Every company needs to be present online. But which is better: a static website or a blog? Or both? Here you can find out what options and tools are available. And how you can be found better via Google.
Source: Sunrise UPC GmbH - Screenshot
Imagine this situation: You are looking for a new dentist or want to try a different restaurant - how do you go about it? You'll almost certainly search for it on Google and take a quick look at the website. Potential customers of your business do the same. They too expect to find relevant information about your business. So a website is a must. Or a blog. It depends on what you want to achieve. If you only want to convey information, for example about your products or contact details, a static website is sufficient. Blogs, on the other hand, are a kind of online diary for personal experiences and opinions - interesting for companies in the creative sector, for example.
Dynamic pages improve Google ranking
Google loves pages that change frequently and are linked to by other pages. Pages on which nothing happens for months or even years slip in the search ranking. If you want to do marketing via web presence, there is a lot to be said for a blog. Marketers who run a blog achieve two-thirds more customer enquiries.
Homepage construction kit: a good start
Be realistic: If you are just starting out with your business and have little experience and time to maintain a website, a simple web business card is a good start. With many Internet providers, customers get a web construction kit with their online access for little money, with which you can put together a simple website with a few clicks. If time and experience are completely lacking, it may be worthwhile to work with a professional: web agencies not only create a suitable website for you, but also support you in your own digital marketing and in developing a sophisticated SEO strategy.
In contrast to a simple web business card, the management of a blog is more elaborate and is often underestimated by companies: Only those who really have time to regularly feed the company blog with new, interesting content will remain interesting for existing as well as new visitors. On the other hand, nothing is more embarrassing and, above all, more damaging to business than a blog in which the "most recent" post is two years old.
Website or blog? Website and blog!
Instead of an either-or, there is a lot to be said for a both-and. That is to say: Ideally, you should have both a website and a blog. To save yourself work, a content management system (CMS) that can do both is recommended. This explains the great success of WordPress, with which almost 60 percent of all websites are created today. Originally started as free software for blogging, today it can also be used to create attractive websites. The blog is then simply integrated as a link in the page navigation. This has the advantage that interested parties can find general information about the company as well as current and personal news and comments under one address - ideal for finding via Google. One advantage of WordPress is that most design templates are responsive, i.e. the layout automatically adapts to the screen size of the end device. Because today the principle of mobile first applies - most users access websites via their smartphone.
Where there is light, there is of course also shadow. Even if there is a huge range of very successful WordPress templates, these sites cannot completely deny their blog origins. If the company grows and the demands on the professionalism and functionality of the pages increase, you should consider a "real" CMS such as the free Typo-3, for which many web developers also create pages and - thanks to the appropriate extension - blogs. The choice is huge: there are several hundred such CMS systems.
And Facebook?
Social media are booming. But many withdraw from it because the success of their own Facebook presence is low and does not attract the people they want as customers. Often, however, the demands on social media are too great; because Facebook is still well suited to play out awareness campaigns with which one's own brand can be built up and one can deliberately draw attention to one's own range of products and services.
Every one or two years, the caravan moves on, most recently to Instagram - where awareness campaigns can also be implemented well. Therefore: If you are completely unfamiliar with Facebook and Co. and are only looking for qualitative leads, then save yourself the time. However, if you are an SME offering a special service, for example in the creative sector, it can make sense to rely on social media. Facebook and Instagram even offer their own tool, Brand Lift, which can be used to measure brand awareness, success and advertising recall. Regardless of whether you ultimately decide for or against Facebook and Instagram: However, you still need at least a simple website, which is what customers expect today and what they also search for with Google.
How customers find your website with Google - the 5 best tips:
Link to other websites and try to be interesting for links from other sites through interesting and up-to-date content.
Write a creative and appropriate meta description. This is the short text that Google shows under the link in the list of search results. A free SEO check of page title and meta description is provided by seoreviewtools, for example.
You want your website to always be at the top for certain search terms? You can achieve this with an Adwords campaign. This offers many possibilities to get to know the preferences of your customers and to adjust your marketing campaigns.
Use URLs with consistently understandable path names, i.e. www.meinefirma.ch/mein-angebot instead of www.meinefirma.ch/362440.
Regularly monitor the success of your website, for example with Google Analytics.
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