« Spamming Sphinn, Digg, and Others... |
April 29, 2008
Should You Put A Blog On Your Site?
By Scott Goodyear
Two of the most common questions that people ask about online marketing is, 'should I put a blog on my site?' and 'how do I get my site indexed quickly?'. The answer, in many cases, is yes and perhaps with your blog. If you want to be indexed by Google and other engines quickly, the answer is often "get a blog". While I won't get into all of the pitfalls of having a blog, I did want to show you one small indexing benefit that is related to having a blog...
If you go into Google right now and search on: market position, you will see that our blog's domain is indexed. If you click on the "cached" option, you will also see that Google states that they last indexed this page on April 27, 2008.
Yet, I wrote a post earlier today. Today is the 29th. Yet, Google has already been to MarketPosition and they have indexed my earlier post.
As you will undoubtedly hear in many places, blogs get indexed pretty quickly. It's true. The example above, proves this. But, does this mean that your normal web site updates are indexed as quickly, if you have a blog? Not necessarily. But it doesn't hurt.
Can I Drop Links From My Web Site Into My Blog?
My take is that you can drop links from your blog, to important pages on your site. If the link and content is appropriate, even your blog's visitors might appreciate knowing that there is something new on your site. They may link to the new pages as well, which can be a plus in other ways.
Provided that your blog is not a splog (spamblog) - with just links to your product pages or other non-interesting content, you should be OK. These links on topical pages can help get non-blog pages in the queue for being indexed rather than just waiting for Googlebot to randomly find them and index those pages at some point in the future.
If you had a large web site, similar to say Amazon.com, you might add dozens of pages and still not have them indexed unless they are linked to from a visitor, from the home page of your site, a good site map, etc. While some engines may ping existing pages in order to see if they've changed (search on "If Modified Since"), they are checking old pages that they already know about.
If you need an example of a positive way to drop links, forget that that Movable Type is a blog software company for a second. Here is a post where they point to an open source version of their software and link drop to various areas of their site. This post is not spammy and generally fits into the same topical themes that their official movable type blog normally covers.
Observation About The Google WebMaster Tools Area
As an aside, I'm a fan of the Google WebMaster Tools area. By submitting to Google, waiting for their bot to come by, having them index your blog, etc. that doesn't mean that all of the areas of Google are up to date with one another. I know, it is a little confusing. They have many data centers and various ways in which they might categorize dates, copies of indexes, etc.
As you can see above, despite indexing my blog post today, their Webmaster tools area says that they last indexed Market Position back on the 27th.
Summary
A blog can be helpful. They are often indexed quicker than a normal site. A blog can be used to point search engine robots to new, non-blog content on your site. If you check various areas in Google, in order to see how their indexing of your site is coming along, don't get disheartened, not all of Google's tools, dates, and other data always match up.
← What is this?
can I assume that a discussion forum would be the same as a blog as the forum software is often more versatile.
Posted by Bryan at May 6, 2008 06:17 PM
Both forums and blogs have their good and bad points... It is often how the technology is implemented and what the over all look/feel which determines just what is a blog and what what is a forum.
"forum software is often more versatile."
Depending on what you are using, blog software can be pretty versatile as well.
Posted by Scott Goodyear at May 6, 2008 08:08 PM
Thanks for that perspective about adding a blog to the Web Site.
I've thought but have not done this as yet. Actually not sure how. I have GoDaddy as a site host. I'll give them a call to see how this might be accomplished.
John McLaughlin, Stock Day Trader's - Consultant / Coach
Thanks again
Posted by TheTraderCoach at May 6, 2008 09:26 PM
Hi John,
Many hosting companies use CPanel, WHM, or similar products to allow for plenty of plug in applications like blogs.
http://www.cpanel.net/
Looking at GoDaddy, they have several blog types available including:
Geeklog
Lifetype
reBlog
Serendipity
WordPress
and several community apps like:
Drupal
Joomla
Xoops
You'll have to experiment and see which works best for you. If it works like my past experiences with CPanel, you can install an app and toy with it. If it seems too complicated, nuke it and try one of the others. In most of these cases it is a bit complicated but rewarding to learn a bit more about the systems and coding behind the blogs because they can be pretty powerful.
While it's not the only novice solution out there, you can also try Google's "blogger". As long as you know at least a small amount of HTML you can put some token HTML on a page and set blogger to login to your web server and replace a file when you post to blogger.
