11 February 2011
A blog can certainly increase your Google ranking, if it's interesting or useful information you put up there, the trick is making it sell your services without it being too obvious.

You might have to have a think about your typical client and figure out if you can give away information or create interesting posts that maybe help answer some questions people have.

If you are good at writing you might want to consider telling stories of previous jobs or things that happen on them and of course hopefully have some great images to go along with that. Maybe even get a little testimonial worked in there if possible.

That way your blog becomes a selling tool, but could be an interesting read for other people.

Have a search online for the best/most popular blogs and see how they attract people.

N: Alan Fair
P: Managing Director
W: www.contactmultimedia.co.uk
T: 0141 246 5743
M: 07793 544 852
E: alan@cmmc.co.uk

13 February 2011
Yes it will "help" your position within google but there are a lot of other factors involved.

It helps that you site has been optimised for search engines with good use of keyword in in page titles and content and relevant header and bold tags for important content.

The site should also have a site map submitted to google so its queued for spidering, and if possible make it dynamic so the map is submitted weekly for example.

It is important to keep your content fresh as there is nothing worse than a site that stays static, and having new content keeps visitors coming back, providing you have something worthwhile to say. Hope that helps.

17 February 2011
it depends on wether or not you are going to actually use the blog, if you are then it could and should help your search engine positions if you blog regarding relevant material to the purpose of your web site.

If you dont actually use the blog you may actually be penalised by the search engines.

28 February 2011
Blogs are known to be looked upon favourably by the likes of Google so yes, it will, I'm sure, help with your search engine positioning.

There are many free blogging platforms out there. Wordpress is by far one of the best but you could also consider tumblr, blogger amongst others.

Google "wordpress blog" and you'll be able to get one started in minutes.

The other side of wordpress is that you can have your own 'hosted' version (as opposed to a free one) - a hosted blog can be placed on your own domain (better for SEO/search engine optimisation).

If you're looking for a hosted wordpress installation and custom design then drop me an email, this is what I do!

All the best,
Fergus
http://www.weeepics.com

4 March 2011
Hi David

the base answer to your question is most definitely 'yes'. Google will index a blog post within 1 hour which is super speedy considering that sometimes they can take weeks to view a new page on a website.

However, a word of caution. We have a blog, we also have a Facebook page and I actually asked the question yesterday 'should we get rid of our blog and concentrate on our FB page instead'... the reasoning being that we are more likely to pop a quick post on FB rather than take the time to write a blog post and there is nothing more frustrating that a blog that is out of date.

If you havent got a FB page for business already then seriously consider getting one - well worth the effort and before you know it you are posting on there several times a day.

Hope that helps

Katie

http://www.aviemorebusiness.co.uk/blog - to see our blog
http://www.facebook.com/seoscotland - to see our FB page

6 March 2011
Having a blog definitely increases your position on Google! I find that a content managed site with a blog, such as a WordPress managed site, can allow you to very easily combine your site and blog. Maintaining a WordPress blog is not much different from or harder than posting a question or comment on this site!

By posting an interesting article to the blog on my site, I received over 500 extra visitors to my site that day for the article alone! After that, article related visitors stayed around 100-400 new and unique people per day for several weeks.

I do disagree with those who imply you must use your blog often. I know for certain that a blog can help your rank, even with occasional use versus frequent use. I post articles infrequently and do not blog daily like a journal, but my blog definitely brings in visitors! The key is not quantity of posts, but quality. A few good posts will do a lot more for you than several lower quality posts.

Depending on your site, a Facebook page may not be a better solution. Some companies may prefer it, but I know my clients are happier to get updates from my site and from email newsletters than from outside social networking sites. It is also much easier to get a lot of viewers to your blog than to your Facebook page. Plus, views to your Facebook page doesn't always mean people will go to your site. If you blog is a part of your site, blog hits mean site hits!

If you need any further information or assistance with a blog, feel free to contact me!

- Courtney Rose Galschiodt

courtneyrosecs.com
courtney@courtneyrosecs.com

9 March 2011
Dear david,

Having a blog is very useful for you.
Updating your blog regularly is very essential.
Write own articles and post it on blog.
Have a blog with adsense account will generate more revenue. we can support your blog

Regards,
R.Moorthy

www.rtlxgroups.com

24 March 2011
It's not necessarily the blog itself, it's simply more relevant and useful content that is wonderful.

The more you write, the more searches will bring people to your blog, the more readers you'll gain and you'll get better syndication.

People might share a link to an article you wrote especially well on Twitter or Facebook.

I've had my design site for about 5 years and my blog for only 2 and it's 3 times more popular.

Provide something useful for others and it'll pay off.

Thanks, Bryan

25 March 2011
I would look at Facebook and Twitter - both are easier to manage - and provide great ways to promote yourselves.