Using Blog Software To Power Your News Section

One of the easiest uses of blog software is the replacement of your news section with a blog.  The vast majority of sites with a news tab have to major problems - a lack of current information and a poor structure to report their news.

The problem is one of publishing.  The people responsible for discussing the company aren't the ones capable of adding information to the news section.

And the issue of architecture is simple.  If all you do is add some content to a page, you're missing out on the ability to grow the site, and cluttering up your stories.

Blogs solve both of these problems.

1) Blogs are easy to for marketing, PR, and management to use.  If you can type an e-mail, you can publish a blog post.  WYSIWYG editors abound, and with 30 minutes of training, any employee can be taught to publish to the web.  That's important because often the news section of the site is years behind.  If the last entry you have was in 2005, you need to get rid of the news section or get someone to update it regularly.

2) Blogs create a new webpage with every entry.  This page is archived individually, by category, and by month (or week).  What this means is your website steadily grows with each entry.  Contrast that with a static website that adds content to the same page, and you have the SEO benefit of blogging.

3) Incoming links to individual pages also increase your SEO. If you're writing interesting material, or even just publishing press releases, you're giving a hyperlink to an individual story, increasing the likelihood that someone will deep link your site.

This simple procedure is as easy as starting a Typepad, Wordpress, or Blogger blog at news.yoursite.com, mapping the name to the blog, and altering the colors to match your website.  You don't even have to call it a blog.  You can call it your news section, and no one will be the wiser.