- Do you have anything to say? Now really, not too many people are interested in just reading more of what you have on your corporate site. So you will want to think about what you can offer to the blogosphere.
- How much time do you want to invest? The best blogs add new content often (more than SEO Jive does, for example...)
- Can you compete? There are likely millions of blogs out there, can you compete, can you find a niche?
- Will it help? If you already have a high ranking site and you do not need the blog for links back or help with your ranking, then do you need it?
Online Blog Service: Such as blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal and so on. These services offer the benefit of a link back from a higher ranking site, but they do not offer the be
nefit of the content on your site. However, they are extremely easy to use and you can launch your blog immediately. I really enjoy using Blogger and have experienced success using it, but I also really like WordPress products (WordPress.com or WordPress.org). These types are also the easiest to update, since you don't have to deal with your service or FTP and so on.Blog Software: Blog software can be used to develop a blog to be self hosted or published on your own site. Self hosting gives you the benefit of the content, but not the benefit of a high ranking link back.
HTML, XHTML. etc: You can write you own in DreamWeaver or whatever product you use and publish your own unique blog. You can publish these blogs yourself using your web host and benefit from the content, you could even host it with a unique url and link back to your corporate site if that helps.
So should you blog? Simply put, yes if you have something to say and you think it will help your ranking or company marketing.
Author: Pamela S. Stevens, SEO Jive
