Shake the Cobwebs - Launch a Business Blog

We used to think it was so easy. Publish some text and images on your website, put the address on every piece of marketing and wait for them to come visit. The old "if you build it, they will come" idea behind web strategy.

Frankly, that idea was never good - except on the big screen. There is a term for static web pages that never change.  Cobweb. And if your content never changes, even the search engines get bored with your site - and stop coming by as often.

One way to shake off the cobweb blues is to launch a business blog. A blog is a collection of web pages that builds depth in a site while keeping the the freshest content at the top.

Before you sneeze at the idea, rid yourself of the notion that your blogs are only political rants or some controversial conversation between anonymous users. There are many ways to use a blog for your business:

• Positioning: Launch a blog that gives your audience a glimpse into your thoughts and practices. Link out to industry news and add your thoughts.
• FAQ: Use a blog to answer frequently asked questions about your product, industry or service. Not only will this help your customers, it will save you time from answering the same questions repeatedly.
• Photo or Video: Use photo progressions of your work, or put samplings of a video tutorial in each post.
• Tour Guide: Give your customers a glimpse into your back room, introduce your team with pictures and bios, show some of your process.

Of course, there are still many more ways to use blogs. By building web page depth and keeping your content fresh, you'll get repeat visits from your audience and the search engines. And your cobweb site can remain as your online brochure, while your blog can be the conversation.

Remember, blogs are web pages. While your customers/prospects may not realize they're reading blogs - blog pages are among the most findable on the web. Think your folks aren't reading blogs? Better shake off the cobwebs.