That was yesterday. Today designer-built websites are very much a commodity item. The need for most businesses to employ a professional ‘web designer’ at all, is greatly reduced.

Self-managed ‘BLOGS’ have arrived and are a key element of our online, social media fabric – Here’s eight reasons blogs are better:

1. Compared with old fashioned, custom-built  websites, Blogs provide a great way to build a modern Web 2.0 web presence for very little cost, and can sometimes be up and running in just minutes/hours, not weeks/months.
2. Blogs are a dynamic channel, distributing latest news items, whereas your traditional site is static, for branding purposes.
3. Some have an advanced magazine publishing structure, with readers, subscribers, writers, editor and publisher access etc.
4. Blogs are inherently interactive. Readers can optionally comment on each and every article or page generated. This alone can have huge marketing benefits in many sectors where customer feedback and referrals is important.
5. Ability to quickly, effortlessly add in podcasts, YouTube videos, photo galleries, Facebook integration, twitter feeds and much more.
6. Mobile compatible. Good blog solutions offer compatibility with all mobile browsers, eliminating the need for a special mobi website. For those in the restaurant trade, this is vital as more and more will access their sites via mobile devices, not laptops or PCs.
7. Instant, DIY updates. When you want content changed or new pages added, it’s as easy as writing a Word document. No nasty FTP or costly design software. Microsoft offers a superb, free blog editor, LiveWriter. (details) There’s even an iPhone app! (details)
8. Last but not least, blogs are SEO-friendly. Google prefers blogs over traditional sites built using software like Dreamweaver. Blogs inform Google of new content and by nature, people update their blogs regularly. This means a better search ranking and traffic.

I’m not saying professional websites don’t have a place. They do. Especially if you’re a big corporate or publisher with a high public profile or tough branding requirements. But for the other 80% of mainstream small businesses on the planet, blogs are simply a better, more effective and lower cost option to get your business online. The simple fact that Google loves blogs more, cannot be ignored.

Some say if you’re not found on Google, you don’t exist  -  no matter how expensive or fancy your website is…

This means a cheap, frequently-updated, ‘blogsite’ will often get 2-5 times more traffic than any pretty, expertly crafted, ‘brand-focused’ website costing ten times as much. And more traffic means more sales opportunities… Sorry expert web designers and agencies, but it’s just the way it is. 

Want to know how to setup your own low cost blog? email me

Ref: Businessweek article here.

Kevin Trye