Site vs. Blog

The question has come up: should you build a blog or build a site? And, the argument was made that a blog is chronological (time and date stamped) and therefore not as valuable as navigable site content.

First, I think we need some clarity on what a website is.It can be pages, it can be a blog, or it can be both. When referring to a website, we want to consider two categories of content – ‘page content’ and ‘updateable content’. A good website should have both. As a rule, page content doesn’t get updated much. This is core site content that sets the baseline for the brand and the value it delivers. ‘About Us’, ‘Products’, ‘Solutions’, ‘Contact Us’ are clearly page content. You can have many layers of page content and it can become a significant amount of content, and number of pages, on the site. Page content is largely navigable via site navigation tools. Page content can also be found directly via search.

Blogs, news, events, polls, and status updates are site elements that are intended to represent a moment in time and are updated regularly. This content is less formal than page content and is largely being driven by circumstances in the environment. It is inspired, not planned (well not completely anyway). This post (the one your reading right now), for example, was inspired by a response to a previous blog post. In this context, updateable content is dynamic – adapting to a changing environment. Though these posts are organized chronologically, they can be found through tags as well as on-site and search engine queries. Lastly, blogs and other updateable content communicate expertise, personality and action. Page content simply cannot "color in" the brand the way updateable content can. This is very powerful in building and conveying your brand story.

In my opinion, one of the flaws in the site vs. blog argument is the assumption that site visitors are beginning their site experience on the home page, or that they need to navigate somewhere. The reality is, Google has become the universal home page and search has become the quickest path to virtually everything. Let me explain. Our search queries are getting longer and longer. This is because we're learning – learning that if we enter exactly what we are looking for in a search query, there’s a good chance we will find it, quickly.

The point is, we are now living in a ‘long-tail’ world. You can’t plan for all the long-tail possibilities. Updateable content allows you to address relevant topics as they emerge. Once you’ve addressed a topic and published, it’s searchable forever. This is not to say you shouldn’t continue to add to your navigable page content. But, page content, because it is more formal and planed, will be dwarfed by the volume of blog, news, event, and status update content on most successful sites. Updateable content is more likely to engage site visitors (blog commenting, polls, event registration, etc.) and to be linked to by other sites.

So, where are we with this? A good site includes a healthy mix of both page content and updateable content. Navigable pages are important, and can really delivery against those search queries you know are coming – if you can manage to 'rank' on them. The problem is, everyone wants to rank on those high value phrases. In applying a healthy dose of the less formal, easy to publish, updateable content, your site will actually rank better across the board. But, it is the updateable content that you will build your long-tail rankings on. It is also this content that will give you the greatest number of links back to your site and convey the real personality or expertise of your company.

When considering how valuable “inbound” marketing can be – in an economy where traditional marketing just isn’t working anymore – blogs and other updateable site elements simply cannot be ignored.