Why a Blog is Better than a Website for your Home Based or Small Online Business

So you’re intending to start your own home based or small business - perhaps an Internet based business or a small business with its own website; or perhaps you’ve already taken those first steps to set it all up? In this article we will explore the differences between a Blog or a Website as your business home on the Internet.

After some experimentation, I’m all for a Blog rather than a Website, and I’ll tell you why… (by the way, I own a number of Blogs and Websites myself, so I have personal experience of both). But - a Blog is NOT always the answer for ALL small businesses.

What do we mean by Blog and Website?

By a Website, I mean a separate or stand-alone domain name with various web pages, which is usually fairly static in terms of its content (it may have a Home page, an About page, a Products page, a Contact Us page, etc). An example of a separate business website is http://www.websiteinabox.ws/.

By a Blog, I mean a website that utilizes blogging software (such as WordPress or Blogger), and although it can have its own domain name and various web pages too (including About, Contact, Products, etc), it is primarily designed around the dynamic blog posts page, which are short articles and which are frequently added to and updated. Blog is short for Web-Log, and was originally created as an online diary for personal writing, but it can be very useful for online businesses too. This is a Blog website: http://aztecinternetmarketing.com/.

For those of you who feel that you don’t properly yet understand what a Blog is, here’s a really simple but excellent video called “Blogs in Plain English”, with thanks to Lee Lefever:

So what’s better about a Blog for business owners?

The nature of a Blog is its frequently changing content (in the form of new blog posts). Not only is this good for Search Engines and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but it means you have new material to promote, which gives visitors new reasons to come back to your Blog website. The main advantages of a Blog are:

• You will not have to pay as much attention to SEO activities in your Blog website’s setup – you will benefit from a Search Engine friendly and longstanding, popular platform like WordPress, which allows you to get natural website traffic from Search Engine searches, simply through regular blog updates and the keywords used in your blog posts.
• The new blog posts give you fresh information and content to promote (for example, through Social Media like Facebook and Twitter), instead of simply re-promoting your business website link. It gives readers a reason to come back to the same Blog website, because there’s something new they haven’t read yet, which might not happen with a stand-alone business Website.
• There is also the benefit of shared blogs/blog posts which often happens automatically within the blogging platform community and other online communities (eg. WordPress’ showcase of featured sites), and which will also brings you free website traffic.
• I think people prefer information which extends their understanding of something, over simple advertising. A Blog gives you the opportunity to build a relationship with your customers and website visitors through the additional information and insight you provide in your blog posts (as opposed to simply using your website as a storefront).
• Your blog posts can be used as or adapted into articles which you can post to article submission websites, to earn you additional free website traffic and back-links.

So when is a Blog not the best website format for online businesses?

Of course a Blog is not for everyone. There are situations when a simple and static Website will be more suitable for your small business. Let’s look at when to use a Website and not a Blog:

• When your business is local, because you offer products or services that can only be purchased or serviced locally within your geographic area, you might not require or benefit from the additional and often international website traffic possible through a Blog. In this case your Website’s purpose is simply an extension of a business card/brochure about your business. This is often sufficient, because local people looking for your products/services, will search online for these within that area only. See this blog post about how to ensure your small business will be found locally: How to Reach and Target your Local Customers.
• Although a separate Website does require substantial SEO techniques to ensure it is searchable and findable in the Search Engines, especially when it is being created, a Blog requires input in terms of writing regular posts. If you don’t have the time to write regular blog posts yourself, or the finances or means to outsource the writing, then your Blog won’t be as freshly updated, and you simply won’t get much traffic.
• If you’re not confident writing, or you don’t feel you have enough creative ideas about your topics, then anything written may simply not be that attractive, relevant or interesting to readers.
• In line with this, people searching online for information or when making purchasing decisions want to read stuff which reaches out to them – and they don’t often pay attention to transparent promotion of your products/services. They need more than an advert! So again, you will need to write (or have written for you) interesting articles which are related to what you sell, but give readers much more, and are not simply thinly disguised sales hype. If you’re not in touch with your customers, or you can’t imagine frequent new topics to write about that readers will want to read, your Blog will fall flat.

To Blog or not to Blog?

The additional organic traffic which will come your way from a Blog rather than a Website is worth the ‘pain’ of writing regular posts. But that’s simply an opinion. Writing posts, or thinking them up and getting them outsourced (at least one post every week or two is optimal), takes time, energy and money. And if your separate business Website is designed properly, with proper attention to SEO techniques such as keywords and back-links, and you’re marketing within a niche, then you should be able to generate organic website traffic, without needing to use a Blog. Plus, even if you already have a separate business Website, it is often possible to add a WordPress Blog as a page to your original Website (in addition to the other web pages), so you can get the best of both worlds. It’s really up to you as the business owner, and depends on your marketing strategy. But whether to use a Blog or Website should be an informed decision, not based on laziness or the avoidance of writing!

Further information

Check out the different WordPress Blog options here: Free, Paid or Self-Hosted WordPress Blog?

Find out about two of the most commonly used blogging platforms in this blog post: Comparing WordPress and Blogger.

Blog or Website, you’ll need visitors to make it work! If you’re interested in more detail on this topic, read Steve Pavlina’s blog post on 10 Ways to Create a High Traffic Website or Blog.

If you need more information about writing articles (very similar to blog posts), which will give you a clear and effective strategy for writing, posting and submitting your written work, check out my Article Marketing Success Tips ebook.

Finally, if you’d like to know how to set up your blog and grow your business, why not check out The WordPress Classroom 2.0 (inspired and good quality training videos covering everything you need to know on setting up a blog and blogging for business)?

Here’s to your Blog or Website, may it be wonderful and get lots of traffic!

“Crossroads” image by István Orosz (1999), with thanks to the artist and

http://im-possible.info/english/articles/vis_math_art/