Website Blueprint

I Have a Website. How Do I Get a Blog?

Posted in November 2009

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.

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Why Small Business Owners Need a Blog

Posted in October 2009

The first goal of any website is to create visitors. Without traffic to your website, there is no way to get potential customers to learn about your product or service in an online environment in which you control the message.

Since traffic to your website is so crucial, you’re probably trying to figure out new ways to get people to visit you online. New research has found one way. A blog. A recent study by HubSpot shows that businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors than those that do not have a blog. The results of this study makes one thing clear, businesses that blog are likely to have far better marketing results online than businesses that don’t.

What is a blog?
For business owners, a blog (originally called a “web log”) is a marketing tool that allows you to easily add content that appears online. If you’ve ever used a social media tool like Facebook, then you can more easily understand a blog. That’s because Facebook has an easy-to-use online interface that allows you to add “posts” that will instantly appear on the web (with your most recent posts always at the top of the page). A blog works the same way.

Can a blog be your website?
It can. In fact, this website/blog is completely built on the free WordPress blogging platform (ie. program/software). There are other content-management platforms that will also allow your website and blog to be as one, including free open source programs like Drupal and Joomla. If you can find a local web person that knows these platforms and you can count on that person to help you when you have problems, then this is the best alternative for combining a website and blog.

You may have also heard about Google’s “Blogger.” This is a very simple blogging platform to use. However, Google’s “Blogger” has a huge drawback because it can not be part of your website. The importance of your blog being part of your website, rather than a separate entity is that it will not maximize your website’s SEO (search engine optimization). Sure, you can have your website at www.acme.com and your blog at www.acmeblog.com and have them link to one another. But, the greatest benefit is to have your blog located inside the main file/folder structure of your website, so that your blog can be found at www.acme.com/blogname. This way your website and blog do not compete against one another in the search engines, which can dilute your results and ranking in Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

What Should You “Post” on Your Blog?

1. Tips that are relevant to your business/industry that will be helpful or of interest to customers and prospects.
2. Links to articles you’ve found online that would be helpful or of interest to your customers and prospects.
3. Company news and information.
4. Teasers for your sales, promotions, and events.

Let’s touch on the reasons why having a blog as part of your web presence is so crucial.

Search Engines Like Google Love Fresh Content
Getting noticed in the search engines is where most of your web traffic should come from. Problem is, if you don’t update your web pages often, Google begins to see your website as lazy…and Google doesn’t reward lazy websites. Having a blog attached to your website and adding a new post (article, tip, company news, etc…) every couple weeks will keep your site looking more active in the eyes of Google, and will allow you to get higher rankings in all the search engines.

More Keywords = More Traffic
The more keywords that are relevant to your business category (that people may include in searches), the better your opportunity to show up in search engines. Just by the nature of the content that will be part of your blog posts, you’re sure to trigger more opportunities to be part of search engine traffic.

Positioning Yourself as an Expert
It doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re in, if your customers and potential customers see you as someone who can provide helpful information about your industry, they’ll be more likely to do business with you than your competitors. Having a blog allows you to share your knowledge, opinions, and expertise relevant to your industry.

Relationship Marketing
Having a space online where you share your expertise and company news gives you the opportunity to build one-on-one and long-lasting relationships with customers that browse your site.

No Cost Brand Building
There are way too many alternatives that you can spend your money on to promote your business and brand. Having a blog is one of the rare marketing tools that allow you to do it for free.

Having a website is half the battle toward creating an online presence that will generate more interest in your company. Incorporating Internet marketing tools will take care of the second half that actually build your business online. One of those marketing tools you’ll need is a blog.

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7 Sins of Small Business Websites

Posted in August 2009

How valuable is your website if it doesn’t generate new business for you? Today’s economy makes it more crucial than ever to maximize your business online. Most small business websites contain elements that make a site engaging to both visitors and the search engines (the two audiences you always want to keep in mind). However, there are dozens of mistakes that small business websites should avoid. If you can keep in mind these seven-sins, your web presence will be much more inviting and profitable.

1. Bad Navigation
Ever gone to a website and been overwhelmed with the drop down menus and confusing navigation? Consider your customers when building or recreating your links or navigation. The process of finding anything a customer may need on your website should be no more than one or two clicks away. As a reference, find someone who calls themselves “tech challenged,” then ask them to go to your website and find a few items that would be important to your customer base. If your test dummy can’t find the information, it’s time to simplify the navigation process.

2. No Opt-In Email Marketing
A website that does not include opt-in email marketing is just an online business card (not an online marketing tool). In order to build business with your website, you need to get visitors into a sales funnel. The only way to get prospects into that sales funnel is to persuade them to give you their email address in exchange for something of value – most often, a special report or piece of helpful information. When someone arrives at your physical location/business, wouldn’t it be great if you could find a way to stay in touch with him or her even after they leave? That’s the power of incorporating opt-in email marketing into the online side of your business.

3. Too Much Information
Unless you run an e-commerce or news-based website, your online presence is simply a marketing tool that should be presented to further a sales process. That’s why you don’t want to overwhelm your visitors with too much information. Just provide enough so visitors get the basics of what they want to know, so they feel it’s necessary to contact or visit you for more information. If your web pages (and especially your home page) has a word count over 500, it’s time to do some editing. Make sure your copy is written in short paragraphs and bullet points wherever possible.

4. Not Enough Information
A website isn’t a business card. It should be like a brochure on steroids. If you don’t offer enough basic information, the visitor may feel you’re not important enough to visit or call. In addition, you want to have enough copy so that there are enough keywords on your site to be recognized by Google and the search engines. I would shoot for a minimum of 250 words per page. Just remember the points you read in #3 and you’ll find the right balance of information for your customer or prospect.

5. Lack of Google Juice
If your small business website doesn’t appear on the first page of Google for the proper search terms, you’ve got a serious lack of Google juice. There are many unscrupulous SEO (search engine optimization) companies that make all types of claims to get you on top of Google. Ignore them. Take care of the basics and you’ll do well. Make sure that you add your business to Google maps (for local search), that you have good content on your pages that include keywords that prospects would use to find you, and that your website has unique titles and descriptions in the HTML for each of your website pages.

6. Outdated Information
Every month, you should go through each page of your website to make sure that you don’t have any old information. Nothing can make you look less professional than having outdated content on your site. You may also want to have an employee do a run-through as well. Many times you may overlook something that they may catch.

7. Lack of Social Media
Blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter are a few examples of social media that can build up your website presence. Best of all, they are all free to set up and use. No matter where you share information about your business and website address, it will help extend your brand and name recognition. You don’t have to be a social media maven, but it’s one of the free ways that you can get out the word and drive more consumers to your website, store, and business.

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