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Blog or Website? or Both?

by DianneH
20 replies
There are websites (which are static) and then there are blogs (which are more interactive).

A website is good for information about your company, etc. but rarely changes. Blogs allow you to interact with people (comments, etc.) and are usually updated at least 3-4 times a week with articles, etc.

My questions:

Do you recommend a blog, website or both?

Does it depend on what your company is or what your company does as to whether you need a website?

I used to have a VERY good website building program. It optimized everything for you and is pretty much a no-brainer ONCE you read the manual, go through all of the instructions and set everything up, etc. When I was using it, my pages did rank right up there on Google.

I just don't know if I need an actual website or if blogging is the better way to go these days?

Would love to hear what the Warriors think. Pros/Cons of both.

Thanks!
#blog #website
  • Profile picture of the author billionareHuman
    a blog is a website! just formatted a bit differently sometimes. these days people use blogs for their website CMS as they are very easy to use, you can make your blog look like a 'standard' website, then if you need blog functionality it's there already.
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    • Profile picture of the author DianneH
      That is what I was wondering....when people refer to their "website" these days are they actually talking about their blogs? Appears to be the case....

      Thanks!
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      Dianne Humphries
      www.PLRMiniMarket.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Aitor Astobieta
    I personally recommend the "killer" duo of squeeze page with blog.

    Instead of just building a static page, build a page where you can capture leads.

    Once people sign up to your list or newsletter, you can send them links to your blog.

    I think blogs have a ton of advantages over normal websites:
    1. Fresh content which search engines love.
    2. You establish a connection with your visitors. Websites seem kind of impersonal to me.
    3. You get feedback from your visitors by allowing them to post comments. This can be invaluable information, by the way.
    4. People seem to be more receptive to read content on your blog than your website.
    5. You can drive traffic to your blog by commenting on blogs related to your niche.
    6. You acquire an authority presence in your niche.
    7. RSS feeds keep your readers updated of what is going at your blog.
    I think the most important thing to me is to capture leads, whether using a squeeze page, or a blog, or a website.

    Once the leads are captured, your blog acts as "social proof", and also as a way to convey free information to your customers. In other words, blogs are the best pre-selling tools on the planet.

    I am sure others will give you different opinions, but that is my take on the subject.

    Best wishes,
    Aitor
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  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    I do both with Wordpress too.

    Front page is a static sales page and then it is backed up by the blog section.

    Example

    How to set up your own online business Internet Marketing Course

    Quentin
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  • Profile picture of the author Nicholas Ho
    Depends on your type of business.
    I shall say blog is always necessary as part of your marketing strategy.
    Its better to have blog as main communication tool and conversation driver to build reader database, credibility and trust.
    Web page is obsoleting IMO, but you can do it in a creative way.
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  • Profile picture of the author kevinpotts
    Like said on the post above me:

    It all depends, EVERYTHING DEPENDS on, for example:

    What would you feel more comfortable working with? May be you'd like using a WP blog because it is easy to use and handle, but what if you'd like your blog to look like a website? Just like you said, most people refers to their blogs like websites because they're easy to customize like one and look great!

    Most people use both because they like to use static content and blogs to make it more dynamic. May be you can try both and link one to the other to see what happens and what you like better to work with and later share the experience.

    I'll be cheking to see your answer

    K.
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    It has been my experience that google prefers "normal" HTML websites to word press blogs. Maybe it is in my imagination, but I have seen that a tiny ten page website with ten backlinks gets a PR3, but a max pop blog with over 1,000 posts and thousands of backlinks is stuck at PR1. Also blogs get their pages dropped from serps when they age. In other words my SEO article I wrote in a blog in 2007 is gets tossed, but google will not dump positively prehistoric 90's articles about DOS and win95 from old HTML websites.
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    http://www.seobro.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Aljiro
    Hi Dianne!

    Anyways I would like to reinforce that it depends on YOU. What you want done... Etc.

    SeoBro: Hmm. Interesting.
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    • Profile picture of the author KarenKramer
      Ultimately it depends on my goals for the site, but I prefer doing a Wordpress Blog with a static front page (optimized for opt-ins) and a blog attached for adding fresh content and communication with subscribers.
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      Karen Kramer
      Slightly Quirky Writer
      and Social Media Butterfly

      Don't Be Caught UnPrepared -Free Survival Emergency Checklists
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      • Profile picture of the author JW888
        I'd recommend both.

        A web site is necessary for your company site or any permanent information
        that you want people to have easy access to directly from a homepage.

        A blog is great for news, gossip, or just sharing ideas on a regular basis. The advantage
        of having a blog is that their are so many different plugins, that you can develop content
        without spending alot of time. Some of the Wordpress plugins do a great job of automating
        the process almost to the point that all you need to do is make a post once in a while.
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  • Profile picture of the author arepb
    I know this is a tough decision, but I'd take the advice of others here and look at Wordpress (the .org installation, which you'd put on your own site). This page should help you out and has a lot of useful links for you to learn more.
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  • Profile picture of the author SurviveUnemployment
    You need both. If I had it to do over again, every site would have both a standard "Home," "About Us," "Services," "News," "Events" and "Contact Us" type interface with a blog on a separate subdomain.
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    Article Spinning Is Not a Crime    !

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  • Profile picture of the author willster74
    You could have your main page as a static page and then set up a blog on another directory on the same site. Or if you are using Wordpress you can set that up on the root of your domain and have a blog page set as your main home page.
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  • Profile picture of the author Raymond White
    I feel both play their own role. Website as you said is more static.. it gives an impression or the first look about the company. Everyone may not require the interactiveness, so that will serve the information purpose. Blogs can be used to interact and answering queries about different products offered. Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author JAIDEEP2959
    Website is more attractive so it has more appeal.

    However, you can try using both.
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  • Profile picture of the author DianneH
    Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. It appears to be split 50/50 on which to create: a website or a blog.

    All reasons are valid on the pros and the cons of each.

    I discovered recently (since I wrote this post) that there is a way to make a WP Blog look like a website page. (Someone mentioned this in their post up above.)

    I might try that route and see how that works. I like the idea of having the functionalilty of a blog with the look of a website.

    Thanks everyone!
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    Dianne Humphries
    www.PLRMiniMarket.com
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  • Profile picture of the author HomeComputerGames
    A lot really does depend upon your niche but I think both is best if there is room for both.
    In the current niche I am working with there is never a blog present when searching the main keywords. But I do know that a blog is excellent for the long tail phrases.
    I also recently got a few of my menu links published as "sitelinks". Those are the additional links from your site presented with your SERP position that you see some have.
    One of these sitelinks were for my blog.
    I also notice that Google seems to publish many of my images from my blog in their image search. A couple of these bring in a lot of traffic.
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    yes, I am....

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  • Profile picture of the author ThatIsSimple
    You can have both but connect your blog to your companies website, so google will pick up both.
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