6 Reasons Why You Should Quit BloggingThere’s been a recent trend in businesses and agencies abandoning their blogs to instead invest in social media. I can’t say the decline is very surprising — blogging is hard work.
It’s difficult to produce valuable posts, and it’s even tougher to do it on a consistent basis. Especially in the beginning, it’s frustrating to create content that no one sees. It’s hard to put your time, money and effort into an endeavor you only hope will lead to new business. 
So, many businesses quit blogging.
Most give up before blogging really pays off, and as a result, truly gain nothing from their investment. They search for greener pastures and an easier way of accomplishing the same goals.
As a result, it’s not surprising to hear that many of the businesses and agencies abandoning blogging are doing so in exchange for deeper investment in social media. With this in mind, I created a list of reasons why a company should quit blogging.
You should quit blogging if…
1. You want an uncertain future
Abandoning blogging for social media is a dangerous move. What you’re really doing is giving away the keys to your kingdom. Not only are you eliminating many of the benefits of authorship that blogging provides, you’re betting the farm on the longevity and continued value of individual social networks.
Sure, Facebook seems fairly invincible — but the landscape could easily change within the next few years. In fact, I’d be shocked if it didn’t.
In this fast paced online world, the only constant is change, even among the titans.
What’s even more likely than the failure of any particular social network is the proliferation of additional “potentially valuable” networks. This poses a danger of spreading your efforts too thin, eliminating the potential for building a noticeable presence on any single network.
Alternatively, anything you publish on your blog is yours. You’ve created it, and you can continue serving it to visitors as long as you pay your hosting bills. As social networks rise and fall, your blog will live on.
2. You want to sell to the wrong audience
Investing in a social media presence over a blog may make sense at first. After all, it’s often much easier to secure a Twitter follower or Facebook fan than it is to get a feed or newsletter subscriber.
What most businesses don’t realize is that it takes very little effort and almost no personal investment for an individual to become a Twitter follower or Facebook fan. The ease of acquiring connections is almost always inversely associated with the likelihood of selling to that connection.
For many bloggers, each post and piece of content serves a very specific goal: to encourage readers to perform actions that increasingly strengthen their investment in the blog and brand. It’s much more difficult to cultivate and continuously reengage with social audiences.
By bringing these visitors to your blog and giving them a reason to stay, you’ve brought them into an inner circle where your brand and influence is much stronger.
3. You don’t want to get the most out of social media
It’s ironic to think that businesses are leaving blogging hoping to gain more value from social media, especially when so many have been vocal about the difficulties associated with selling directly to social audiences. Social ads often have extremely low conversion rates — arguably because there’s a mismatch between the intentions of social users and the actions advertisers are hoping they’ll perform.
Social users are primed to share content. This makes social media the perfect place to acquire new visitors to your blog, but one of the worst places to sell your products or services directly.
Social audiences should be seen as the starting point: the outermost, easiest, and most loosely tied connection to be made.
Creating and sharing content you’ve created on your blog within social media allows you to effectively harness the power of social audiences (because you’re giving them what they want), while simultaneously increasing the likelihood that certain users will begin to invest more heavily in your message and brand. Giving social users content to consume creates opportunities to keep them engaged.
4. You don’t want improved rankings
Creating content for your blog is one of the most powerful things you can do to improve the way your website ranks in search engines, across the board. As Google gets more adept at detecting manipulation, websites that create true value for users will continue to outperform those that don’t.
By publishing content that is helpful to people, you’re sending all kinds of signals to the search engines that your site is worthy of high rankings.
Blog content created with users in mind tends to:
- Generate more significant, natural links from a variety of websites
- Engage social users and drive social metrics that can influence rankings
- Rank for a wide variety of long-tail keywords
By abandoning blogging, or by only engaging on social websites, you’re giving up on the power content has to generate the links that drive organic ranking improvements.
5. You want to be limited by someone else’s rules
Twitter limits you to 140 characters. Facebook limits you by their terms of service.
Social platforms limit how you tell your story and dictate how others interact with the content you create.
