There are numerous entrepreneurs who are questioning themselves whether they should create a blog or website for their business.
A blog is nothing less than web logs where the owner/author writes information or articles, which are called posts, on a specific subject corresponding to the purpose it is built for. The posts are in sequential order and include the date the content was posted. A blog is more identical to having a diary online.
Each time the owner/author post content to his/her blog, the blog visitors are able to write comments about what he/she have written if the permission to comment is granted. Having this kind of information exchange with the visitors have an advantage to build a community alike that people can come back for more. Blogs have come a good distance from just being a one page web log of different posts and comments. Now people have what some like to call a regular website made on a blog platform like Wordpress. The good thing about this is that people do not need to have separate sites - a blog and a website. With a blog platform, people can have both on the same platform on one single domain and administration.
Having a blog incorporated with a website (e.g. www.yoursite.com/blog) is one of the best way to have both a blog and a website in a single domain. Separating a blog from a website by using multiple domain names will not benefit the website from the SEO advantages the blog creates. A blog creates SEO advantages for the whole website due to all of the new content that are published and the capabilities to draw more traffic.
Search engines crawlers like new contents. When a website that has got a blog on the same domain name, the overall site will steadily increase in page rank and search engines will look at the whole site as having more authority and potentials than some of others in the same competition.
The fact that visitors have the ability to make comments under posts will also help with a rise in the site's authority. Another benefit for having a blog is that it is easier to add social media sharing features to the base of the posts, making it able to target specific audience and increase significant amount of traffic.
Blogs usually have more frequent updates by having more new contents than websites which are updated less and only when necessary. Less frequent changes on a site can have several downsides to SEO when the search engine crawlers rarely visit because the expected change/update is not happening when they crawl.
There are lots of advantages for creating a blog; nevertheless there are also some downsides. A blog page itself isn't focused enough for a home page, and it can be difficult for visitors to find old posts.
Blogs are very good with the ability to create unique content, but the anatomy of them makes it tougher for visitors to find what they are looking for. And the last thing a business need is having an important content difficult to find. This is where a website shines. Websites have regular web pages where the content stays on the page (static home page) rather than piled away like a blog post would do because of the older date on them. By having a blog, the content on the home page will steadily change each time a post is made, taking away the the focus of the page. When creating a website, it is vital that the home page is the main target and the action the visitors to take is clear.
Conclusion
Both websites and blogs have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is wise to understand each of them before implementing it live. If a business want to benefit both in SEO and the purpose of promoting a service/product, having a website and a blog on a single domain name can give a significant advantages without taking away the professionalism the business have.