One of the unfortunate developments in the blog sphere is that blog sites appear to be "free". This has created an impression of low worth for blogs in general to the point that even the word "blog" is not really fashionable. In fact when we use fancy terms like "web presence" or "Internet strategy" the word "blog" is not at the top of the discussion points. Those of us who have been in the industry a while know this is totally wrong and that your blog should really form the center point of your web presence or Internet strategy.
For those advance-thinking companies, their blog is now seen as the replacement for the passive website. We all know that having a "web presence" means absolutely nothing if is the best kept secret on the planet. We have all been through the phase of feeling good when our website was launched and we sat back waiting for the clients to run us down. In many cases the silence was deafening after paying small fortunes for that beautiful website. The fact is, it is not how good it looks that is important; it is how much traffic it generates.
This is where your blog plays an important role:
Higher Google Rankings
One of the most recognized ways of creating traffic is to maintain a higher ranking on Google. Around 85% of all purchases on the Internet start with a Google search so it is important to participate in that traffic. To get the higher ranking, Google expects your site to have relevant content. Blogs fill this role admirably. Not only are they full of information, they should contain links to and from other sites. As blogs typically contain more text than websites, the productive use of search keywords is much easier.
Instant Visitor Feedback
Blogs should be designed to solicit feedback from its visitors in the form of "comments". It can create a dialog not only between the visitors and the blog owner but even between visitors themselves. This allows you to get information that you might never have received. All of this interaction also happens to increase your Google rankings. It is also a place where you can capture information from your visitors such as names an email addresses so you can keep in contact. This is often done by offering something in exchange for the information such as a free report.
So let's return to the subject of the "Free Blog". It is true that the blog can be acquired for nothing. There will be a hosting fee, which is typically less than $10/year. But then the work starts. Setting up the blog to make it look professional, making sure it will achieve high rankings on Google and keeping it active with several well-written, relevant articles each month all costs time and money. This is why we recommend companies and small businesses outsource this work to an expert. It could be a lot cheaper than your webmaster and will achieve much better results. For a few hundred dollars per month you could have a web presence that far outperforms any website you might have and could even replace it.
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