In some instances this makes sharing content easier, but it can severely limit the reach and impact content can have if that content is restricted to social platforms only.
Running your own blog means you can test the limits of the browser and the user’s experience with your brand, including:
- Ability to run scripts and interactive elements
- Ability to track user interaction without limitation
- No limits on content medium or message
- Capturing user contact information and building lists
6. You want to do more busywork and less real work
Sharing content others have created does little to elevate your brand in the long term. And yet, this activity dominates the work performed by team members responsible for spreading a brand’s message through social media.
There’s value in providing useful content for audiences you’re cultivating on sites like Twitter and Facebook. But, this value pales in comparison to the loyalty that can be cultivated by actually creating new and valuable content yourself.
Creating content that is unique and provides value beyond the “me too” regurgitation of ideas is the real, hard work required for online marketing success.
Conclusion
By now, you’ve caught on you should only quit blogging if you want to forfeit the many benefits that come with it. Instead of acting as a blog replacement, social media should be used to cultivate a targeted audience and lead that audience to your on-site content.
Businesses that make the mistake of abandoning on-site content creation are making a grave mistake — but it’s a mistake you’ll want your competitors to continue making. With less noise, the signal great content creates can become even more clear, providing even more benefit to those businesses willing to make the investment.
Why will YOU never stop blogging? Let us know in the comments below.
This is an awesome article! It’s very shortsighted to abandon blogging and rely only on social media marketing. One additional thing that should be mentioned is you don’t own the content you post on social networks. Almost all social networks state in their TOS that they own any content on their network and can do what they please with it. Do you want to build your entire business on a platform you don’t own?
Derrick, thanks for the feedback…also, great points about ownership of the content you publish outside your blog.
Great point Derrick, and one I often bring up. The beauty of Facebook is it’s more than 900,000,000 users who add value (content) on a daily basis. Most people still don’t understand the old adage. If you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.
I totally concur. I’d add #7: If you want to muddy up your brand and lose the single best way to express a likable, value-providing business personality.
That’s just it…by having a blog you are creating an asset for your business. The more users engage with your brand, the more they learn about who you are and why they should like you! Thanks Annie!
Fantastic post, guys. You nailed it. It is far easier to engage on social media vs. blogging, however you’re just giving up so much by abandoning your blog, in particular, the keys to the kingdom and ownership of your content. We see a fantastic response to our blog because of quality of content and consistency, and as more and more blogs in the niche drop off, the pie only grows larger for us — the same applies in every other niche. Keep on blogging . . .
Thanks Joshua, couldn’t agree more. Its nice to see that so many people understand the inherent value of producing content on-site. While some may be abandoning blogging, those that will really succeed in the end are the ones who realize the importance of creating value for an audience that can continue to engage with you over time.
Daniel – We’re actually redoubling our efforts, and have brought 1/2 dozen new regular contributors to our blog in the past week or so because we’re really reaping the rewards from the quality content we’re producing. We’ve seen traffic to our blog double from a pretty healthy number last year to now, and I believe we’re going to continue to watch it grow, and as a result, bring new users to our social network.
Let the rest of them give up because it is too hard . . . we’ll be working hard and building a better and stronger brand thanks to our blogging efforts.
Re: “Instead of acting as a blog replacement, social media should be used to cultivate a targeted audience and lead that audience to your on-site content.”
Couldn’t have said it any better!
In my niche (real estate), I often hear Agents ask if they should start a Facebook Page rather than a blog. It makes me cringe… Not that there’s anything wrong with a Facebook Page. But if you’re using it as a replacement for a website, you’re “doing it wrong.”
Nothing beats a great website, with strong cornerstone content, and built-in lead generation tools to attract and convert traffic.
EXACTLY. Small and local businesses need to be especially aware of this, although there’s no denying how hard it can be to consistently produce content.
I have two blogs and use them to produce content. My vision is for the long term. Thank you for confirming my thoughts on the current situation.
http://whenkateblogs.blogspot.com & http://solidhappiness.blogspot.com
You’re welcome! Thanks for reading!
