Relevant keyword-rich blogging can be an excellent SEO tool for small companies to use to improve organic search rankings. An important question to answer though is: Which blogging platform or software is best for your business? Each platform is unique and has potential advantages or disadvantages for your business. Here is a look at a few:
WordPress
Very widely used and the best choice for most companies looking for a self-hosted blog. Plug-ins, widgets, and SEO tools are all easily available, in addition to thousands of developer themes. Self-hosting options keep developer options wide open including sophisticated e-commerce solutions. Easy to create a blog that actually looks like a normal website or embed a blog within a company website.
Google Blogger
Extremely simple, but somewhat limited upside for a growing site. Integrates easily with other Google accounts and very easy to establish custom domains. Somewhat tempting from a SEO-perspective because it seems logical that a Google-hosted blog is more easily indexed by Google, but Blogger has limitations for developers that are hard to overlook.
TypePad
Offers free hosted accounts or paid-hosted accounts. Easy to learn with more tools, widgets, and development opportunities than Blogger. Search industry data seems to indicate that WordPress blogs rank better than TypePad blogs in general. TypePad is larger and more established than other blog hosting platforms like Posterous, Tumblr, and Squarespace.
Movable Type
Open source blogging platform from the same company that offers TypePad. Good solution for a company with skilled developers who want more control over their blog than the options offered by Blogger, TypePad, and WordPress and have the time and resources to develop their blog.
Drupal
The blogging platform that makes sense for open source and coding gurus. Tight-knit community of developers who trade tips and code to solve problems. Very few limitations for companies with skilled developers. This platform is more code-intensive and less artistic than other options. Excellent choice for companies looking to manage multiple websites from one platform. Not the best option for sites with intense multimedia integration.
Joomla
Another open source content management system with a more friendly bias towards themes, navigation, plug-ins, and asthetics than Drupal. Requires more CMS or development skills than WordPress, but also has more community support than Drupal. E-commerce and useful commercial extensions can be easily configured. Excellent theme otpions.
Posterous
Micro-blogging service that offers cross-posting by e-mail. An excellent alternative or a nice addition to Twitter and Facebook social media campaigns. Very limited from an artistic perspective, but offers a clean and simple look-and-feel. A significant time saver for companies wanting to deliver daily marketing messages. SEO considerations of duplicate content should be considered before cross-posting across too many platforms.
Tumblr
Another micro-blogging service with less plug-ins options and developer themes than Posterous. Hosted Tumblr blogs can easily handle large traffic spikes, which make them a good option for companies trying to create a viral buzz with their blog. Cheap and easy.
Squarespace
Offers an core platform to convert a website to a blog or start from scratch. Not as many plug-ins an developer options as WordPress, but a cleaner more modern platform than Blogger and TypePad. A good option for a company looking for a hosted cloud-based website instead of self-hosting. A straight-forward and easy-to-lean blogging service.
Clark Schultz Blog 