Blogs – Should you or shouldn’t you? We have been doing a bit of digging on this subject, working to separate the “fluff and buzz” from what might truly be effective in supporting the search engine optimization of your web site. 

A Blog is a Web Log of “LIKE” Information. Blogs are written by one author, but each entry may be commented on by the public (or not). Blog is an extension of your Web Site when set up correctly. A Blog must be referenced from your web site – IE: Must have a link from your home page to the Blog home page. A Blog may be on server or off server. Blogs must be updated with new content.

• Monthly (ok)
• Weekly (better)
• Daily (best)

If set up correctly, we think the additional content and links a Blog can generate are beneficial.

• Design your entries to be chatty and not necessarily the direct voice of the innkeeper – don’t oversell a package for example but talk about it in a conversation way, describing a guest’s experience when enjoying their getaway at your inn.

• Title your entries with the same attention to detail as we do when building your titles/metas – what are the keywords people are typing for a honeymoon, family reunion, babymoon retreat, girlfriends getaway, etc.

• Always include a link back to your inn, and if possible to a specific page that supports a topic or package.

• Once you have set up your blog, we can add a button to your web site that says “Read our Blog” and correctly link the two.

Acorn is currently recommending Blogger.com which is owned by Google. You’ll need a Google Account with Userid and Password to access Blogger.com.  It’s the same Userid and Password as:

• Your Google PPC (Pay Per Click) access
• Your  Google Local Account access

If you don’t have either of these – and have never set up a Google Account – you can do so when you begin the Blogger setup.

Your webmaster will need to set up the subdomain to connect your off server blog to be part of your web site. This is very important.  If you don’t do this step, then the blog won’t be “PART” of your web site, but will just be “HANGING” out there without any physical connection to your company.

• CName (alias) must set on the name server. 
(This points the sub-domain blog.yourdomain.com to the Blogger system.)

• CName (alias) must be keyed into Blogger.com’s advanced settings.

Examples:

http://blog.yourdomain.com (if pointed and connected)
http://yourdomain.blogspot.com (which is not associated in any way with your domain)