Agreed. I know what I know and improve because I read a blog like this. It gives me ideas, gives great information, and helps in more ways than I could ever list. Thanks for taking the time to blog and thanks for letting us know that a blog will continue to be part of the strategy for business.
Mary, no problem! We all look for inspiration and advice wherever we can find it. That’s another amazing part of creating content – it can be the perfect catalyst for inspiring and being inspired!
Thanks for sharing a really informative article but I think quitting blogging only remain only a option when you did not have proper strategy and team to manage social media. Now a days if you missing social media marketing than you really missing big opportunity to market your business internationally.
Because I love blogging, reaching people, encouraging them, and hearing from them. I blog everyday and it is hard work. At the start of blogging, I maybe reached a handful of people, but in the last two years of improving my performance I am now up to 2,000 a month. My early blogs were unpracticed looking, but as I got better at it my audience grew, especially when I opened a twitter account.
The proof is in the pudding. Making an argument for blogging isn’t hard if your audience has ever done blogging consistently. It’s amazing the progress one can achieve simply by sticking to it!
It would be beautiful irony if one the of the people who made the suggestion to abandon blogging used this headline as ‘proof’ that they were right :) Because we know how people love to skim!
Great article and well pointing out that the blog is the engine of the online machine, and content is the fuel. Social networks are good for sharing the content of the blog and driving traffic for your own website / blog.
By the way, well put controversial (interesting) topic for the article. Otherwise I would not have read it:)
Thank you! Never underestimate the power of headlines! Bloggers were certainly not the first to realize this!
Social media is by far one of the best places to secure new readership. What’s important to understand is that social audiences on different platforms and sits can each have unique needs. Understanding these needs is key to creating content they respond to.
Great points, Daniel.
Clients (and all of us) get distracted by hype and flashy things. The lure of relying on social media is its perceived ease compared to having to create yet another blog post. Relying too much on social media platforms puts you in a “digital sharecropper” position where you are susceptible to the whims of the market. If Facebook, Twitter, or the Next Big Thing change their rules, go out of business, whatever, then it’s adios to the leads and relationships you’ve established there.
Better to keep the conversation on your turf and build your brand, not someone else’s. I’ll keep your post handy for future reference.
Brad, glad this post was of use. I think it’s so satisfying to consistently create content in the same place — it adds so much vale in the long term. Social media is the perfect place to share ideas, but not to aggregate a large contribution of work, or educate to any significant degree.
Cheers for the article, Daniel. Some incredibly good points in the pot, points worth sending along to clients to bring them up to speed around the importance of blogging.
So glad to have created a resource you can use. Sometime it can be difficult to convince clients to invest in longer term solutions (that actually produce results), when shortcuts can seem so tantalizing.
Great post!I I continue to tell my clients to create great content on their own site and then distribute links to that site around all the social media channels. Posting a link or a comment on facebook gets lost within a day. A blog will generate traffic for a lot longer!
Great blog title too! That really sucked me in because I didn’t believe it!
Thanks! It’s amazing how content on your blog sometimes comes back to life. It’s so fun to see something you published a year ago start generating traffic again after being shared or discovered by the right person or publication.
Great! To sum it up, Blogs are for individuals who have dreams of being successful in the long run while Social Media Fanatics are individuals who wanted to interact with people with the taught of acquiring a fast phase of engaging people.
There’s a lot of synergy between blogging and engaging with users on popular social networks. They’re certainly not mutually exclusive, but complimentary.
I would pause blogging if its costing goes higher than its revenue.
Thanks, Shafin.
I’d be very careful in how you assess the ROI of blogging…especially if you’re just starting. Doing blogging is a very front loaded, difficult activity that takes time. You’re building value each time you blog, but you absolutely need to keep following through. Find ways to innovate so that the immediate costs go down (there’s lots of ways to improve your processes so that blogging takes less time). Leverage your resources, utilize UGC, etc.
Daniel,
“Sure, Facebook seems fairly invincible — but the landscape could easily change within the next few years. In fact, I’d be shocked if it didn’t.”
