I’ve written and managed many blogs over the years, and my advice remains the same: launch with a number of blog articles. Do NOT, under any circumstances, launch your blog with one entry that says, “Welcome to our blog” and nothing else.
Today I’m breaking that rule to illustrate to you why:
1) It looks stupid. Frankly, when I see a blog launched and all it says is “coming soon!” or it just has one little “Welcome to our blog” article, I know that the company is not committed to establishing a social media presence and that influences my feeling about that company. Social media is here to stay–get on board!
2) Launching with a “welcome” blog is a great way to launch a blog and then NEVER POST AGAIN. It’s just too easy to launch that post, then forget about your blog. “It’s done,” you think. “I have a blog now.”
3) Launching your blog with only one article does zilch for SEO. Well, maybe not zilch. You probably get a teeny tiny bump in your rankings, maybe enough to get you from the top of page 50 to the bottom of page 49. But having a blog is one of the most powerful things you can do to boost your SEO–so why not use it? When you consider what it can do, you’re just wasting space if you’re not going to use it to its fullest potential.
Here’s the deal: the word “blog” is both a noun and a verb.
When you launch a blog, you need to be blogging on it regularly. And the best way to get into the habit of doing that, is to DO IT. Write 5-10 articles to get it started, it will help you get in the flow and keep it going once it’s launched. (Or hire us. No, really, why are you writing your own blog anyway?)
So, with all that in mind, this will NOT be the last post you’ll be seeing from me. Stay tuned!