Heart Internet provides our hosting customers with an extensive library of CGI scripts to help build, maintain and improve their websites. The following article will focus on our installable blogging software, WordPress and Geeklog and why maintaining a blog can be beneficial for your website.

What is a Blog?
A blog is an online journal that displays posts in chronological order.  It’s an ideal solution for people who want the ability to publish and share regular content online with as little effort as possible.

Search Engine Marketing
Google will rank a website that publishes unique, quality content regularly much higher than a website that is static and rarely updated. Thanks to blogs it has never been easier to keep your website fresh and increase your chances of appearing high within search results. If your blog is tailored towards your industry, your posts will be full of targeted keywords and related content and by having this will increase the likelihood of your website ranking higher with related search terms.

Attracting New & Repeat Visitors
If you’re publishing regular content, chances are you will be getting repeat visitors looking to read your news, this is especially effective if your content is unique, industry related and interesting. Attracting new and repeat visitors by running exclusive promotions, e.g. a sale or discount on some of your products, not only will this attract people to your website but also increase the likelihood of you making a sale though these promotions. Allow people to subscribe to your Blog via RSS, so they can be alerted when your blog is updated, this will send them directly back to your website.

Easy to Update
Once your blog is installed you can manage everything from an intuitive admin control panel.  From here you can easily and quickly add, edit and remove your posts, plus many other features such as changing the look and feel. Many blogs offer the ability to set a publish date for your content, this is especially useful if you are going on holiday and are unable to update your blog. Simply create your posts before you go and set the publish date for the period you are away, this way you’re able to maintain a regular supply of content.

Keeping the Costs Low
Wordpress has become much more than a standard blogging tool due to its thriving community of developers. WordPress is very extendable, you can easily add modules such as image galleries, videos and widgets yourself with minimum effort and no cost. WordPress even offers free themes, so changing the look of your website can be done quite easily yourself, eliminating the need to hire a potentially expensive web designer. WordPress and Geeklog run excellent communities who can assist you with your blog should you need any guidance. A list of helpful links can be found below:

WordPress Modules:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

WordPress Forum:
http://wordpress.org/support/

Geeklog Forum:
http://www.geeklog.net/forum/