Posted by Scott Goodyear at May 6, 2008 09:47 PM
Hello Scott,
Since you are an SEO pro I would love to discuss the fact that people like Andy Beard and seomoz.org both believe that blogs are ranked differently by Google than static websites. Here is a little of what they have had to say....
Google judges the quality of the blog by:
How many RSS subscribers you have in Google Reader.
How many blogrolls you are in and the quality of the blog roll as a whole.
The quality of your blog roll.
The quality of the outgoing links in your blogposts, the number of links and the keywords you used in them.
There is allot more so I wrote a Squidoo lens about this here:
http://www.squidoo.com/blog-seo
What do you think Scott?
Posted by Chris Lang at May 7, 2008 04:37 AM
In the past I was convinced that there was not much difference between which blog or content management system a person would use.
However, that was yesterday's opinion not todays. Since starting a blog about technology and ministry at www.FromChurch.com I have become convinced that creating Wordpress blogs is a superior strategy for quickly generating traffic.
I have used other content management solutions like joomla and mambo and post-nuke, but when I created my first self hosted wordpress blog, learned how to tweak my picks, and change the permalinks - I was amazed when I had to increase my bandwidth for the site because of the hits I was getting.
I now encourage any pastor that I work with to consider setting up a ministry blog immediately. Even if they have it linked from their church site, it is a strategy that works for internet ministry and I imagine any writer, speaker, or consultant would get simular results.
Of course content is still king - but you can easily create content about whatever you are passionate enough to have a website about.
Thanks for your article.
In Him,
JMb <><
www.1000churches.org
www.poorpreacher.com
www.ifeelgod.org
www.youcanplaygospel.com
Posted by Bishop James I Feel God Brown at May 7, 2008 06:51 AM
Hi Chris,
I think that those could indeed be measures of quality. I don't believe that there is any one thing that puts a site over the top. Rather, I'd think that if anything, in order to help avoid being "gamed", that the engines have variable weighting to things like RSS feeds, blog rolls, etc.
As I argue over there, http://www.marketposition.com/blog/archives/2008/03/ranking_argumen.html
there are factors beyond links that can help a site's rankings... it's not always clear what they are or how they are weighted. SEOChat and WMW for example are sure to be on more SEO blog rolls than MarketPosition and they've been around almost as long.
And Danny Sullivan's newer site, SearchEngineLand, is sure to be one MANY blog rolls, feed readers, etc. It ranks for "internaional seo" even though this page is quite lite on actual text content:
http://searchengineland.com/080422-132417.php
Blog rolls, feeds to the site and this page, etc. are certainly potential factors in keeping this page afloat in the rankings.
Interestingly enough... although the intent wasn't to spam or what not, it is almost "duplicate content" in nature as compared to:
http://searchengineoptimization.elliance.com/search-marketing-resources/seo-infographics.aspx?title=International-SEO-Tips&Category=
Posted by Scott Goodyear at May 7, 2008 05:34 PM
frttg3i-rjw1ieb-tw6qb5bc-0 http://roulette-mo.lookera.net#1
cheap auto insurance|really cheap auto insurance|auto insurance quotes|cheap auto insurance|cheap car insurance|car insurance|cheap auto insurance|auto insurance quotes|cheap auto insurance|cheap auto insurance|cheap car insurance
[url=http://texas-holdem-mo.lookera.net#3]texas holdem|texas holdem poker|texas holdem hands|texas holdem|texas holdem|online poker|texas holdem|poker games|poker tables[/url]
[url]http://online-casino-gambling-mo.lookera.net#4[/url]
[http://urlser.com/?xFj4E#5 insurance|progressive insurance|allstate insurance|insurance|automobile insurance|renters insurance|insurance|insurance online|insurance rates|insurance|progressive insurance|allstate insurance|insurance|automobile insurance|renters insurance]
"homeowners insurance|home owners insurance|homeowner insurance|homeowners insurance|home owner insurance|homeowners insurance quotations|homeowners insurance|homeowner insurance quotes|homeowners insurance|homeowners insurance|homeowner insurance":http://urlser.com/?aBCA5#6
[LINK http://urlser.com/?aBCA5#7]homeowners insurance|home owners insurance|homeowner insurance|homeowners insurance|home owner insurance|homeowners insurance quotations|homeowners insurance|homeowner insurance quotes|homeowners insurance|homeowners insurance|homeowner insurance[/LINK]
Posted by cheap car insurance at May 10, 2008 10:15 AM
Pretty much nothing seems important.
Posted by viagra bestellen at May 11, 2008 10:10 AM
Thank you!
