Access the complete Creating a Business Website series.

Keeping fresh content on your website is very important for your positioning with Google and the other search engines. You see, search engines love fresh content. Google, Yahoo! and Bing consider a website that doesn’t change for long periods of time as less important than others, and in the process you can lose some of your search engine credibility and positioning.

But, when you consistently add new content to your website, the search engine gods are more likely to reward you with higher search rankings. OK, it may not be that deep, but it works.

So then, what’s the best way to keep your website fresh with new material? Your best choice is to add the type of information we discussed for your email marketing messages. These included helpful tips, company news, promotion/sales information, etc…

And the great part is that it’s a win-win for you. By adding this new information to your website every couple of weeks, you’re going to not only receive Google/search engine benefits, but you’ll also have great content for your monthly or bi-monthly eblasts.

You can consider calling this page on your website something like, “News.” But, do you want to know the secret of what this page really is? It is a blog! That’s right, for a small business person, having a “blog” as part of your website pays really big benefits. Now, if I had initially asked you to add a “blog,” instead of a “News” page to your website, I may have lost you. After all, may small business owners don’t think of a blog as a pure online business tool. But, it can be. Big time!

In less than five minutes you can login to your blog’s online control panel, type in a paragraph about your new fall promotion, new extended summer hours, helpful tip or new staff member, and Google will see your site as fresh and more relevant. Not only that, but as you’re adding this new content to your site, you’re automatically creating new web pages (the blog’s software does it for you) with a lot of great keywords related to your business. That means even more opportunities to be found during search inquiries.

Also, with the Aweber email marketing service I mentioned earlier, your blog posts can be sent automatically to your email list. How sweet is that?

This is Part 7 of Creating a Business Website. View the rest of this series:
Part 1 | Keep it Simple
Part 2 | Don’t Go Alone
Part 3 | Think Like Them
Part 4 | Get Clicked!
Part 5 | Build Relationships
Part 6 | Promote Your Website
Part 7 | Keep it Fresh

Access the complete Creating a Business Website series.

Six up-and-coming online marketing experts were recently interviews for a series of audio blog posts at Website Blueprint. The interviews covered over 50 questions most frequently asked by small business owners and entrepreneurs. It’s now available free (on this very page) as the Website Blueprint Online Marketing Audio Series. Take a listen to the interviews below.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 101
Craig Fifield of www.craigfifield.com discusses simple way to get your website to appear higher in Google.

Local SEO 101
Jon Rognerud of www.chaosmap.com discusses ways to be appear in Google’s local search results.

Email Marketing 101
Justin Premick of www.aweber.com discusses how to get started with email marketing.

Social Media 101
Laura Roeder of www.lauraroeder.com discusses which social media networks may be the best match for your business.

Business Blogging 101
Wendy Maynard of www.mavendiary.com discusses why a blog is so important for small businesses web sites.

Online & SEO Copywriting 101
Erika Napoletano of www.redheadwriting.com discusses how website wording can persuade visitors (and Google).

Interviews were conducted by award-winning website consultant, Gregg Murray. Gregg Murray is a website strategy blogger for AllBusiness.com, a website marketing contributor to The State Journal, and author of Website Blueprint: The Beginners Guide for Small Business Owners.

The importance of having a blog for your small business website has become soooooooo crucial. Check out Why Small Business Owners Need a Blog.

If you don’t yet have a website, you cannot pass go or collect your $200 until you understand you gotta’ have a website and a blog. If you have a website, but don’t have a blog, I’m going to do whatever I have to (don’t make me come to your office) for you to have your site rebuilt on a blogging platform (or at least incorporate one into your current website). You’ll thank me later!

Wendy Maynard of www.mavendiary.com is a fellow Internet marketing strategist, social media consultant, and blogger. She also does speaking gigs and online copywriting. Since Wendy does such a great job of blogging herself, I wanted to have a conversation with her about blogging for business. She has some great advice and you can hear it all in the interview we recently did together.

Hover your mouse over the image below to see play/pause/volume controls.

During our conversation, here are some of the questions Wendy and I discussed:

• Why is a blog important to small business owners?
• Is a blog part of a website or separate from a website?
• What is WordPress and why does it work well for small business owners?
• What is the process of blogging?
• How often should a small business owner blog?
• How can you schedule your blog posts?
• What should a small business owner blog about?
• How much should businesses blog about themselves versus giving advice?
• Should small business owners accept comments to their blog posts?
• Are there any techniques to generate more comments from blog readers?
• How can a blog post be shared automatically into other online marketing platforms?
• How do you get started if you don’t have a blog, but want one?
• Where can people find templates and themes for their blog and/or website?
• Is having a blog the most important thing a business can do for their online marketing?