I couldn’t agree more…many people forget about how crazy popular MySpace was just a few years ago. Who’s to say that Facebook might face the same fate.
Throwing all your eggs in the social media basket is risky, plus with #5 the social media platforms own your content and can shut you down whenever they feel like it.
Why give up ownership and authorship?
Great post!
Thanks Jared! I don’t think I would ever feel comfortable leaving the totality of my online presence in the hands of others. You’ve got to have a home base!
LOL….seems like the only people posting comments here are other web consultants who also sell web consulting services.
Like having a McDonalds blog and all that comment are other McDonalds owners telling how great McDonalds is…
Ever seen a web consultant say one of their methods they are pushing sucks?
If one does not have a large amount of regular traffic to their blog, a blog is a waste of time.
Sarah, if you think that way you’ve defeated yourself before you’ve even begun. Almost no blogs have much traffic when they first begin. The whole point is to build your audience over time by continuously creating valuable content.
Very good article, and I second it all. Even if I came here through a tweet of Writing Happiness I’ve always doubted how much useful social media are, beside knowing how many cats you have and the latest celebrity gossip. And I believe the real ROI is far less than blogging. Social media is cool and trendy and the next frontier where money is but how long will it resist? Or as you said just two years from now which will be the big players?
Now, thanks to Penguin I must become more social otherwise I have to wait for the next search engine to come and send me traffic but it’s hard because I think that those who are into social media are not really into something else and those who are into blogging are seldomly into social media. They’re forced to because it’s a business must. Imho.:)
Andrea, Thanks for the response :)
Social networks have lots of value, especially in the level of exposure they can bring to your content. They’re the perfect place to share the awesome stuff you create on your blog. People are sharing far more than cat pictures! In fact, looking at the referrers for this post, I can see that Facebook and Twitter sent more traffic than any other source!
I think this is an excellent article, and I agree with the points you have made about the importance of blogging. However in my opinion blogging IS social media- I wouldn’t put it in a separate category to social networks as it is really the centre of any well thought out social media strategy, what do you think?
I think you’re absolutely right. Blogging is social media. I think the mistake was mine semantically and it’s important to make the distinction between social media and social networks. Thanks!
Social media should never replace your blog. Social media content isn’t owned and you are left to the rules that the social media site has in place. With a blog, you can do anything you want. Blog content is what fuels a social media strategy.
You got it! Thanks Nick.
Great article. I will add one more: You should quit blogging if you want to push Generation Y away (young adults born approximately 1977-1997). This demographic WANTS to interact with you online (and not just through Facebook and Twitter). They want to have a voice in the topics you are writing about. If you only have your old static website, then this is simply your way of showing people who you are, and the perception is “This company does not want to interact with me”. So, if you want to reach a younger demographic, it was time five years ago to start blogging.
I think everyone craves a bit of a deeper connection (online) than are typically found in communications on social networks. I find personally that I gravitate towards bloggers that reveal themselves as people. On social networks, the communication level can often feel very surface level and vapid…without a lot of human connection (there’s lots of exceptions to this). But having a place to fully express yourself (as much as one can virtually), or fully express an idea or a vision –that’s what truly draws me in.
Blogging is one more way to keep the Muse limber and ready for action.
By the way, don’t you just hate when creative people talk about the “Muse?” SO pretentious.
Dave
Being ready to blog consistently means you’re required to stay on top of “whats current” in your industry. I completely agree that blogging keeps us limber — both to write quickly and be relevant, but also so that we’re able to speak intelligently to our peers.
Excellent post! You are spot on with your comments. To often businesses are looking for the silver bullet and the quick fix and abandon the real value that blogging offers. As a fellow blogger I get much more satisfaction from sharing my perspectives vs. someone elses with th e140 limit via twitter.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Bruce! We’re seeing more and more (with updates like Penguin) that the silver bullet solutions (if there are any) probably aren’t worthwhile in the long run — especially if a primary motivation is improving search positioning. It’s always good to have a long-term mentality and put those efforts in that can build on themselves without risk of losing everything in the future.
