Monday, March 19, 2007

Blogs integrated into a website?

There was a discussion recently on a lawyer marketing list about whether you should integrate your blog into your web site.  The original poster made a number of claim with which I took issue:

Claim: [A blog] is not the same type of promotional tool as a website.

My Response That’s entirely up to you, not the technology; even if a website was a worse promotional tool than a blog, it wouldn’t justify separating the two (just the opposite, in fact).

Claim: “A blog is meant to be cited, people don’t cite a website.”

That’s not true; just ask Wikipedia.  Even if this were true, it doesn’t justify separating your site and blog.  Don’t you want all those links pointing toward’s your web site domain?

Claim: A blog [isn’t] a static website.

One of the biggest “blog” red herrings out there; in fact, I think the distinction was created by people who sell blogs (my explanation is below).

Claim: “If you put your blog inside the website, those cites to your blog will not happen”

Sorry, but that’s just silly.  If that were true, content wouldn’t matter.

Claim: You will not get the same SEO either.

That’s just not true, but I’m willing to consider your evidence.

Claim: A blog is networking and a conversation....

How does having your blog on the same server/IP address as your “website” prevent the conversation from happening?

Claim: I don’t even notice a blog that is imbedded in a website.

So how do you know the blog was there?  Can you give us one example?

Claim: And in that sense, you are actually harming your possible Search Engine Optimization (SEO), by imbedding the blog into the website.

Again, you’ll have to explain why that’s true.  I’m pretty sure that SEO principles would favor an integrated site (but probably wouldn’t make much of an overall difference).

Claim: I get much better SEO in Kansas with my blog compared to most of the static websites

Bad competition makes for good SE position, but it doesn’t support the claim about separating sites.

Claim: A website for the most part is a static creature.

First, all web pages are static from the user’s perspective.  Second, the distinction is between “static” and “dynamic”, not “blogs” and “websites”.  A blog has “dynamic” functionality, but it’s not the thing that makes them special.

Claim: Now, I will admit, there are exceptions to [the rule that most sites are static].

That’s probably true for small firms and solos, but not for big law (or most other online businesses).  It’s also something that will not be true for small firms in about one or two years.

As far as I can see, the reason not to have you blog integrated with your site is that you can rank more than once on search engines for certain phrases.  Unfortunately, it’s probably for very limited keyword phrases (like your name or firm name), so you’re not likely to see much more overall traffic from having alternate domains.

A potential downside to not integrating your blog is diluted branding, particularly if you use a free/hosted blogging service without domain mapping.