Why ITM website design always includes a blog engine

Those of you familiar with ITM website design discussions will long ago have realised that we use the concept of website design to go way beyond graphic website design to include the functional elements that make a website such a great marketing tool.

A passive website with static content is seldom rewarded with high search engine rankings. To create ranking you need dynamic content on a regular basis and a blog is an easy way to create new content for any website.

The Origins of Blogging

Blogs have become synonymous with Web2 and interactive content as well as social media, and this is the main reason why we install blog software on all ITM websites. Publishing makes content marketing possible.

The most common blog engine is WordPress and is the main reason why it remains the most popular website format. A lot of functionality has since been added to the core WordPress application.

Although we have designed and developed websites with WordPress, we find the overall functionality, ease of use, structure, organisation and security of DNN Software far superior.

DNN Software comes with its own blog engine, but we prefer to install SunBlog because of its great features, flexibility and consistent performance.

SunBlog and DNN Software

Sunblog integrates very well with DNN Software and has many useful features:

• A blog category manager allows for main keyword definition. One is also able to select the blog items by category for display on appropriate pages on the website in content sliders.
• A tag manager allows for the creation of a searchable tag repository and index. Tags have become the defacto mechanism to define keywords on social media.
• The complete commenting system allows for user dialogue that is usually moderated to prevent spamming.
• Sunblog also provides full text search, searchable archive and blog entries are integrated into the site map xml file for search engine indexing. An RSS feed page function is also provided.
• The most common social bookmarks are also provided as well as a blog news subscription tool. Sunblog also provides an xml import migration tool.
• The blog widgets are all fully customisable and can be styled to suit the requirements of the website design.

ITM includes the Sunblog publishing engine with every website we design. This makes it easy for the business owner to have vital conversations about products and services with customers.

Speak to ITM about our content marketing and website design services or Get A Quote.