Why Have a Blog

[jackb]

Hi, I'm very new to the forum and interested in some expert views on this subject. I have a website built on Xara and we have created a BLOG page https://www.t2diabetesreversal.com.au/blog.htm which entails republishing the site after adding new content to the blog page, which is no problem for me.

My reason for having the blog is to attract traffic to the site as part of my SEO work and to have a handy reference point of relevant articles that will answer common questions we receive. I understand that search engines like fresh original content. I dont want to have to moderate or reply as the admin time required will get out of hand, so not wanting it to be interactive. Of course, articles will be hard to find after a while and will involve scrolling down the blog page. (after a few years it could be a very long page) Any views as to whether this will achieve what I'm after or am I better off to setup a separate Wordpress blog externally to the site, with a link in the xara site and then a link back from the WP blog. I hate the thought of more admin though. perhaps google will penalise me for the xara blog page approach. Any views on all this would be most appreciated. Many thanks.

[RKissane]

I am no expert on this so take my opinion for whats its worth.

If you are not going to be adding a lot of articles then what you are doing is fine. Currently you only have one article shown on the page. However, if you are going to be doing a lot of articles then it is going to be very cumbersome to do in Xara and blog software would be better choice. Once you get into multiple pages of articles then you really need the power of the blogging platform.

EricD on here was using DropInBlog for his blog information. This looked like a good fit with Xara, I had asked how it worked but he never came back to the forum. This maybe something for you to look into a little more.

Hope this helps.

Ray

[Acorn]

Have useful and current content and your presence on the web will improve regardless of what SEO pundits monger.

I run WordPress and Xara site in collaboration and my ranking has not suffered.

Acorn

[jackb]

Thanks for the comments. I'll push on with current method for a while and probably go for WP / Xara combo down the track.

[cmpan1]

If I were to have a site that I knew will eventually turn into 100's or 1,000's of articles/pages, I would NOT go 'strictly' with XARA. I just believe it's not cut out for that, for so many reasons. But...
I WOULD do that long 'one page' - or even a 10 to 20 or so page site - that are the crux of the 'summary' information and 'branding' that link to all/any of the article on the blog. I trust Wordpress for
any amount of articles... and it's cross-referencing system is fantastic... And in the navigation, you could/would link back to the 'MAIN SITE' (Xara).

As far as your 'moderation and reply admin' concerns, just 'turn off' commenting in Wordpress. Now it's read only... Or... even in Wordpress you can create 'PAGES'... just like a regular site...
You can always, anywhere you wish link back to the Xara site to any specific pages or places you want or need to....

Bottom line... it's a great marriage... and as Acorn said... your ranking (when you have some) will not suffer... CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT (GOOD CONTENT) is the best SEO you can have these days...

And... let's say your Xara site is called... www.mywebsite.com... you can call the Wordpress site... www.mywebsiteblog.com or .info... You can become VERY creative with these two as 'partners' so to speak.

Cliff

[DanFelix]

Could not agree more. The whole SEO thing is way overrated. If readers like your content then the nature of the web is that it will proliferate.

[edulofter]

I have a general view of your website, and I think your blog website optimization is still good. If you want to get more traffic, you need to output more high-quality original content and complete richer user interaction. I also have my own independent blog site. I hope that we have more communication during the process of learning website development and website optimization.

Pic:credit

[jackb]

Thanks Cliff - sounds like a good approach to me.

[AmandaLewis]

Hello Jackb!
I suggest you stick to what you are doing. Your website's blog page will drive more traffic but only if you keep sharing the blogs on different Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other and on SEO platforms like Guest posts, Link building, Forums, images, and others. As far as the external WordPress blog in concerned, You can set it up but don't close the website's blog page. External WordPress blog will help you to link back to your website's blog page and it will drive more traffic because it is the part of [link removed by moderator. Please check the FAQs for new members and commercial links]

[jackb]

Just a quick update on what I eventually did...... I got Lloyd at Sculptex to set up a WP blog page where I can create content for both my blog page and FAQ page on the website www.reversediabetes.com.au He did some special coding to make it all work. The Wordpress blog feeds into the FAQ and Blog page, so it has a 100% Xara website appearance but in the background we have the ability to update and add content in the WP blog.(which is not seen by search engines) The articles or FAQ answers can have a short intro and we have a READ MORE button that you click to see full article or answer. That keeps it much tighter while allowing lots of content to be accessed without scrolling forever. Now all I Have to do is write more blog content ! Thanks to all for the comments and hope this helps others. Cheers. J