Posted by credit check free at May 11, 2008 10:12 AM
Good site. Thank you.
Posted by strategie du texas hold'em at May 11, 2008 10:39 AM
Good design!
Posted by online cipro at May 11, 2008 10:57 AM
Nice site
Posted by diet at May 11, 2008 11:35 AM
I just don't have anything to say.
Posted by pay day loans at May 11, 2008 11:37 AM
Well done!
Posted by revues des salles de poker at May 11, 2008 12:57 PM
Cool site. Thank you:-)
Posted by buy viagra at May 11, 2008 01:02 PM
Cool site. Thank you:-)
Posted by buy generic viagra at May 11, 2008 01:22 PM
TARRIFIC SITE!
Posted by discover credit card at May 11, 2008 01:51 PM
very interesting fix links
Posted by generic viagra at May 11, 2008 02:12 PM
TARRIFIC SITE!
Posted by levitra at May 11, 2008 03:43 PM
very interesting fix links
Posted by poker online at May 11, 2008 04:11 PM
Cool site. Thank you:-)
Posted by ambien at May 11, 2008 05:37 PM
Good design!
Posted by ambien cr at May 11, 2008 05:51 PM
TARRIFIC SITE!
Posted by erectile dysfunction at May 11, 2008 06:18 PM
Thank you!
Posted by texas hold'em at May 11, 2008 07:04 PM
Great work!
Posted by secured credit cards at May 11, 2008 07:23 PM
Thank you!
Posted by les regles du texas hold'em at May 11, 2008 07:30 PM
I feel like a bunch of nothing.
Posted by online acomplia at May 11, 2008 07:31 PM
Great site! Beautiful craftsmanship!! Keep of the wonderful work!!
Posted by freerolls at May 11, 2008 08:23 PM
I like your site very much indeed.
Posted by tournois de poker at May 11, 2008 08:58 PM
Good site. Thank you.
Posted by cheap auto insurance at May 11, 2008 10:21 PM
I like your site very much indeed.
Posted by onlineporno onlinecasino jackpots at May 11, 2008 10:25 PM
Nice site
Posted by online poker at May 11, 2008 10:27 PM
Great site! Beautiful craftsmanship!! Keep of the wonderful work!!
Posted by diet at May 11, 2008 11:11 PM
Pretty much nothing seems important.
Posted by tournois de poker at May 12, 2008 12:21 AM
Great work!
Posted by texas hold'em at May 12, 2008 12:27 AM
Great work!
Posted by ambien at May 12, 2008 12:44 AM
Hi, nice site
Posted by texas hold'em at May 12, 2008 01:28 AM
Well done!
Posted by free annual credit report at May 12, 2008 01:38 AM
Hi, nice site
Posted by slots casino gambling atheistunderground.org at May 12, 2008 01:38 AM
Nice site. Thanks.
Posted by erectile dysfunction at May 12, 2008 01:47 AM
Good site. Thank you.
Posted by pay day loans at May 12, 2008 01:56 AM
Good design!
Posted by levitra at May 12, 2008 02:08 AM
Cool site. Thank you:-)
Posted by ambien at May 12, 2008 02:25 AM
Hi, nice site
Posted by insomnia at May 12, 2008 02:26 AM
I like your site very much indeed.
Posted by buy cialis at May 12, 2008 02:39 AM
Well done!
Posted by casino gambling holdem at May 12, 2008 02:40 AM
I just don't have anything to say.
Posted by free credit check at May 12, 2008 03:01 AM
I just don't have anything to say.
Posted by revues des salles de poker at May 12, 2008 03:06 AM
Hi, nice site
Posted by car insurance at May 12, 2008 03:28 AM
Great work!
Posted by la strategie du omaha at May 12, 2008 03:31 AM
Well done!
Posted by viagra at May 12, 2008 04:22 AM
I just don't have anything to say.
Posted by ed at May 12, 2008 04:50 AM
Hello, very nice site!
Posted by free online poker at May 12, 2008 04:57 AM
Pretty much nothing seems important.
Posted by tramadol at May 12, 2008 05:28 AM
Excellent web site. I will visit it often.
Posted by annual free credit report at May 12, 2008 05:41 AM
Nice site
Posted by secured credit cards at May 12, 2008 05:59 AM
Excellent web site. I will visit it often.
Posted by insomnia at May 12, 2008 07:13 AM
Hello, very nice site!
Posted by online generic viagra at May 12, 2008 08:06 AM
Nice site
Posted by preise von viagra at May 12, 2008 08:06 AM
Thank you!