Great post! Having an online home is not optional–
I like to think of my blog as that place where people can come visit me, and social media posts as invitations for them to stop by!
Maybe it is just me, but I like having control over what I decide to post— whether that is awesome writing information or some adorable puppy pictures…it’s all me:) I think that goes back to the “online home” analogy— we can decorate our places any way we want to!
Yes! And like I mentioned, by keeping things on-site, we have far more control than just WHAT we choose to post. We also aren’t limited by the technology and other restricting limitations other sites might impose on us. There’s so much value from simple blog analytics that can help you create better and more impactful content all the time.
Unlike social media posts, which are fleeting, blog posts are permanent, valuable property that you own. You continue getting traffic and visitors from them through search for years after you post them (provided you do a few minutes of keyword research every time you post). Web pages, even more so, because they can be coherently indexed and can feed your blog, which feeds your social media stream – endless feedback loop! I’ve had my site up for almost 10 years, and 80% of the traffic still comes from organic search. Even though I’ve been very active on social media for 2 years and it has been quite effective, social media results are a drop in the bucket compared to search.
Judith, thanks for the feedback! It’s great to hear about people’s unique experiences and perspectives from their own sites and what they’ve seen.
Brilliant take on the topic. I love the reverse-take – it made for a great headline. Everytime Facebook announces a new newsfeed algorithm change – I think about all the companies who’ve gone all in to FB + Twitter – and are giving up so much freedom and access.
Also, everything that’s shared on social networks has to come from somewhere – and that somewhere is probably a blog/website. It’s sort of analogous to companies who will pay the bills with “advertising” – well, with advertising, at some point, somewhere, someone has to actually sell something ( ads:products::shares:real content )
Thanks Nate! This reminds me of another point. By building an audience on a website or blog that we control, we’re hedging ourselves in a variety of ways. It’s important to note that the goal of a blog is continuous audience growth, the more loyal the better.
By being intelligent and forward thinking about on on-site content strategies, we can make sure that we’re not 100% dependent on any single source of potential customers, including those coming from search.
This was an amazing article that confirmed I’m on the right track with my blog even if it’s slow starting it needs time to build momentum and a viable audience. I completely agree with the difference between blogging and social media I have thousands of FaceBook friends yet the vast majority aren’t my target market and may have no interest in the services I provide yet with the blog they are here for specific contend and personal interaction that comes from the blog! Looking forward to more of your post! Janine
Thanks Janine. I’ll be posting much more frequently, keep an eye out! Thanks for sharing your own experience.
I’m afraid Sarah H. has hit the nail on the head. The only repsondents here are other people to which blogging is central to their brand building and business.
Your first point is that the only constant is change. Is not the move from blogging to social media also “change”?
I wouldn’t advocate McDonald’s to start putting their focus on coffee anymore than I would advocate Starbucks to start flipping burgers. Different strategies for different businesses. I wouldn’t advocate a move to stop blogging if blogging is central to your brand building. The move you’re seeing now is simply because some business have seen a better fit with social media than with maintaining a blog. That’s all. .
I’m not saying businesses shouldn’t use social networks. I’m saying if they’re making social networks the main place they market themselves, and are choosing to abandon a centralized “home base” for their content, they’re doing themselves a disservice. Obviously there’s exceptions to the rule, but in most cases a business will be better served, for a variety of reasons (as outlined in the post), if they publish content on a destination they control, and utilize social media to build an audience to that site.
And what method have you had to use to get this message out to the masses? Yes, a blog post! Could you have said all that you’ve said via Facebook or Twitter? Nuff said. Sure bloggings hard work, but its the only method there is if you want to really get your message across as you have ably demonstrated here.
That’s right :) This post also proved that social networks are a very powerful way to build an audience by promoting on-site content within them. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the volume of new BlueGlass Insider subscribers we’ve had as a result of this post!
Great article, Daniel! We have a passion for marketing, and a large part of marketing these days is social media… when we saw the title of your article, we were a bit frightened- blogs are our favorite form of social media!
