Blogs naturally attract search engine traffic. Most have clear navigation, and optimised architecture – advantages that make them the perfect tool for improving your SEO (search engine optimisation).
Search engines recognise blogs as distinct from normal websites, and if active (updated at least times a week) will crawl them more frequently. This will increase your rankings and, in turn, your web traffic.
What is a blog?
Derived from the term ‘weblog’, blogs allow their writers to publish their personal opinions and to link to other websites in a sequential, diary-style format. Blogs are normally managed and driven by a content management system (CMS) which allows you to post your articles without technical knowledge. The best known example of this is Google’s free service Blogger.
Using a blog to your advantage
Having a blog allows you to post articles and news on any topic, so why not use it to promote your business? Publishing articles related to your business is a great idea to interest users and heavily increase your keywords base. Each article can be enriched with key keywords, links and media, which makes them attractive not only to search engines but also to your visitors.
It’s important to remember that each article should be written for two recipients – the website user and the search engine. They should be interesting and easy to read, but at the same time holding as many keywords as possible.
What blog software will you use?
Choosing the right blog software is very important, as properly designed and optimised code is the key. There are many free solutions that will suffice in most causes, such as Blogger and Typepad, but developing a custom blog solution hosted on your own server gives you the opportunity to be more creative with functionality and formatting.
Find more tips for using blogs for your business in the next edition of Metro Éireann.
Marcin Kulik is the owner of MK Design Studio, a creative web design agency based in Malahide Co Dublin.
E-mail: m.kulik@mkdesign.ie Web: www.mkdesign.ie
