A little while ago I received an email asking if it is better to have a main home page that is a static page that links to a blog or a blog that has links to static pages. My first instinct was to recommend having a static page ensuring that the most important keywords are also on the main site. However, I took some time and asked a few people both at Squarespace and elsewhere what the best option really is. There were some interesting thoughts and this series of discussions has led me to change my answer to having the main site be a blog and I’ll tell you why.

There are amazing sites that are mainly blogs. They are constantly changing and Google knows this, revisiting frequently. This changing content can give you search results on a wide variety of topics and give you a distinct advantage on timely keywords. It also gives every visitor direct access to the blog and lets them know that the site is active and up-to-date instead of sending them looking for the blog link. Plus, this is a feature that not everyone can do. Anyone can add a blog from Blogger onto their existing site, but not many can integrate is as cleanly into the site design as you can. This offers you a distinct advantage. And if you have a pass-through section in the margin with a quick “about us” paragraph, you can get the best of all worlds by making sure your top keywords always appear on the page in addition to the changing content.

Therefore, if you’re setting up a site and you’re trying to figure out what the landing page should be, I’d recommend using the journal. It puts your best foot forward and gives you an edge in Google. Commenters have been noting an aversion to being known as a “blog” as opposed to a “website” but in the end I think this is a very arbitrary distinction to begin with. What’s so bad about blogging within a website?