SEO for web sites and blogs, why blogs win

Paul Chaney of Radiant Marketing has a nice post this morning on the importance of building Web sites to be found on the search engines and why blogs, by the very nature in which they are designed (software & site architecture) perform so well on the search engines.

Paul begins by referencing Shari Thurow’s article on Clickz.com, How Not to Work With an SEO/SEM Firm. She had done some interviews with other search engine optimization (SEO) experts about their biggest complaints when dealing with clients who had existing Web sites.

In order for us to optimize a site, the site has to change: copywriting (and not just the meta-tag descriptions), information architecture, page layout, link development, you name it. The prospect’s site must change in order for the prospect’s site to receive increased ‘natural’ search engine traffic.

Most Web developers don’t understand how to make a site search-engine friendly or how to make a site search friendly.

It doesn’t matter how many awards your Web design/development firm won, or how many big-brand clients they have…What matters is that their prospects can find their products on their site and take desired actions, not go ‘Ooh! Aaah! Look at the pretty Web site.’

Paul went on to make some excellent points in response to Thurow’s comments:

• By their very nature blogs are optimized to garner ‘natural’ search engine traffic. Blogs are copywriting. Their page layout, link development, architecture are all well-suited to search engines.
• Because most web developers don’t take SEO into consideration when designing a site, it behooves companies to find other ways to get those highly-coveted first page rankings.
• Content has been, is now, and always will be KING on the internet.
• I’m not trying to sound condescending, pompous or arrogant, but no matter how fancy your expensive website is, or how beautiful and mind-boggling its flash animation, people come to most websites for one reason, to gather information. They want their questions answered, their informational itch scratched.
• Search engines don’t give a tinker’s you-know-what for all the graphics or animations you have. They look for content. Content in the meta tags, content in title tags, and content in the body copy of your site. Blogs were built with all of that firmly in mind.

Paul, I hate to repeat everything you say but you nail it for people trying to decide between blogs and Web sites for getting high search engine rankings:

…[A] well-written, routinely-updated, keyword-oriented blog will go a long way in getting you the kinds of search engine attention your business needs, and do so more cost-effectively than any other means, inlcuding that expensive website. If search engine traffic is important to your business, and it should be, you cannot afford to overlook the SEO power of blogs.

I may be creating a competitor here but if you’re looking for good counsel on marketing blogs, Paul Chaney from Tupelo, Mississippi is a rising star. He gets it. Plus he was one of the few people who did not think I was nuts when I said a year plus ago I was going to start a company doing professional marketing blogs for law firms.