Knowledge Base

What is a Blog?

What is a Blog?
The Turkish equivalent of the word "blog" is "blog", although it is not widely used, it clearly indicates the function of such websites. Because, in general, blogs can be defined as classic diaries that have been transferred to the digital environment and kept up with technology. "Justin's Links from the Underground", which is accepted as the first blog in the history of the internet and opened by university student Justin Hall in 1994, is actually a diary kept on the web. These sites, which started to be named as "web log" in 1997, took the name that continues to be used today in 1999 and started to gain its known format. However, the acceleration of the process leading to the transformation of this type of content into an important element of both personal and corporate communication, and therefore e-commerce, is realized with the possibilities brought by the Web 2.0 format. Because, with this new technology, even an average internet user has the opportunity to share their personal experiences and ideas about a subject easily in the digital environment. In line with the possibilities afforded by this transformation, blogging gains more and more popularity among internet users; Many personal websites are opened in this format.

blog sites; They are web-based networks where content such as text, images, videos or photos can be shared. Posts on such sites are usually ordered from current to older content, reminiscent of a journal format. It is free and easy to create a blog through services such as WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and Medium. All users with basic internet literacy can create their own blogs without any code or programming knowledge.

What should be considered when starting a blog?
Although creating a blog is technically quite easy, you should always consider some basic issues if you want to be successful in this field. Otherwise, the site you have opened, like many other well-intentioned initiatives, may remain idle in the endless void of the internet without meeting its potential audience. So, what should be considered first when starting a blog?

When opening your personal blog, you must first clearly define your purpose. Because your purpose determines what kind of content you will include. For example, establishing a blog with the expectation of making financial gain requires you to produce content that you can reach more people. If you only aim to satisfy your own desire to write, it would be a much more accurate choice to focus directly on your personal interests and to ensure continuity and continuity.

During the blogging phase, it is also vital to choose the topic for which you will produce content. The primary factor to consider at this point is which topics you will enjoy writing more about. Even though content production has turned into a business today, it is important that you enjoy setting up a personal blog site and sharing from it. Therefore, you can turn this into an enjoyable activity for yourself by focusing on areas where you can produce without getting bored and where you will be pleased to acquire new information while producing. Another detail that you should not ignore here is what kind of difference you will make in the area you focus on. With a Google search for the content you have in mind, it would not be a surprise to encounter many similar blog ideas. In this case, you can make a difference by focusing on the points where you can become original in that area.

Finding a relevant name related to the field in which you have decided to produce content will make it much easier for you to reach a wider audience. Because the user audience tends to pay attention to the quality of the content as well as the site itself. Therefore, finding an interesting and catchy name without straying away from the subjects you focus on makes a positive contribution to the image of the blog. At this point, you also need to decide whether to pay a fee for your site name. Although services such as Blogger or WordPress are free, the blog address you open will be the subdomain of these services. For example, let's say you open a free blog using WordPress and choose the name XYZ. Its address will be xyz.wordpress.com. But if you decide to pay a domain fee for the site name, you can have xyz.com, xyz.net derivative addresses, which will make your content look much more professional.

How Should Blogs' Website Design Be?
The design of a blog should be relevant to the content, reflecting its identity and content. In this way, a user browsing through the pages is more easily drawn into the atmosphere you want to reflect. Another thing to consider in design is simplicity. Complex designs that tire the eyes and make it difficult to reach the sought-after information may cause users to stay away. In an environment where mobile internet usage is increasing day by day, it has become essential that the theme you choose is mobile-friendly. Otherwise, users who enter your blog from a mobile device may have serious problems in accessing your content. For this reason, you can ensure that your site promises a satisfactory user experience by choosing a simple, striking and mobile-friendly design among the blog themes.

What are the Main Features of Blog Pages?
Such sites, which we can also call blogs, can focus on very different topics. Accordingly, they can serve many different purposes, but this does not prevent them from having many common features. These features can be listed as follows:

It can be accessed from both computers and mobile devices. Therefore, the potential for use is very high.
Besides texts, audio, photo, animation, video etc. may contain multimedia files.
Thanks to the tag and category systems, the content is easy to classify and therefore easy to access.
Users who are members of the relevant sites can receive new updates and content via e-mail via the newsletter system.
It is very easy to set up, manage and use.
It can be developed to have many different features through plugins.

What is the Importance of Blog in E-Commerce Sites?
The number of people shopping online is increasing day by day. In this period, meeting the user and communicating effectively has become one of the most important tricks of e-commerce. A study by SeeWhy shows that 99% of people who enter a shopping site do not make a purchase on their first visit. 75% of these people tend to return to this site to shop. Convincing this segment to shop is one of the decisive points for success in the field of e-commerce. The use of blogs in e-commerce can be considered as an important weapon for this persuasion process in many different ways. But how?

Such content makes it possible for you to communicate directly with your customers. Thus, you can make users feel closer to your company.
Google places regularly updated blogs high in search results. In this way, you can significantly increase the likelihood of your site appearing in front of potential customers.
Content that can convey your brand and vision to large audiences is very important for the formation of your brand identity. A brand with an established identity is more easily recognized by customers.

The content that you mention about or related to the product and service you sell strengthens the image of your company as an expert in that field. With such blogs, you can easily gain the trust of customers. In addition, by preparing up-to-date content in the light of developments regarding your products and services, you can make your being a living and dynamic brand more visible to customers.
Many e-commerce sites consist of too many individual pages. Having a large number of indexed pages is very beneficial for SEO applications. With such pages, you can expand your domain on the internet while presenting valuable information to users.
Being among the blog suggestions of a most followed blogger allows you to increase the overall value of your e-commerce site and reach a wider audience.
By using the newsletter system, which is one of the important features of blogs, you can easily convey and announce your current activities to your customers.

What Should Be Considered While Creating a Blog for E-Commerce Sites?
When creating a blog for an e-commerce site, the first things you should consider are your publishing strategy and publishing plan. By preparing the content you will publish as long, comprehensive and informative as possible, you can get higher in Google rankings more easily. In addition, it is very helpful to include evergreen content rather than the ones that will quickly become out of date, in terms of maintaining your site traffic and SEO success.

A study by Hubspot proves that corporate blogs that share more than 16 content per month receive 3.5 times more traffic than those that produce less than 4 content. Therefore, sharing a lot of content frequently without sacrificing quality is also an important factor for the success of your e-commerce site. Linking is also one of the important issues you should pay attention to when creating your blog. You can establish a practical connection between your customers and your products with the product page links you place in a content to be browsed for information on a subject.