You’re right to say that with the rise of Twitter in particular, many blogs have been abandoned. While you may have thousands of followers on Twitter, blogs are much more likely to create loyal customers- and isn’t that what every business wants?
I’ve had a few people be scared by the title (because they were already so on-board with blogging as part of their strategy). Most were happy to find out I wasn’t actually advocating for quitting blogging. I’m happy you liked the article!
I could not agree with you more on this one. Launching a website where I could write about whatever I wanted to and in whatever tone and style I chose was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Nothing on the Web lasts forever and ever, but it is definitely a way to make an impact on others, and establish your credibility around whatever subject you are proficient in. Social media is a lot of work, but honestly, I get a lot more results from YouTube and my website blog ALONE, than from all of the tweets, Facebook posts, and everything else put together. Facebook works good for already established brands I think, and Twitter is best for tech and geek-centric points of view. But the point of those forms of media is to DRIVE customers, eyeballs, whatever, towards your central message on your company blog. That should always be the destination of any social media campaign.
Hi Daniel
Thanks for your great tips. I am quite new to SEO, and have a couple of questions in relation to this article but also in relation to the article by Joanna called “Link Building in a Panda’s World” (http://www.blueglass.com/blog/link-building-in-a-pandas-world/), which I can’t seem to add my comment on…
I want to start getting into blogging (for SEO purposes), but am not clear on what’s the best place to post blogs. Is it better to create a page on my own website for blogging, and then post my blogs there with internal links to my main landing page? Or is it better to blog externally to get external inbound links? I’m guessing the latter is better from a search engine’s perspective. If so, should I just set up my own WordPress blog and link back to my website, or contribute as a guest blogger to other bloggers? Bit confused as to what would be best for my website’s SEO…
Finally, furher to Joanna;s post, I love her little diagram showing the linking strategy. My question there is: if you can get a link from an authority site, why do you need to support it with “supporting blogs”? An authority site already has the authority to make that link a high quality link…..
In my case, I would probably aim to write a blog with an inbound link, and then write supporting blogs elsewhere to try and get the primary blog some authority. Is this what Joanna is referring to?
Thanks both of you in advance!
Since I am here, I will add my opinion. I think it is better to have an external blog so you create external links. In contrast to internal links, if you created a page within your site for blogging. Some people even recommend that you use your niche (primary keyword phrase) + blog and .info. I am not a fan of that. The reason people like it is because it would be a different “type” of website, externally linking back to your site. They believe this creates more authority in the eyes of Google. Until I see more on that topic, I will stick with .com. ;) But do try to get your niche (primary keyword phrase) and the word blog in the url. Google gives bonus pts for relevant keyword phrases in the urls of pages. I have not blogged on that at my blog letitraincoin.com, but I just posted about why keyword research is uber important. You might find it interesting.
Hi Tonia
Thanks for your reply and tips.
Any idea why Joanna suggested supporting the authority site that has the link to your website with supporting blogs? If it is an authority site, it must already have hundreds, if not thousands of links to it….what would adding 1 or 2 supporting blogs achieve??? I am trying to get my head around this….
Thanks again
Sunil
You are very welcome. I remember how confusing it was when you start out. Maybe Joanna should answer this, but I will give it my best shot. I think you might have misunderstood her pretty diagram, or maybe I am. (Her pic says “blog posts”, not separate blogs.) Regardless, Joanna’s article concerns the changes that Google made to the algorithm – the latest being Panda and Penguin. Panda forces web developers to use better keywords and Penguin forces better links. Both of these changes, reflect Google’s desire to improve the user experience on the web, stop rewarding cheaters, and to force people to use better quality and RELEVANT content. (Cheaters being people that are “keyword stuffers” and/or “link farmers”.) It is quality of content and links, not quantity, although you need a bunch of links to your page to move up in SERP.
Google wants to see authoritative, RELEVANT and original content that reads well for people, not machines. They also do not want you to link to the same page, over and over, with the same keyword phrase, which is why Joanna varied it at her bakery. They want to see various sources for the links, basically, all off page SEO link building strategies such as article writing, press releases, directory submissions, blogs (your own and guest blogs that you do that link back), links from forums where you add content, links from social media, etc.