Gregg Murray, the Website Blueprint Architect has been named the newest contributor to www.allbusiness.com.

AllBusiness.com is one of the premier business sites on the Web. The site was founded in 1999, and has received critical acclaim from The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business 2.0, Fortune, and other publications as one of the best business sites on the Web.

AllBusiness.com provides entrepreneurs, small and growing businesses, consultants and business professionals everything they need to start, manage and grow their companies.

AllBusiness.com provides more than 20 million pieces of business content, including how-to articles and videos, company profiles, blogs and podcasts.

Gregg will be sure to share links to all of his AllBusiness.com posts and articles here at Website Blueprint.

In my previous post, I shared an article called, “Why Small Business Owners Need a Blog.” One of our readers followed up with a question. It said, “Okay, so, I already have a website. Who or what can help me insert a blog into my website?”

Great question!

Before I get into a few of the blog software/program alternatives, I want to address where to get help setting up and customizing your blog (because, you’re going to need it). If you can afford it, hire someone local. But, be certain they are familiar with the program/software I recommend below (WordPress). Before I found local help, I used freelance services such as www.elance.com and www.guru.com. Just be sure the person you hire as a freelancer is located in the country you’re in. Even more important (and this is a deal breaker for me), you want to make sure this is a person who will allow you to speak with them on the phone (and not just offer communication via email). Trust me on this one. There is nothing that takes up more time than emailing someone back and forth on an issue that could be cleared up in a two-minute phone call. Just remember to be courteous and brief with anyone who offers you phone support. This will keep the door open for you to speak with them in the future.

There are also blog redesigners/freelancers that you can find through some of the paid themes/template providers out there. Including, www.woothemes.com (this website/blog was built from a WooTheme template and I used them to help me customize it), www.studiopress.com (I’ve used one of their folks and had a good experience), and www.perfectory.com (I’ve bought themes from them, but not used their customization services).

If you can’t find anyone to help you get your blog setup, let me know. I have a relationship with a group out of California that have always been helpful to me and I’ve recommended to other small business owners. Just email me through my contact page and I’ll forward you their information.

Adding a blog to your website is not for the newbie. Even though your blogging software may be free, adding the files to your website and customizing your blog so it compliments your current site is a job for a professional. Unless you’re geeky or a pro, I would never recommend you try to do it yourself. It just takes up too much time, has too many headaches, and probably won’t end up being professional enough for business use.

Let’s take a look at some of the alternatives for what blogging platform/software to use, based on the platform/software/program your website is built on:

• If your website was created old-school with HTML, or with a basic WYSIWYG (“What You See is What You Get”) program, such as Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or Microsoft Expression Web, you have several options to choose from: The two best would be the paid TypePad product (advantage is they offer support) or the free and more popular “WordPress” alternative. Not only is WordPress free, but you can even get a free theme/template from WordPress. WordPress is my recommendation.
• If your website was made with a higher-end program, such as Joomla or Drupal, there are blog “plug-ins/add-ons” already built into the program. Hopefully the person that helped create your site could help you install your blog. If not, see my recommendations for finding freelance help at the beginning of this post.
• Finally, there are a variety of “do-it-yourself” web building programs out there from places like www.godaddy.com, www.web.com, and www.intuit.com (formally Homestead). Because I don’t recommend these type of do-it-yourself programs (because there’s just not enough flexibility for growth), I am not sure if they offer blogging software. You’ll want to check with them and see.

There is also the alternative of Google’s Blogger software program. Even though they make it super-simple to create a blog, you cannot include a Blogger blog into your current website. In other words, you want your blog to be located at: yourwebsite.com/blog and not on a completely separate domain (such as yourwebsite.com and yourblog.com). The main reason is that if your blog is outside your website’s file structure/domain name/URL, you won’t receive all the huge benefits of improving your site’s SEO (search engine optimization).

As I mentioned in my original article; “Businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors than those that do not have a blog.” So, if you don’t yet have a blog built into your website, I’m glad you want to get started. I hope this article helps you see how to get rolling in the right direction. If you have a follow-up question or comment, be sure to click the link or add it below.