I am trying to convince my boss that adding a blog to our website would be a good idea for increasing traffic. He is unsure of the idea, thinks it might be "tacky". We are a colocation provider and therefore get a certain type of traffic; generally people who aren't casually browsing the web so much as looking a new service provider. Am I off base here? Would a blog be a good idea for someone in the colocation industry? Lastly, if we do add a blog would adding google adwords or some other type of advertising be going to far? I will use your responses to help me convince him or concede depending on what you say. Therefore I would greatly appreciate your input. Sometimes it is nice to get the perspective of those not "in the forest".
Putting a blog on a website in and of itself won't drive traffic. Next people looking for hosting services such as co-location probably won't need to visit a blog first. Next if you mean Adsense as a form of advertising.....ask yourself this question.... Does Pepsi have Coke ads on their products??? You probably do not want to cannibalize your business by running competing ads. Also if you are providing co-location services that should be your revenue stream, and not some chump change from Ads..... Just my opinion....
A blog is a good thing, it will drive traffic to it if you ping to some ping services after adding content.
You need fresh content to make the blog worth a darn. Unless you have somebody dedicated to writing stuff, atleast twice a week, then it is for crap.
I added a blog over a month ago to blogger - it's run by google and Im now at Page Rank 4 and it does get traffic quickly to my websites. I think its a good strategy for traffic building. Up date it regularly and ping the posts you make each time...
If your team are able to update the content of the blog on daily basis ( 3-5 times/articles a day ), adding a blog will drive quality traffics for sure. The big G love unique and quality content and content is the golden key for almost everything.
It does drive traffic (I'm not talking about overrated search engines, because one has to be lucky enough to land high enough to be seen.), but I'm sure your boss wants more than the VERY miniscule traffic, and without the high bounce rate. It does, however, give you repeat traffic. If it is a good blog, that is. What would he say to potential customers to keep them coming back, in the hopes of one of those times they will buy? Then have him put that in the blog. Get him involved with HIS ideas! And how can advertising be "going too far"???
At the very least a blog will get noticed by search engines and increase your search status. Be sure to put the blog in a folder named "blog". Get a Google gmail account and create an alert eith your domain name and add content to your new blog. See how fast Google takes notice. One of the search engines main criteria is new and updated content, so when it sees a blog (recommend wordpress platform), wel, you do the math.
I wouldn't consider it "tacky" unless you are not offering something useful on the blog. I certainly wouldn't outsource the writing unless you had confidence in your writers ability to write on your high-technical niche.
Thank you for all of the feedback. It has really helped, I think we are going to give the blog a try!
Even some hosting companys have blogs. It's probably worth it, just have someone regularly update it. It can help establish a personal relationship with the customers, increase brand loyalty.
Sem-Advance has a point here. "adding a blog" doesn't equal "getting more traffic". Somebody actually needs to promote the site. What you could do though is... to think of "why you should set up a blog" and "why you'd want traffic" and "what exactly does your boss want". If you can come up with the answers to those questions, you are much nearer to getting that blog.
Well you can do a small research here... Check if your competitors have a blog on their website. What do they publish there, whats the feedback, how often they publish it? Also search for keywords related to your industry on Google and check if you find blogs of your competitors in the first few pages. If you do, you have a chance of getting traffic for your blog. I agree with others that you should have a blog just for sake of having one. Remember blogging is an additional overhead.. Someone would have to update the blog regularly. If you are willing to provide regular updates and happenings of your industry & company, you can consider having a blog. Hope that helps, Anup