I believe the key to it all is solid, quality keyword phrase research. Keyword phrases drive the internet. I wrote blog about why I think keyword phrase research is the “magic bullet” to SEO. Check it out http://letitraincoin.com/2012/05/21/the-seo-magic-bullet/
Good luck. and happy SEOing!
Hi Joanna
Thanks again for taking the time to reply. Yes, it is all a lot to take in at first, but I think I am getting there. I do follow all the points you have mentioned in your reply – and thanks for reinforcing them.
I guess the bit I don’t yet fully understand about Joanna’s diagram is how to get that high quality link from an “authority” website, other than of course buying the link from an established website (which of course Panda/Penguin don’t like). If I write a new blog on WordPress, my understanding is that it will have 0 authority at the time it is created, so this is obviously not going to be the page that has that high quality link….
Thanks
Sunil
p.s I did read your blog on the silver bullet which is very informative.
I do not understand why people seem to not understand what Google wants. How high up the mountain must the Google Gorilla climb for you to hear it shout, “Content! I want content!” I am starting a consulting company. Shocker! My goal is to help small, local offline businesses grow their online presence through various means. I struggle with making them understand that Facebook is where you promote the website/blog. And although Google does rank facebook pages, it is not the best thing in the food chain for a content hungry, relevant searching, Google Gorilla.
P.S – Great article and insightful comments. :) I need to remind myself of FB’s TOS concerning content ownership.
Thanks for the replies Tonia! I think people are really starting to understand that long-term success in search really means that you have to have a long-term strategy, and be willing to invest in your website for the long-term. Tactics that may have worked in the past (but that do not necessarily contribute to the true value of a website), are becoming much less effective and in some cases dangerous. If we position ourselves to build real online businesses that contribute to the online customer (just as we’d try to do in the real world), we’ll be better aligned for any algorithm changes Google throws at us.
Obviously I agree that blogging has great value, but for a lot of small businesses it is a timesink at a moment when they are under extraordinary pressure. Sure, in an ideal world everyone (or better yet, only you in your own niche!) would blog, create awesome content and then dance with unicorns in a meadow of beautiful lush grass and stunning flora on their way home from another day of being awesome, but it’s simply not realistic.
Of course that is a great advantage to those who do have (or make) the time and are willing to invest the effort to be exceptional. I just question whether it is reasonable for Google et al to value that over other factors that are more relevant to users. After all, how many people searching for, for example, a clothing retailer online would prefer the site with the great blog to the site with the great products?
For many websites and businesses, a blog is the perfect place for content to live, it becomes the publishing hub for that business and the engine that drives the site’s growth (in terms of links, social signals, etc).
This doesn’t mean that a site need be restricted to a blog as a place to publish content. Google’s looking for signals that tell it your site will be a valuable and relevant resource for a given query. If a clothing retailer’s biggest asset is that they have a fantastic product, they should concentrate on telling that story in a variety of ways. One way might be through their blog, but an even more impactful first step might be to have a highly comprehensive, highly descriptive catalog — combine with plenty of resource to help customers make more informed purchasing decisions.
I would encourage people reading this article to realize that the core message is about creating great content for your website, and keeping ownership of that content (and understanding the role of social in enhancing the value of that content). Whether you focus your content efforts solely on a blog to begin with, or work first on building out valuable resources or product descriptions — either way you’re creating content that tells users and search engines that you’re highly relevant and deserving to rank.
Great article. Blogging is new to me but I’m slowly getting the hang of it and it’s a great feeling.
For a year now I am hesitating wether or not to start a blog. It’s o lot of work, and my writing skills are not so great. But you’re article has convinced me that blogging is the way to go. But do you have tips how to find out what someone’s passion really is. For me this is my last cornerstone to solve .. before being able to jump into the water.
Hey, I agree on many of your points. The tip I usually give people that want to blog is to think their blog as a snowball. Pack it with care or else it will just crumble and not grow at all when you start rolling it.