, Marketing | Leave a Comment 

Which is Better for your Business: A Blog or a Website

Ok… the battle is raging over the blog vs web site debate. Which is better… blogs or regular web sites. (Not to be confused with the “which is better, blogs or HTML newsletters” debate… also raging across the internet.)

First a word of warning. I am a “regular joe” when it comes to SEO. I know a bit, but not a lot. I do not CLAIM to be an SEO expert.

I left a comment on Problogger on “Should I Change My Website into a Blog” where I voiced my experience which is that blogs work much better than regular web sites. Several other people who left comments claimed that my “success” using a blog was more of a function of the effort put into the blog vs the effort of promoting the web site than a function of which format was “superior”. Fair enough. That is a possible reason for my blog’s success.

If you read this post Case Study: Using a Weblog to Achieve #1 Rankings you’ll see my experience is not unique.

What’s your experience? Have you tried both types of web sites? Which one works best for you?

Posted by Kathy | Filed Under Blogs As Marketing Tools | 1 Comment 

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