Should you have a blog on your website?

If your business would benefit from content marketing, you might consider having a BLOG | NEWS | JOURNAL section to your new website. “Content marketing” is a strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to a targeted audience. It’s also a fancy word for a much simpler concept: blogging.

Are you a thought leader? Are you an expert in your field? Do you have a perspective on your particular expertise that is unique? Do you have information you’d like to share with others?

Maybe you simply have stories or insights you’d like to share — whether recipes, special techniques, artistic images, or musings on various subjects. Maybe you’re a poet and want to share your poetry to a wider audience.

More and more, we’re being told that “content is king” in digital marketing. That having more content on your website is much better than having less.

Including a blog function on your site is an easy way to beef up your online content and useful for positioning yourself as an expert in what you know or do.

If you’re a personal injury lawyer, you could provide stories about cases where you’ve had success, or helped potential clients understand typical outcomes with common auto injuries. If you’re a B2B consultant, you might provide professional and helpful tips for your typical client. If you’ve been published or regularly give presentations, you could provide your published articles or recent Powerpoint presentations online. There are many ways to provide fresh content on your website, whether for purely business reasons or for your creative writing pleasure.

If you want to create updated and fresh content on your website, you’ll want a blog.

If having current content is important, then you might consider including a blog on your new site. You’ll need to commit to writing something roughly once a month, have basic writing and grammar skills, and be willing to learn some simple WordPress login and posting skills (or be willing to pay for someone else to write and post your content).

But let me give you fair warning: there is nothing more unprofessional than starting a blog and two or three years later, having no additional content added to that blog. Without fresh ideas there is no reason for a reader to return. Outdated content has the opposite effect of positioning you as an expert or thought leader — it dings your credibility. So don’t let your blog sit untouched. Make sure you really want to write regularly — or hire someone who will write for you — if you want this function on your website.

Some people have a ton of fun with blogging, and some feel overwhelmed at the mere thought of having to write anything. Know where you fall on that spectrum.

Then tell your designer if you want this function included on your new website. If you do, brainstorm with your designer and staff and get a feel for what kind of content you might write. Remember, you want to provide information that will position yourself favorably to your potential customers and that will enhance your overall website content.

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Helpful resources if you decide to blog regularly on your website:

If you’ve decided to write a blog, you won’t have to pay attention to the information about hosts and servers, blog design, or even the technicalities of setting up a blog in the following links (this will be taken care of by your website developer). Instead, focus on the idea of blogging with these links and start developing what your customers want to read about:

15 Reasons I Think You Should Blog, from Becoming Minimalist, a lifestyle blogger

How to Turn One Content Idea into a Fascinating Four-Part Series, online resources from Copyblogger

A Guide on How To Create a Guide That’ll Drive You 361,494 Visitors, and other tips and ideas for “expert” how-to blogging at Quicksprout