In today's world business success is impossible without Internet presence. That is why most businesses establish websites. With more and more consumers relying purely on Internet for their searches, it becomes more obvious that if a business does not have a website, it does not exist.
And then there are blogs. Business blogs are exploding and becoming main vehicles for a dialog with clients, delivering information about company's products and services, and building online reputation. The latest trend, especially for small businesses and solopreneurs, is to marry the two concepts - a website and a blog - and create a blog site.
What is a blog site?
As I mentioned, a blogsite is a hybrid between a website and a blog and combines elements of both. At its core, it is a blog - a place for entrepreneurs to regularly post text, photos, audio and video entries related to their companies, services and products. In addition to the main blog page, a blogsite also features pages with static content typically found on business websites. This includes Home page, About Us page, Contact page, Products or Services page, e-commerce-equipped pages, and many other options.
There are many reasons why establishing a blogsite might be a better solution to your business requirements than having a standard website. The top reasons to have a blogsite are
1. Blog sites save money
The only people that make money creating and maintaining websites are web designers. Most business owners lack both time and expertise to build even a simple website. So they go out and hire a web designer. As most entrepreneurs know, a website is a work in progress. There's always something that needs tweaking, changing, updating, etc.
Maybe you just landed a big new client. Or maybe an existing client sent you a Thank You e-mail that you would like to use as a testimonial. Or maybe you want to add a new white paper for your prospective clients to download. If you have a traditional website, you will have to contact your web designer and ask to make all these changes for you. And then you have to foot the bill.
A blog site eliminates the need for a web designer. The process of posting new content on your blog site, whether in the blog itself or in the static pages, is very simple. It requires no in-depth technical knowledge. As anyone who tried blogging knows, you don't even need to know basic HTML to get great results. Now you can publish content in whatever format you want - text, photos, audio, and video with ease.
2. Blog site saves time
Let's say you want to advertise a time-sensitive promotion on your website. With a traditional website, you have to coordinate this with your web designer so that she has time to implement and test all the changes.
With a blog site, you can go ahead and post your ad and change any other relevant content, such as your rates, whenever you need it. And you don't have to waste time e-mailing or calling your web designer. You can also react much quicker to any news or changes that affect your niche.
Besides, it allows you to finally consolidate your efforts in maintaining an online presence. Instead of splitting your time and resources between maintaining a website and a blog, you can now have an all-in-one solution.
3. Blogsite gets you to the top of search results faster
Yes, it is an established fact that search engines LOVE blogs and rank them highly. It happens because blogs by design fulfill a number of criteria used by search engines to rank site relevance. Blogs are usually tightly focused around a theme, have many content-specific external links; feature highly-relevant anchor text for inbound links; have tagged content; and have often-updated content. All this makes blogs search engine darlings.
If you have a blogsite and its blog ranks high in the keyword search results, your visitors will now have a chance to quickly scan not just through your blog posts, but through the static pages as well.
You will still want to spend time doing SEO for your blog site. Except now you will be able to do it yourself and largely for free. There are plenty of easy-to-use free plugins that will take pain and confusion out of the SEO process.
4. Blog site builds loyalty
Do you know why the same Internet user who visits company's website only once a month or so will visit the same company's blog every other day? The answer is simple, really - new content. Toddlers are the only audience that craves reading the same story over and over and over. You can have the greatest content on your site, but if it is not updated regularly, you will find it very difficult to bring visitors back to your site.
If an Internet user finds your blog and likes its content, he will come back for more as long as you keep posting new stuff. It doesn't really matter if they visit your blogsite or get the news through RSS feeds, e-mail notifications or Google Reader. What's important is that they read YOUR stuff and not your competitors'. Chances are, after a while spent reading your content, they will be ready to take the next step whether it is signing up for your e-mail list, download your e-book, or purchase your widgets.
In the quest for Internet presence, a savvy entrepreneur looks for a solution that is easy-to-use and affordable. More importantly, it has to be goal-oriented and help grow business faster than alternative solutions. A blog site is a great choice that answers all of these requirements.
Serena Carcasole Virtual Assistant, Internet Marketing Pro, Business Consultant and founder of Virtual Business Solutions ON DEMAND operates a 1STOP Business Service Shop available to business owners around the world. Some of the services but not limited too are: Administration, Bookkeeping, Internet Marketing, Business Consulting, Social Networking, Website Design, Graphic Design, Event Planning, Project coordinating and much more! VBSOD donates 1% of sales to the Canadian Cancer Society. For more information visit th website below. Tel: 905-915-1203 Your 1STOP Business Service Shop Outsource your way to success! Start living your dream as a Virtual Assistant working from home! |
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