What is a blog?
Blogs are a not really a new trend on the World Wide Web, but now millions of people and organisations use them as a simple way to keep their websites up to date with fresh content. While the idea of having a diary as part of a website design is not particularly new, the concept of blogs is now widely recognised by people browsing the web, and with a plethora of free software and online services, blogging is one of the easiest ways to publish information online. This articles covers the ins and outs of blogging and why they should be a part of any professional web site design.
The word blog is a contraction of 'web log' and is essentially an online diary and each entry is referred to as a post. Authors of websites and web designers have been using web designs as a means of keeping diaries for a long time, but blogging has exploded in the past few years. Now almost all large websites have some sort of a blog as part of a professional web design, since the concept is so versatile it can be used for almost anything. A blog doesn't have to have regular or frequent entries and can just be used as a simple content management system, allowing people to keep their websites up to date without having to use a website designer or web design company. Organisations may also use blogs alongside, as part of or instead of a dedicated content management system, as this means employees can write posts and publish them immediately, obviating the necessity of having to pass the article to a web designer within the company or an external web design agency. Having frequently updated content on your website is important as search engines favour sites with new information when listing their search results.
Of the millions of blogs in the 'blogsphere' there is probably one covering every subject imaginable, from personal diaries to comment on current affairs, the latest trends and techniques in CSS web design, photos of celebrities, travelogues, gossip and fashion. Newspapers use blogs as a further vehicle for their columnists, and large web companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook use corporate blogs to keep their users informed. Whatever your website or web design, a blog is an essential component and one that is almost expected in a professional web site design.
A blog can be easily integrated with, or central to your existing website design. Blogging systems generally using some sort of theming (or templating or skinning) system to allow users to change the look of the web design. Creating a web design in this format requires some specialist knowledge, but web design agencies should be familiar with the process, so fitting a blog into an existing website design won't be a problem. Alternatively you can build a new website around a blog system. Most will allow you to add pages which don't fit into the usual chronological blog format, for example an 'About' page or a 'Contact' page. You may also be able to have mutiple authors writing for one blog, making the website design more like a news or magazine website. Another common feature of blogging systems is commenting, whereby readers can add their own thoughts to a blog post. Some blog systems can also keep track of what other sites link to it, via 'pingbacks' or 'trackbacks'. If you required more features in your website design, you may wish to consider using a full-blown content management system. These often include features like blogs as well as discussion forums and photo galleries and many allow you to include whatever functionality you require by adding plugins or modules, and there are many free content management systems available.
You don't even need your own website to start blogging as there are many sites out there that allow you to set up and use a blog for free, for example Google's Blogger. These services make setting up a functional website very simple and free, and you won't need to pay website designers to put together a website design. Online blogging services allow you to choose a template or style for your site, and as they have been made by web designers they are generally very good web designs. Some services allow you to customise the templates, from the colours they use to the fonts and position of different elements, so you can adjust the website design and make it look just how you want.
Blogs are so simple to set up and use that there isn't really a reason not to have one. Whether your blog is central to your website design, a late addition, or even hosted on an external site, it updating your website quick and easy. Keeping your site fresh and up to date means people are likely to return to it and that it will appear higher up in search engines' results pages - so get blogging!