Posted by buy levitra online at May 12, 2008 08:49 AM
I like your site very much indeed.
Posted by tramadol at May 12, 2008 08:55 AM
TARRIFIC SITE!
Posted by cheap auto insurances at May 12, 2008 09:00 AM
Thank you!
Posted by best casinos guide at May 12, 2008 09:42 AM
TARRIFIC SITE!
Posted by les regles du texas hold'em at May 12, 2008 10:56 AM
Pretty much nothing seems important.
Posted by insomnia at May 12, 2008 11:26 AM
I like your site very much indeed.
Posted by house insurance wisconsin at May 12, 2008 12:26 PM
I feel like a bunch of nothing.
Posted by free credit check at May 12, 2008 12:53 PM
Well done!
Posted by roulette casino games at May 12, 2008 01:15 PM
Nice site. Thanks.
Posted by la strategie du omaha at May 12, 2008 01:54 PM
Excellent web site. I will visit it often.
Posted by play free slots at May 12, 2008 02:00 PM
I feel like a bunch of nothing.
Posted by sleeping medication at May 12, 2008 04:09 PM
Thank you!
Posted by loans at May 12, 2008 04:18 PM
Cool site. Thank you:-)
Posted by cialis at May 12, 2008 04:35 PM
very interesting fix links
Posted by order fioricet at May 12, 2008 04:42 PM
Pretty much nothing seems important.
Posted by cheap levitra at May 12, 2008 05:21 PM
I like your site very much indeed.
Posted by insomnia at May 12, 2008 06:37 PM
very interesting fix links
Posted by health insurance quotes at May 12, 2008 06:40 PM
I feel like a bunch of nothing.
Posted by auto insurance at May 12, 2008 07:13 PM
Hi, nice site
Posted by free online poker at May 12, 2008 07:35 PM
Pretty much nothing seems important.
Posted by online rimonabant at May 12, 2008 07:49 PM
Nice site
Posted by cheap rimonabant at May 12, 2008 08:07 PM
TARRIFIC SITE!
Posted by life insurance at May 12, 2008 08:11 PM
very interesting fix links
Posted by auto insurance at May 12, 2008 08:26 PM
Great site! Beautiful craftsmanship!! Keep of the wonderful work!!
Posted by insomnia at May 12, 2008 09:14 PM
Thank you!
Posted by health insurance at May 12, 2008 09:34 PM
Pretty much nothing seems important.
Posted by roulette at May 12, 2008 10:29 PM
Hi, nice site
Posted by buy cialis at May 12, 2008 11:51 PM
Hi, nice site
Posted by les regles du poker at May 13, 2008 12:37 AM
Great site! Beautiful craftsmanship!! Keep of the wonderful work!!
Posted by freerolls at May 13, 2008 02:01 AM
Good design!
Posted by az home insurance at May 13, 2008 02:49 AM
Great work!
Posted by ambien cr at May 13, 2008 03:03 AM
Excellent web site. I will visit it often.
Posted by levitra at May 13, 2008 03:36 AM
Good site. Thank you.
Posted by tournois de poker at May 13, 2008 03:59 AM
I just don't have anything to say.
Posted by online poker at May 13, 2008 04:07 AM
Great work!
Posted by buy cialis at May 13, 2008 04:50 AM
Pretty much nothing seems important.
Posted by safe auto insurance in wisconsin at May 13, 2008 06:18 AM
Cool site. Thank you:-)
Posted by secured credit cards at May 13, 2008 06:22 AM
Hello, very nice site!
Posted by les mains du poker at May 13, 2008 06:23 AM
Great work!
Posted by credit card discover at May 13, 2008 06:24 AM
Well done!
Posted by tramadol pain releif at May 13, 2008 06:28 AM
Cool site. Thank you:-)
Posted by buy levitra at May 13, 2008 08:15 AM
TARRIFIC SITE!
Posted by texas insurance at May 13, 2008 09:52 AM
Nice site
Posted by roulette at May 13, 2008 10:04 AM
Hi, nice site
Posted by sexual health at May 13, 2008 10:40 AM
TARRIFIC SITE!
Posted by zolpidem at May 13, 2008 11:43 AM
Nice site. Thanks.
Posted by tramadol online at May 13, 2008 11:44 AM
Cool site. Thank you!
Posted by texas insurance at May 13, 2008 11:50 AM
Good design!
Posted by insurance ca at May 13, 2008 12:31 PM
