Written by: George Alexandrov
Monday, April 06, 2009

If you cannot relate to the example given here because you do not run a professional blog on your company's website, we urge you to start writing one. To learn more, read "Increase Business Success by Running a Good Blog."

Story Background

Last week we deployed a blog on a client's website. After configuring the blog page we added a module that would automatically display the titles and summaries of the five most recent blog entries posted on the home page. This list was displayed under the main content of the home page, similarly to the way we display our latest blog entries on our home page. Our client had two concerns about adding this additional content to their home page.

The Concerns

I usually start with the positive information but to keep the story flow I will start with the two objections that our client raised:

1. Adding the latest blog entries to the home page made it scroll. Our client has become Web Usability savvy and we praise them for noticing such things as scrolling issues.
2. The home page has more stuff on it now and that makes it look more cluttered.

We addressed these concerns as follows:

1. We explained that it is OK to have a home page which scrolls. What is important, and what the client was actually worried about, was to have only the most important content above the page fold, so that people will see it without the need to scroll the home page.
2. Even though there was more information on the home page, it was appearing in order of importance, and in sequential order (rather than placed left and right). In other words, form top to bottom, the important information was first, and the blog titles came last. We also used a different box to visually separate the blog entries form the rest of the home page, thus removing the feeling of being flooded with information.

The Benefits

There are two major benefits for your business when you display the latest blog entries on your home page:

1. Search Engine ranking will improve. The brief concept is that search engines crawl websites for new information every few months. However, if they find out that the information on your site changes more often, they will think it is important to crawl your site more often. If this new information is on the home page then it is ranked even higher, as the home page is considered the most important are of a website. In addition, since you blog about your business, chances are that the topics you write about will contain lots of keywords related to your area of expertise and your business, so you should be getting more relevant visitors form Search Engines.
2. Current and potential clients will trust you more. Any visitor who comes to your home page will first see that the information there has been updated last week and not last year. They will know that your company is being current and active. To them that means that your business is thriving and that you are staying on top of things.

After weighing the concerns and the benefits our client made the informed decision to keep the latest 5 blog entries on their home page.

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