To Blog, or Not to Blog?

While the concept of writing small articles on the web in an easily digestible format is nothing new, the evolution of easy to use blogging platforms and third party Web sites have made the practice increasingly popular over the years. From personal blogs offering information to family and friends, to mainstream political venues, there's no shortage of views and opinions being expressed in the "blogosphere".

With the countless blogs available comes an estimated million plus blog posts daily, though there's been no formal estimates on how many are utterly pointless (we'd guess somewhere in the 90% range - "Really - it's your cat's birthday?"). From the mundane to the prolific to the simply ignored, there's nothing wrong with expressing yourself for whatever reason on a personal blog, but the same can't always be said for your business site.

Many people in business have taken to incorporating blogs into their own sites for various reasons. Reasons like it's 'hip', their SEO guy (or girl) told them it's helpful to have fresh content on their site, or perhaps just because someone thought they had something important to say once in a while that their clients or potential clients needed to read.

But should they?

While there's really no definitive answer to that question, there are a few things to consider that might make you think twice.

Regarding search engine optimization (SEO), while it's true that fresh content is often appreciated by search engines, the type of content you're adding plays a big role in how exactly that additional content will be perceived and the effect it may have on your search engine rankings.

Talking about industry particulars may be relatively safe, but something as simple as a post about the company picnic may increase your relevance for eating outdoors while taking away from the perceived relevance about what your business actually does (as far as a search engine algorithm goes at least.)

Search engine considerations aside, while you might have some things you'd like to say - pertinent to your business or not, when speaking in the context of a blog it can be easy to accidentally deter potential clients/customers with just about any point of view that a reader might disagree with.

Writing about your take on a new product line you may be offering? You may appear biased to a would-be buyer that now decides to go elsewhere. Writing about your pet dog? Your reader just might be a cat person.

So, are there any good reasons to have a blog on your business site? Sure, there's plenty. Keeping people updated about your companies products and services, respectable, intelligent commentary on your industry, and an easy way to take feedback in from existing and potential clients to name a few. Just be conscious and careful about what you say on your business site.

Like it or not, it reflects on your business.