Things Change But remain the same
There has been a lot of "buzz" of late about web Blogs and their use as an Internet tool for business advertising and obtaining new customers. The Blog was originally used by various individuals who wished to "sound off" on matters and issues close to their own heart.A Blog allows other "bloggers" or individuals to give you feedback on your ideas or issues. Blogs can also be utilized by a group of people such as families, small groups or groups with common interests.
As the "Blog" software became more sophisticated and allowed more options its use became more wide spread. Now a sophisticated blog will allow you to post photos, provide you with "easy use, blog this' buttons, anywhere on the net and even allow you to attach audio files to your Blog.
Blogs "ease of use" and inexpensive software allow near universality of use by anyone who has access to the Internet. So why use it for business? Well they are not for everyone as a good Blog, requires a great deal of dedicated time and regular, frequent updates
What advantage can a blog give your business? According to the latest pundits a blog "should be adding content regularly. Building free resources into your web site. This will make your customers and potential customers happy, and it will make you appear to be more important in the eyes of the search engines. Adding articles to your site is a great way to give your customers new, free content. Write about things that they would find interesting."
It seems, in spite of all the revisions, upgrades, and various "fixes" to major search engines the rule is the same as it was back in 2001-2002: content is King. Content needs to be relevant,current and interesting.
Many a "new" web site has quickly become stale if no one maintains it. A web site is like a car, it needs regular oil changes and monthly maintenance. Often, the only thing to do is ensure the web site has not been dropped from the index which can happen naturally. Check on things once a month, and if pages are missing, then resubmit to search engines.
A web Blog approach is a newer tool, easy to use for many people and enables frequent content change that is good for your search engine position; new technology but old techniques. So does your business need to set up a blog? No it doesn't, it may , in fact be easier to update your old web site with new material and content.