If you’re looking to make your small business more easily found online (who isn’t?) and you’re already publishing a company blog good for you! Congrats! And if your business blog is separate from your company web site—double congrats!
I think you should always have your business blog separate from your company web site. Why? More chances for buyers to find you.
Let’s take a page from Starbuck’s. They often setup both a kiosk outside of a mall and a Starbuck’s store inside the mall.
Two chances for latte lovers to find them! More traffic (er, people passing by). More revenue opportunities.
Give Your Business Blog its Own Identity
And you want your own URL for your business blog. Something conversational. A bit fun. A bit less formal than your company site URL, domain.
So your company web site and your small business blog should have separate URLs.
Boring: www.abc-plumbing.com/blog
The ABC Plumbing Company blog name could be something more creative like:
A bit more memorable: www.alphabetplumber.com
Also, for your small business blog, you want the best blogging software out there. After all, you spend your hard-earned time posting. Resist using a blog program that’s tacked-on or built-in to a web site template. Even on a tight marketing budget.
Use the best business blogging software, programs that are developed and maintained just for blogs, like WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, and lots more. The blogging software is also the most search engine friendly. Great for making it easier to be found on Technorati. (Technorati is for blogs what Google is for web sites.)
Think of your business blog as your kiosk or coffee cart to lead buyers, prospects and customers to your company web site. That makes for a bit of guerilla marketing—everything pointing back to everything else.
Great article on business blogs. Small business owners will find it informative.