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Blog

The term Blog It is used to describe a virtual diary on the Internet. The author of a blogger can publish posts on any topic. The posts are usually present chronologically. The writing style of a blog is usually informal and is written in the first person. However, other styles are also possible, for example in the case of online newspapers, where the focus is more on objective information.

General information

Blogs, weblogs or virtual newspapers are a relatively new phenomenon on the Internet that developed in parallel with the World Wide Web. There are different points of view on which websites can be considered as the first blogs. Web like http://info.cern.ch/ o Mosaics What's New will likely be shortlisted. The number of blogs increased exponentially from the early 1990s until the turn of the millennium. The drivers of this situation were political events, which were discussed differently in the media than in the private blogosphere.

This is where the discussions that did not take place in the media took place. For example, after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, or after the Iraq war in 2003, blogs are now used as Internet newspapers, private newspapers, information and debate platforms, or as literary tools for communication. reflection and exchange with readers.

Different functions

Blogs can be distinguished based on content and type of author.

Private Blogs

Here, private authors report a great variety of topics - usually anything that interests them. Consequently, there is a wide range of topics, ranging from shopping and politics to exotic hobbies. Anyone can create a private blog and basically write whatever they want.

Niche Blogs

Niche blogs usually try specific topics like economics, politics or technology. If a blogger is specifically well versed in a certain area, they can share their expert perspective with others through such a blog. Many journalists have specialized blogs in which they discuss their favorite topics. Representatives of business and commerce also run these blogs. However, niche blogs can also be described according to which medium is the main component of the blog: There are video blogs, podcast blogs, tumble blogs, or link blogs.

Corporate blogs

Corporate blogs are weblogs run by companies or corporations. They serve to improve communication with customers, disseminate information about news or for marketing purposes. Corporate blogs are generally written by workers, while blogs written by corporations such as newspapers can also be written by freelancers.

Practical use

As a general rule, every Internet user can create a blog without much effort and programming skills. This is ensured by so-called blogging systems (in addition to weblog software or weblog publishing systems). It consists of a content management system where bloggers can edit and post texts.

Thanks to the preconfigured templates, the blog author can select a graphical interface for his weblog. In addition, the comment functions and the chronological order of the contributions are available. Blogsysteme software solutions are available both for the web and for installation on your own server. The best known representatives are Drupal, WordPress, Movable Type or Blogger.com. Depending on the selected software, bloggers will have extensive functions to create posts, topics, permalinks or tracks and pingbacks, for example.

You can also use the feeds for users who submit blogs thematically related. Since blogs are ultimately nothing more than websites, bloggers must comply with the Telemedia Law. If the blog is considered "professional", it must contain an impression.

Importance for SEO

Blogs have also become increasingly relevant for search engine optimization due to their distribution around the world. These are essentially websites that provide information and links, even if the CMS behind them has been simplified for users. Three guest blog posts became popular for linking in an editorial environment.

Product presentations on private blogs in a niche area were also often used to link to a website. In many blogging systems there is the opportunity to add a trackback to a blog entry if it contains content from another blog. The trackback informs the author of the other blog by pinging the linked resource.

Blogs were also increasingly used as satellite sites to change the number of links to a web project. In all these measures, despite everything, it is extremely important that they appear natural or are, because Google and company consider some of these measures as a manual intervention in the positioning of search engines. Blogs that are specifically used to increase the number of links can have a negative effect on a web project. However, this does not mean that natural measures such as multi-value guest posts, product recommendations, or blog links should generally be viewed as negative, given that the quality of the content and the trustworthiness of the resource being linked with it they can possibly cast a positive light on a web project.