SEO TIPS: Making your Blog Count

Here are some very good reasons you need a blog, which I have mentioned before – all or any of these are good reasons to have a blog of your own!

• Blogs can get you ranked very highly for long tailed search phrases.
• Blogs can increase your traffic!
• Blogs can add credibility to you, your brand and your website or product.
• Blogs can bring you new customers, both through organic search and from links from other blogs or websites.
• Blogs can increase your visibility on the web, and be easily linked to social networking sites.
• Blogs can make you seem more approachable and friendly, even if your business is very technical.
• Blogs can bring in free links as bloggers link to you and users link to you from their websites and social sites start picking up on your posts.
• Blogs can gain you  respect as others in your field come to depend on your postings as a source of useful information.

There are plenty of  blogging platforms to choose from when you get ready to kick off your blog. Our personal preference, and the most popular of all, is WordPress. WordPress is a terrific, easy to use platform. You can even take a thriving WordPress blog and re-host it on your own server!  There are plenty of useful plug-ins available to help you, and options and support forums can help with customization issues (although support is minimal if you host the blog yourself. Explore what is right for your needs and then just do it!

Here's a great list of pros and cons for the top 2 blogging platforms, courtesy of Minterest:

Blogger Pros and Cons

Pros:

• It’s 100% free and is owned by Google.
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  ustify”>It’s extremely easy to setup and manage a Blogspot blog.

• Publishing contents is straightforward.
• You can use your own custom domain name if you own one.
• Allows you to display ads like – Amazon, Google AdSense etc.
• Built in social networking features.
• It’s very reliable since Blogger is powered by Google.
• No need to backup databases.
• Yours posts are automatically indexed by Google.
• 100% ad free.

Cons:

• Only 1 GB storage.
• You don’t own the blog.
• No FTP support.

WordPress Pros and Cons (FREE Version)

Pros:

• WordPress is simple to use however it takes some time to get to know it’s interface. Once you learn it’s very easy to navigate.
• It’s 100% free.
• It’s very Search Engine friendly.
• No need to backup databases.

Cons:

• WordPress releases frequent updates so you have to update the software every time they release a new version (but it requires only few clicks).
• You don’t own the blog.
• You are not allowed to monetize your WordPress.com blog using Google AdSense, Chitika, Amazon, banners etc.
• Limited support of themes and plugins.
• No FTP Access.
• Displays ads unless you buy opt for ad-free version which costs $29.97 annually.