A blog is simply a web-based essay or written commentary posted on the World Wide Web, usually consisting of concise, informal, sometimes keyword-rich diary-style text posts. Posts are usually displayed in reverse chronological order, with the latest post appearing at the top of the page, above all others. There are many different types of blog, from the personal blogs of an individual’s thoughts and opinions, to the professionally written blog of a business, organization, or product. Blogs are also written as commentaries on current events or in response to popular opinion. Blogs can cover a wide variety of topics, many of which are not generally found within traditional news media, such as religion, politics, technology, and entertainment.
One of the many advantages to creating and maintaining a blog, aside from the ability to write and read it whenever one chooses, is the flexibility to use a blog as a website. Many websites contain a single page that features a home page, and a number of static websites hosted by other websites, which offer a limited amount of resources and feature space. For these static websites, the convenience of being able to publish a blog post to a website online, and then have the website automatically redirect the reader back to the blog, is very valuable. For this reason, many blogs provide a link on each individual static website, for readers to easily follow back to the original website. For this reason, a blog is often seen as an effective tool for promoting a business, product, or organization by establishing a presence on one or more of the online websites that host a number of blogs.
For those interested in a competitive analysis of a particular industry, there are a number of tools and tactics used to analyze the popularity, keywords usage, and competitiveness of a particular brand or company’s blog. Among these tools are Google Blog Search, Google External Keyword Tool, Google Analytics, Yahoo Site Explorer and More. With any of these tools, it is possible to determine how many visitors are coming to the blog, how many of these visitors are searching for information on the blog, and what percentage of these visitors are clicking on links contained on the blog post styles of the blog. Using these tools, it is often possible to determine the effectiveness of a company’s blog post styles and marketing efforts and to find ways to improve blog posting to increase the competitiveness of a company’s blogs.