One of the most popular requests I have been receiving for web design has been for a blog. The reason people seem to be asking for this is because they are being told by others that it is a good source of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and will lead to them being prominent on Google. This can be true but you should realize that a blog isn’t going to automatically do this for you. Your blog needs frequent, informative posts to be worth anything on your website.

How does it work?
Blogs are great for both the author and reader for different reasons. For the author, he/she is glad that you have visited the site via the blog. The fact that you searched for something that resulted in you landing on the page may lead you to exploring a bit more and purchasing the goods from the site. For the user it is a blessing to find an answer to the question he/she searched for so they are grateful that the site has some information. I find myself asking the almighty Google questions daily and many people do the same thing. An example would be me reading a novel about a Carpenter who falls in love with an a Stewardess. Within the text a procedure is explained very briefly about how the Carpenter was able to fix her broken desk at home but my Web Designer’s mind cannot grasp the procedure so I do what I would normally do. I Google the question and read the results. Let’s say you run a site on Carpentry and recently blogged about the methodology in fixing an antique desk. Chances are your post will show up for my search.

Empty blogs will make your site look unprofessional and unfinished. Nothing is worse than clicking on a business’ blog and seeing the default “Hello Dolly” dummy text that comes with a newly installed Wordpress Blog. So please keep in mind that not having a blog is better than an empty blog, even if you have heard that it is the thing to do. Write in your blog, pay your Administrative Assistant to do so or just cancel the thing altogether.