I’ve had quite a few conversations this week with business owners confused about whether they need a blogsite, a website or a blog – or a combination of the two! And it can get pretty confusing – everyone you speak to has a different opinion, and here are my views.
By blogsite I mean a mixture of a website and blog. Sometimes that means a “stream of consciousness” mingle of web pages and posts; other times it might simply be a website with a blog integrated onto one page. The author will have one login and one “backend” to the system which makes it easier to manage, and of course, cheaper to create as you’re only designing and hosting one site rather than two. I have to say, I think that blogsites are rarely as effective as a seperate blog/ website combo.
I find them confusing and hard to navigate round at worst, challenging to engage with at best. Posts mingle with sales copy, and with just one link in the menu bar (usually entitled “blog” or “news”) it’s difficult (although not impossible) to dig back into the archives and really engage with the author.
By far and away the most sensible option is the website and separate blog combination. I really believe that websites should be neat, easy to navigate and focused on selling (not in an all out shouty way, but you’ve got to attract attention, create desire and ask for the order). Blogs on the other hand are all about positioning you as an expert, sharing knowledge and building relationships. Go too salesy on a blog and you’ll turn your reader off, fail to be salesy enough on your website and you’ll miss opportunities.
So the only sensible combination I can see is a website that sells and a blog that builds relationships. It’s rare that you can find a blogsite that mixes the two successfully.
Of course a blog and a website will cost you more (assuming you have them both professionally designed) than just a blogsite. After all, there are two sites to host, manage, design and construct. But they absolutely won’t take any more of your time to manage – why would they? You’ll have the same number of pages after all!
I have a website and a blog. And the two are so seamlessly linked (simply through a link in the navigation bar) that many clients thought that I had an integrated blogsite. But the clue is in the menu bar (as well as the completely different but complementary designs): click on the nav bar in my blog and you’ll be able to pull up all the posts on, say, branding. This makes my blog much easier to interact and engage with than a one page wonder within your website.
My vote will always be for the seperate (but linked via the navigation bar) website and blog. How about yours? What do you think?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with the blog and website approach for the some of the same reasons as you. The *voice* you can use in your blog and on your website can be different and the reasons for the content is different. The blog, as you say, is to gain authority (and I have been known to use mine to vent a bit too!).
But wordpress can be customized so that the brochure pages and the blog functionality remain separate on the site. Karen’s site is a great example http://www.candocanbe.com/ it’s all wordpress but only the blog pages have the blog look and feel.
I am not personally always keen on “blogsites” or brochure websites built using wordpress, simply because wordpress is not always a suitable CMS (although I know others will argue – won’t go into the whole pure XHTML/CSS/SEO thing here!).
However if you are using a separate blog and brochure website – the blog absolutely must be on the same domain and hosting as the main website to gain any benefits for SEO purposes. I’d also say that the menu should be static to ensure that people can find their way from the main site the to blog and vice versa, generally changing a menu without warning is bad practice. If the blog needs a menu of it’s own – it should be in addition to the website main menu.
Gosh – I realise I could talk about this for hours!
Wow! You really could Zoe… thank you for your comments
I guess one of the points I’m trying to make is that I think you miss opportunities to engage with your reader when your blog is just one page within your website. It’s harder to flick around the categories I think and a lot less intuitive.
I don’t really get the single page thing? – Is it not simply a case of either having the categories down the right hand side (likes Karen has) or across the top (like you have)?
The major advantage of keeping the main website menu integrated on to the website, is that for many – the blog receives most traffic (due to to people promoting posts on twitter and other social networking site). If the main website menu is displayed on the blog – then every post is just one click away from your services pages etc – especially useful for people visiting your blog for the very first time. Branding the blogs slightly differently can help with keeping the two separate if you do opt for a shared menu.
My pet hate is when people have hosted blogs and either can’t (due to the hosted blog template) or don’t include a backward link to their website…that’s a major missed opportunity!
I guess it’s all down the individual. Me – I really prefer to read blogs in date order and I am not a big fan of clicking into categories and would be more likely to use an archive section (by month for example).
Thanks for giving me something to think about!
I just think it’s harder to navigate around. I’m an avid blog reader for all things marketing but also cookery, crafty and interior design blogs. I’ve stumbled upon several blogs where I’ve seen a nice, say table that the author has painted, and I’d like to quickly and easily find other posts like it. Of course, that’s what the category tags are for, but that assumes that you can see the category you’re looking for on the front page.
You’re right, it is just a question of “do my category links go in my nav bar or down the right/ left hand side”, but I think when they’re in the nav/ menu bar it just feels a lot more easy to navigate. It probably isn’t, but it feels that way
Good point though about different people wanting to read things in different ways.
oh, and I should also say that there are some good website/blog combos that break the rules, but in an ideal world I’d have everyone keeping them linked but seperate
My view on this tends to centre round what it is you’re ’selling’.
Very crudely speaking, I think if you have a physical product to sell a website works best because you’re delivering a set of fixed information that the user is often comparing against equivalent products. Although the intentions behind product sellers blogging is noble, I tend to find they become repetitive, and even worse when they use twitter as a sales route, repeating the same offer (probably) on a set routine.
If you’re selling a point of view or expertise then a blog is far more suitable, simply because it’s a better means of communicating a constant flow of opinion.
For my site (after much messing around) I’ve gone for a blogsite because, although I’m really selling expertise, I feel it’s necessary to include examples of my product – that being the work I do.
It’s interesting reading your comments because I’ve probably gone against what you’ve discussed and emphasised categories as the means of navigation round my site. All that said, I have yet to discover whether it was the right move or not!