Blog Platform or Website: What Do I actually need?

I’ve been working with the Internet for nearly 10 years now, having built my first website when the internet was just starting to gain momentum with sites like eBay.  So when people ask me whether they need a blog or a website, or generally what I would recommend… I guess I should clarify this so that everyone will know the advantages of developing your internet presence in different ways.

When websites were first starting to be put together in the 1990′s, everyone built them using HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language).  This is still what most sites are based on, however, in the past 5 or so years, huge developments in web based software have been developed and are now adopted and accepted by Google.  Those languages and ways to code include XHTML, CSS, PHP, AJAX, Ruby on Rails (and many others).  I’m not going to get into what each of those do in this post, however, the point is that things have changed with website development and you SHOULD take advantage of the things that will be a real advantage to YOU.

So let me start out by defining what a Blog is:

According to Wikipedia:

A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

So in other words, a blog is a self publishing platform that makes it extremely easy to add new content and have your visitors see the latest and freshest content available.  A website can be built on the blogging software that is selected (we prefer and recommend WordPress).  The best part is that this software helps to manage and arrange the content into any way that we want to configure it.  Other great things about this way to setup websites is the ease of re-doing the way the design, the built in content editor, and the plethora of software add-ons available (also known as Widgets or Plugins).  WordPress also comes ready for search engine optimization, and if you know what you are doing, can be configured to update Google and other sites (as well as your visitors who subscribe to updates).

OK, this all sounds great right?  Well it gets better.  Blogging software like WordPress can have themes designed that will integrate both your website and blog into the software and tie everything together!  Not only will your regular content pages be optimized and configured correctly, but they will also be linked up to the freshest content that you write on your blog!

Finally, blogging software allows visitors to your site to write their questions on your blog articles (the comments can be moderated), but this open discussion brings visitors back to the website and allows the posts to “come alive”.  This interaction is why many companies are using blogs as a component of their web strategies.

So what if I already have a website, can I install a blog?

That’s another great question that we get.  We have several clients who had websites that we had already optimized (http://www.BeecherChiropractic.com for example).  Dr Beecher didn’t really need a redesign, but wanted a blog so that he could benefit from additional search engine traffic that comes from blogging, so we installed a Blog for him and helped him start blogging.  You can see his blog here: http://www.BeecherChiropractic.com/blog .  Dr Beecher tells me that he now picks up a new patient every week that found him through his website and blog, without the use of Pay Per Click (PPC).

A word about the website that you currently have…

Most people have websites that were built by a company who primarily used HTML to develop them.  Now, this isn’t a huge problem, and these sites can be modified so that they are capable of frequent updates and search engine compatibility similar to a blog.

However, it’s the ease of a blog that is the real benefit and the fact that the software is setup with search engine optimization in mind.

The difference between a “Free Blog” and installing your own blog

Many people try to setup a blog on a free blogging site like Blogger, Typepad, or WordPress.com, they start blogging, and wonder why it never really gains momentum like the blogs I’m talking about.  There are several reasons for this.  First, these blogs are hosted and owned by the companies providing them.  They control the content, setup, and what things you can do with them.  When we develop our blogs and websites, we install and make configuration changes to provide the highest level of search engine optimization available.  Also, the other problems are that people don’t know the proper format of a blog article, how to best optimize it for Google, and most importantly, the best methods for submitting the link to your blog article (syndication) in order to spread the content that you are trying to get out to your target audience.  This is why most of our clients have us help them with this part and why they decided not to use the free blog websites.  Finally, consistency is key when writing a blog that makes an impact by driving traffic and business.

I always like to get to the bottom line when I write these articles, and the bottom line here is that blogs and websites can (and I recommend) SHOULD be integrated into one solid, easy to use platform for your social media marketing.  The amount of time spent setting up this at the beginning makes it well worth the hassle of having to pay to completely redo your website every few years, especially if you feel that the internet is going to be a major part of your marketing in the next few years.  I know this was a lengthy article, and I just want to thank you for reading through it.  I hope this clears up any confusion that you had about websites and blogs.

To learn more about blogging, and social media marketing, fill out the form on the right to watch our free video series on Social Media Marketing or give me a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Matthew Arndt, President, Turbo Social Media

---

About The Author:  Matthew Arndt is a Social Media Marketing Expert. He is the president of Turbo Social Media and has developed proactive strategy and implementation programs to help Medical Professionals and Entrepreneurs to expand their reach using Social Media Marketing.

---

Related posts:

1. What’s better, a blog within your website or a standalone blogsite?
2. 7 Ways To Double The Conversion On Your WordPress Blog – Part 2 of 4
3. Zerona Laser Lipo Dr Troy Don Leverages Social Media Marketing
4. 5 Tips for Writing Quality Blog Posts
5. 7 Ways To Double The Conversion On Your WordPress Blog – Part 1 of 4