Missing Features

All websites are — or at least should be — blogs. While this sounds like a decidedly web 2.0 statement of irrational exuberance, it’s not.

First let’s be clear on what is meant by the term blog: timestamped content in reverse chronological order, updated occasionally, appearing on your homepage. That is content beyond your standard information retrieval content like contact information, jobs listings, products pages and the like.

The main reason every websites needs some kind of blog core is that updates to your information retrieval content are invisible to users.

When you change the description of a product page on your site, no one notices. But if you had a blog and wrote a quick post telling the world about that cool new feature you added, then suddenly little RSS readers all over will start buzzing and you might see some eyes on that new product page.

Bookmarks Are Useless

The other big reason you need some kind of blog at the core of your site is because bookmarks are pretty useless. Take this example: during a typical evening of surfing you randomly find a page talking about a new web sci-fi show (sure it looks campy, but aren’t they all?) coming out in two months.

How on earth will you remember to check back in two months? The show might be cool, but it won’t be mentioned in the New York Times. So you can bookmark it - but in two months time, that bookmark isn’t going to start yelling at you to check it. It will just disappear into the black hole that is the “Bookmarks” toolbar.

This is where the blog comes in. If that site had a blog you could drop the RSS feed into your reader, and let it sit for a while (mark all as read!) until you finally see that “Episode one released!” post headline.

Blog Rock Star, You Won’t Be

Let’s be clear: you aren’t going to create the next signal v noise or Joel On Software. But that’s not the point. Your goal is two-fold: create a valuable communication channel that makes it easy for the company to communicate to current and potential customers and make it easy for users to track updates on your site.

The point here is simple: having an occasionally updated blog at the core of your site offers a solid benefits at little cost:

1. You are forced to communicate with your customers (this is good);
2. You are forced to provide fresh content to your site (the only real way to get and keep traffic);
3. You give a visitor the ability to track progress on your site, without ever having to visit (or remember to visit); and,
4. You replace a relic of a bygone era — the press release — and make it easier for journalists to hear about your company.

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