10.04.07
Should you run your entire business web site with blog software?
Blogs are continuing to explode in popularity. In a recent post, I explained why you need a blog, and how to set one up. If you aren’t familiar with blog software and what it is for, then you should read that post first. I also explained some of the pitfalls and potential misuses of your blog in another post. With this article, I want to give a bigger picture for folks that need a web site quickly, and who are considering blog software to run their ENTIRE web site. There ARE cases where blog software can work as the main web site for a business under rare circumstances, and I will go over this as well.
Recently, I bumped into a local business web site that is the only web site for the business. It is run on WordPress (the same software running this web site). Blog hosting fees and and the cost to launch a blog using pre-built designs is so low, that it is basically free. We charge $50 per year for a blog, and yes, I consider that to be almost free for a business.
So what is so bad about using a blog for your entire web site? Lots of things.
Reasons for NOT using a blog as your company web site:
- Blogs contain posts in chronological order
This makes it hard for you to stick product pages and informational pages into your site to promote your products. - Dated sections drop in search engine performance over time
It is indisputable that blogs help you company show up higher in search engines. But not without quality content that is DATE SPECIFIC. Over time, the older posts in the blog lose some of their search engine power, and they become harder to find in the blog. Will the older pages show up in search engines? Sure. I have seen blog posts from as far back as 2001 in Google results, but you don’t want your products and services hidden from view. - Think of a blog as a STREAM of data coming from you
Blogs are great for sharing things as they happen, and for sharing professional opinions and advice regarding timely issues. This is why a blog is a good supplement to a more standardized company web site. - Most blog owners don’t modify their blog code
Out of the box, blog software is great for posting articles, and getting content online quickly. But to make the blog into a company web site means that you will have to install a lot of third-party plug-ins, and you would still need to get under the hood and get your hands dirty with the code to make your site world-class. - There are better solutions for posting certain types of content
One misuse of blog software that I have seen is using them as an image gallery or portfolio. While this is POSSIBLE, it can be done using much better tools that look 100 times better. For instance, my company has a plug-in for web site that allows the site owner to create a handsome Flash image gallery and project portfolio. And it isn’t limited by the date-sensitive nature of blog posts.
It may sound like I am downplaying blogs and their importance - I am not. Blogs are critical to marketing. But like every good technology and tool, people sometimes overuse them and misuse them. Blogs should be ONE tool in your tool belt, not the ONLY tool that you use.
There are some exceptions. Here are some situations where a blog works great as a primary web site.
- Professionals working for large companies that already have a web site
- Freelance reporters and authors
- For a sharing tips (like this site)
- A content-specific news web site
- Political web sites
- Any site that relies on date-specific content
Why people make this mistake and settle on a blog for their business web site
- Money - I have a saying that I like to use when presented by strange actions by other businesses: “If the behavior of a professional or business doesn’t make sense, look to the money first”. The majority of times this tends to hold true. Really thrifty companies that don’t want to spend money on their web site might opt for a blog to get started. While this might get them online quickly, they will outgrow the blog quickly if they are the least bit successful.
- Domain Name Confusion - Amazingly, the choice and use of a domain name is STILL a confusing thing for many new businesses. I bump into folks all the time that don’t realize that they can have a business web site at www.theirbusiness.com, and then a blog at blog.theirbusiness.com. Not sure why they don’t get that, but that is an opportunity for me to help them out.
- Laziness - Some folks simply don’t have the time or energy to do an all-out web site for their business, or they are satisfied with a simple web brochure. The problem with blogs is that they aren’t even a quality web brochure.
If your business is profitable to begin with, then the money your bad web site DOESN’T make will always much more money than the cost of building a great web site. Bad web sites cost companies a fortune. New business is lost. Brand identity and image are tarnished.
Initial impressions are important. I had a customer last year that only spent serious money on their web site after a potential client called them and said “I am interested in doing business with your company, but your web site is so unprofessional, I am not sure that you are legitimate“. We didn’t build that ugly site, but we hosted it. And I had tried to convince that company to let us upgrade their site for months. Only when they plainly saw that their ugly site was COSTING THEM SALES did they get very serious about their re-design. The new site cost them under $10K, and they landed six-figure projects through the new web site. Now their business is booming, and the web site as part of a new advertising campaign is partially responsible for that.
So treat your web site seriously. Yes you should have a blog. If you are professional working for a large firm, a blog web site is a great way to share your expertise. But if you are a small business that needs a professional presence to show off your products and services, you will need more than a blog.
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