In my recent consulting & blog design projects, I have noticed that while people are beginning to wake up to the power of blogs, they don’t necessarily want their blog to be the main focus of the site. For us blog consultants and designers, this feels like a cold slap in the face. But many of us—myself included—are probably pushing blogs too hard to the detriment of a site’s more over-arching objectives. In addition, by being over-enthusiastic about blogs when much of the world hasn’t yet caught up with the blog paradigm, we may not be helping our clients as much as we would like to think. Over-emphasizing a blog on the home page may in fact hurt a site’s conversion rate.
In two recent projects, my clients both requested that the site’s blog be removed from the home page and placed elsewhere. One client did not want the blog at all, but I diplomatically suggested it be labeled as “news” instead. They saw the need for updated news announcements and agreed to idea, and now they are very happy with their site. This was an adoption-rate issue, a labeling issue. This site’s customer base isn’t up on the whole blog thing
For another client, this had to do with conversion. Conversion is what happens when a site visitors do what you want them to do, such as buy something or sign up for something. Often this is the whole point of the site’s (and the business’) existence. We must not ever forget that increasing conversion is the goal of any work we do for clients regarding their sites. Blogs help with this in an indirect way. Blogs drive traffic and strengthen the relationships between the blogger and the customers, and between customers as a group as well. A prominent blog on the site’s home page might make us blog consultants feel a nice warm glow in our hearts about the progress of blogs into mainstream society, but it might hurt a site’s conversion rate. Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who convert—that is, they do what you want and buy or sign up.
I find this scenario happening with other consultants and designers as well. BusinessLogs, for example, is redesigning their own site to specifically address the recognition/conversion problem:
Unfortunately, many of our readers don’t even know that we’re a consulting firm because we weren’t highlighting our services and projects well. In fact, we probably highlighted our weblog too much, and we felt we needed to stress the business aspect of what we do a bit more.
So BusinessLogs is redesigning their site and blog to emphasize that indeed they are a business, not “just” a blog, and that visitors may want to acquire their services.
You’ve got to find the right balance between blog and the rest of the site. The blog has to aid in increasing conversion rates, not hurt them by confusing or distracting customers. As a blog consultant or designer, your client’s success is your success. When I first heard from them that my recent clients didn’t want their blogs on the home page, I admit I was a little irked. But it’s not about me. These people are paying me serious money to do something for them. It’s all about them. Finding the right balance means paying attention to conversion and how the blog fits into the conversion strategy.
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I wouldn’t underestimate the power of blogs, not only to build traffic, but more importantly to give people a sense of who you are,and if you can be trusted and the amount of dedication you have to your business. Anyone,you or a webmaster, can throw up a website,inviting you to “buy”. But when I see a blog ,as an added feature on a website, I’m anxious to visit it to learn more about the people involved with the company. This is one reason you see more corporations hiring their own bloggers. They want to impart a sense of comfortability and trust. A blog to me, is like walking into a brick and mortar business, and meeting the owner in the backroom office,where he or she tells me the intimate details of their business and gives me an appreciation for their products. One way people can get over this “blog snobbery” is to figure out what their customer really wants to know and use the blog to show they care.
Designing blogs and consulting on blog strategy is what I do for a living. I wouldn’t underestimate the power of blogs, either.
This is a great article. I learned a lot of tips and pointers. Thanks for the information!!