Back to Basics with Blogs

Marni Weinberg - October 16, 2009

If your website is missing a blog, you are not taking advantage of valuable opportunities like branding, achieving additional organic results, an increase in site visitors and the list goes on.

I often hear from clients that they just do not have the time to maintain a blog. At the risk of sounding impolite, this is simply not a good excuse. There is always time to write a blog post, especially being that it can be on any topic which is relevant to your business or industry. Let’s face it; you know your business better than anyone! Here are some questions I commonly get asked when the subject of blogs is brought up in conversation:

How Often Should I Update My Blog? It is recommended to update your blog at least once at week with original content. This is basically how it works: Search Engines love new and fresh content. The more updates your blog has, the more often the engines will come back to crawl it. The more often the engines crawl your blog, the more organic results you will potentially garner. It’s as simple as that.

In addition, updating your blog frequently will ensure that your visitors/readers have fresh content to read and also makes your blog (and your site) appear to be more credible.

How long should my blog post(s) be? This answer is somewhat debatable. Some experts will say anywhere from 250 to 500 words. We typically suggest approximately 250 words. You want the blog to be short, sweet and to the point.

Does it matter if my blog is onsite or offsite? It does; especially from an SEO perspective.  It is preferred that the blog be placed within your domain to achieve the best results possible.

What type of blog software is recommended?  There are several blog software options available depending on your specific site setup. We typically recommend Word Press and utilize this solution on our own blog.

Implementing a Blog is a fairly simple and fast way to start generating new and relevant content to your website. Happy Blogging!