Link your Blog to your Site

Once you have begun writing your blog, it helps if you link it  to your website and vice-versa. By getting your blog and your website linked, you'll be combining community and interaction that blogging offers with the powerful shop window that is your website.

So how is it done? If you need to tell people over cocktails what you're working on, the official terminology is: you're going to create an RSS feed of your blog and then feed it into your website.

There are a couple of steps to take to achieve the link-up between your business blog and website. If you're prepared to hang in there, this is all perfectly doable. If you can't manage it, eezap.com is here to help!

The first step is to get your blog picked up by Feedburner (http://feedburner.google.com). You'll need to do this anyhow, so that others can begin picking up the feed too. Once Feedburner is picking up your blog, and creating a feed, we then need some code to pick up the text and pop it into your site.

There are several websites where you can get this code. We used RSSinclude.com . Once you have told RSSinclude where to find your blog at Feedburner, it will generate the code for your website.

What this code does is create a rectangular space within a webpage of your choosing. That rectangle is filled by your blog. Again for the cocktail chat: you have used a widget!

In truth, the trickiest bit comes next. Unless you're on top of your html, this step will involve your web designer. You'll need to tell them where you would like them to drop in the code created by RSSinclude.com, and they will probably need to create a new space on your website for the widget.

Now in reverse: it's equally important for you to make sure that there is a link from your blog to your website. This is far simpler and can be done when you set up your blog. In Blogger it's done in the page layout options.

So why link your blog and your website in this way? Your blog is far more interactive than your website could ever be. Your business can build followers on your blog, and your followers can comment on what you write. That's the strength of the blog, but it can't be a website or a shop window for your business. Working together, your blog and your website can become powerful partners in increasing interest in you and your business.

In postings to follow, I'll be looking at how we bring in Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to make your site and your blog even more interactive. Before you know it, your business will build an online community using these tools!