Blogs were originally conceived of as online journals, an online place for people to record their thoughts and inspirations. In the beginning online businesses did not take blogging very seriously and blogs were seen as the preserve of hobbyists or creative outlets for wannabe writers, of no consequence to commerce whatsoever.
But the rules of the game were completely rewritten when Google started to rate blogs with original content. Suddenly, the savvy Internet marketers realized that blogs offered a great opportunity. What better way could there be to advance up the Google rankings than to create a blog with regularly updated unique content about your business?
Suddenly, the techniques of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) came into their own, bringing opportunities to master the net for free like you'd never seen before. Internet marketers became increasingly creative in their range of busienss-related topics to blog on. They started to blog about product reviews, new releases, travel adventures and everything related to online commerce.
Today, with RSS feeds, sites like pingoat.com, onlywire.com, socialmarket.com and many others, blogging has become an essential tool for entrepreneurs aiming to establish a presence for their Internet marketing startup.
What makes blogging so attractive to many online marketers is the speed with which blogs and blog posts are indexed in the search engines. Search engines love dynamic content, and blogs supply it by the barrel-load.
When someone creates a typical static website, each page of the site contains the usual sort of information about the company; it's founders, the services they offer and the products they sell. Maybe, at best, the site has articles and content that is updated every so often. When visitors arrive at the site, they have the option of signing up for the company newsletter and receiving tips and updates. A lot of SEO work will have to be done in order to get and maintain high search engine ranking for a narrow range of selected keywords.
Now, if the same business owner also creates a blog, instead of focusing on simply one set of narrowly focused keywords, the blog offers a broad cloth on which to work, with each post homing in on just a few of the keyword choices within the chosen niche. Over the course of time, the blog expands with many similar posts that are targeted to sub niches that may be organized into listings within the structure of the blog itself. As far as Google is concerned, an extremely dynamic, naturally evolving content rich and niche specific site has been created.
A blog post will often get indexed in less than a day, far faster than is the case with a static website. Eeach blog post can be linked back to products at the main site that are relevant to the content of the blog post.
Well organized blogs represent the single biggest SEO asset an online business can have and anybody seeking to master the net for their business will surely appreciate these benefits.
A good well fed business blog will enable an Internet marketing startup to stand on its own two feet.
...So, grasp the nettle, and take up your blog and walk.
David Hurley
