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Why must i have a blog?

by K L Smithurst
11 replies
So i have always been under the assumption that having a blog linked to your website is a MUST, i say assumption becasue many people have said do it or fail.

Only i have no idea why i MUST have a blog linked to my main site. Anyone care to explain?
#blog
  • Profile picture of the author Trivum
    Here's Andy Jenkins' answer: Blog More in 2010 – Or Else!
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    • Profile picture of the author K L Smithurst
      Thanks Trivum, ill read it with interest.

      Appreciate the fast reply.

      Edit: Just read the article and it makes perfect sense, but still dosn't explain WHY i must have a blog LINKED to my main website.

      My main site is not a blog you see, its a static site but is updated with new content almost daily. I have been told to also make a blog at mysite.com/blog for SEO benefit, i just dont see how i can get SEO benefit from having a blog linked to my main site which has fresh content posted almost daily.
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      • Profile picture of the author Trivum
        Originally Posted by K L Smithurst View Post

        Thanks Trivum, ill read it with interest.


        My main site is not a blog you see, its a static site but is updated with new content almost daily. I have been told to also make a blog at mysite.com/blog for SEO benefit, i just dont see how i can get SEO benefit from having a blog linked to my main site which has fresh content posted almost daily.
        Not knowing your business, it sounds as if might have a kind of "blog," but without the technical advantages. ... Of course you don't have to have a blog attached to your site, but what it might do in terms of SEO is allow you to more easily target keywords than you might be able to on your static site (especially if you're selling something and don't want to clutter sales pages), and it also might attract links and the like -- whose juice will be easily passed from the blog to the main site.

        That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure other will chime in with more.
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      • Profile picture of the author wordwizard
        Yup, Andy's blog pretty much laid it out.

        He only touched on one of the key benefits of a blog though...

        The built-in interactivity factor, which in a web 2.0 or 3.0 world is a huge plus and even a must-have.

        And those spiders expect blogs to have lots of new contents, and blogs are set up to maximize letting them know. Whereas that might be a bit more challenging in regular websites.

        Also, a blog is like a hub where everything can lead to and from where you can then send traffic to other places.

        And it's so easy to update. If you like to write new HTML web pages every day, I suppose that might work too, especially if you get the results you want.

        If not... try adding a blog.

        In fact, that's what I'm going to do with one of my websites... I have a relatively new static html page and it's excruciatingly slow as it is edging its way up the search engine results. More than a month, and it's still hardly anywhere to be found at place 310 or so. Not good. And that's in spite of quite a few backlinks.

        I'm going to add a blog and see what that will do ;-)
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  • Profile picture of the author franamico
    You might also want to get a blogger pointing to your site...
    Blogger belongs to Google and is spidered more often
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  • Profile picture of the author greggomatic76
    From my understanding, a blog alone does not add a whole lot of benefit unless you have a few elements. First, you need to blog regularly so that you are not only creating new content, but new pages that contain the second element. And that second element is that you need to link back to that main page from your blog, internal links are an important part of SEO. It's not a MUST for your website, but combine additional fresh content and a list of new fresh pages all pointing to your main page you are hoping to optimize and you'll get some definite benefits from having a blog and blogging.
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    All the things that Andy Jenkins says are true but you don't need a blog to do them. Blogs (or any kind of content management system) just make it easier.

    Sounds like you are probably doing all that with your site anyway. There's nothing really magical about a blog - seems to me like it's just a bunch of functions that make building a website easier.
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  • Profile picture of the author petelta
    Blogs are great for building the relationship with your audience. The consistent content being published makes your site look nice for Google as well.

    I have each of my niche sites set up in blog format. I am only active on a few of them, but I have have each publish at least one piece of content each week. Each of these were created in the beginning. I like to set each site up with at least 1 year of content being published.

    Travis
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    • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
      Really depends on your business model, what you DO need is traffic.

      You can get that traffic through SEO, and there, a blog makes a good deal of sense since it typically ranks quite well in terms of content - doesn't really matter if it is part of your main site or not - as long as you are good at directing traffic from the blog back to your money sites.

      You can get traffic through affiliates - there are big names out there today who do next to zero SEO and do not blog very much, but earn big dough by creating big launches and gathering strong partners and affiliates around them OR becoming good at gaining affiliates through partner networks such as Clickbank or Commission Junction.

      You can get traffic by paying for it -- again I know some online marketers who have mastered the art of buying traffic at a lower price than the revenue they make which means they have a very powerful business model using paid traffic - they don't blog.

      I like to combine the first two approaches, using SEO, blogging, but also building through partners - but you certainly can master one and focus all of your attention on that approach.

      I urge you to think in terms of traffic ---> lead ---> customer rather than any one specific tactic or technique.

      Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author K L Smithurst
    Thanks for all the replies guys, you all make very valid points.

    I appreciate your time
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  • Profile picture of the author HorseStall
    You don't have to have a blog, but it can be helpful for ranking well and capturing long tail search traffic. Blogs generally contain a variety of related content that is updated frequently and search engines just love that.
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