The Dangers of Dead & Defunct Blogs
When you’re visiting a new website, few things cast more doubt than a blog that hasn’t been updated in months or years.
When visitors discover a defunct blog, they’re left wondering:
- Is the business open?
- Are they taking orders?
- Why hasn’t the blog been updated?
- Why should I risk making a purchase? What if the business is closed?
For prospective customers, an outdated blog can be a huge red flag. Someone who was ready to make a purchase may suddenly have doubt about the status of your business and leave the site for good.
On the flipside, visitors who see an active, recently updated blog are more likely to buy from you, because it’s a signal that the business is open, up to date and on top of things.
Let’s take a closer look at why this is and what it means for your website.
An active blog is a sign of an active business
Think about it …
Imagine you’re in a traditional mall and you see two shoe stores, side by side.
One store is fully stocked and filled with people. The other is dark and depressing – empty boxes are strewn across the floor, and the space looks like it hasn’t been touched in months.
Which store would you be more likely to enter? For most of us, the answer is the active store, not the defunct one.
While the analogy isn’t perfect, the same basic psychology fuels our decisions about websites – especially ecommerce sites …
Defunct blogs are costing you money
When we shop online, we look for cues that the business is legitimate. We want to believe that when we enter our credit card numbers and submit our order, someone on the other end will process it and ship the product.
Any red flags along the way create doubt that make us less likely to complete the order.
A dead blog is one such red flag, because it makes the business appear inactive. On many sites, blog posts are the only content that is dated. And if the last published date was months ago, visitors may believe the entire site is defunct.
To be clear, not every visitor will notice or care about the status of your blog. But in the big picture, your old, rotting blog could absolutely be hurting your sales, preventing you from reaching the full potential of your site.
No blog at all? Still no good
There are endless benefits to having a blog: SEO value, credibility, ongoing communication with your fans and more.
But one major benefit that many WordPress owners forget is that an active blog can make visitors more likely to buy from you. Regardless of the content of the posts (which, when done well, can support your sales efforts even further), simply having an active blog can benefit your site more than having no blog at all.
Your visitors may not always be actively looking for a blog when they come to your site. But when they find one – with recent, relevant posts – they’ll be more likely to trust your site and buy from you.
Need some help?
WP Tangerine can help you maintain an awesome, active blog that drives traffic to your site and converts visitors into customers. Get in touch today to see how our experts can help.
