An increasing number of businesses and organizations have embraced the evidence that a well-executed blog can have a significant impact for reaching customers and constituents. Some of them, however, don’t see the importance of integrating their blog with their main website. They’re content to publish their blog on a free blogging platform such as Blogger.com or WordPress.
Nobody wants to pay more than they have to, but sometimes “free” can actually cost you more. Here are three reasons a disconnected blog can cost you something—even though you may never see this cost show up in your P&L statement.
1. SEO: Business blogging can have a huge impact on search engine optimization (SEO). Each new blog article you publish creates a new web page that can be indexed in search engines to help you get found online. If your blog is associated with a different domain, your corporate website doesn’t get the benefit. For instance, if we ran this blog on a free platform (say http://www.tmrdirectblog.wordpress.com) we’d be generating SEO credit for WordPress rather than for our own site.
2. Brand Awareness: Even if you link your blog to your website’s main navigation, visitors will still end up on a different site. You can make it look something like your own site—but it will have a different look and feel. You can also run into the perception that your business or organization is less than professional and “not ready for primetime.” You want your blog visitors to associate your blog with your corporate brand.
3. Keeping Your Customers Close: Your goal is to attract visitors to your main website via your blog. Once you’ve got them where you want them, don’t send them away! You should work to keep all of your customer engagement on your main website—and hopefully link them to other pages within that site.
Blogging is a great way to drive prospects to your virtual front door. Take full advantage of that opportunity and keep them engaged with you. If you have questions about how to make that happen, shoot us a note and we’ll be happy to chat about it.
Blog Post Written by Wes Powell
Wes Powell is the President of TMR Direct. TMR Direct’s desire is to provide you with the practical advice you need to be successful using direct mail and inbound marketing to generate traffic, leads, and ultimately customers.