I was checking out Wal-Mart’s online store and noticed a link to a blog and clicked through to find their Check Out Blog. Although it’s not WordPress, it seems like a pretty neat site. Here’s a detail from the site:

This is a blog, simply, about a team of experts at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club who have really cool jobs working with gadgets, games, sustainability and more. Even better, these jobs are centered around helping people save money and live better.

They also link to an interesting post by Robert Scoble called The Corporate Weblog Manifesto.

Take your old static, dead and uneffective business website … and give it a big boost with a blog.

You’ve seen those business websites that are nothing more than a copy and paste job from their brochure. They sit and collect dust on a server. And they don’t do anything for the business, other than become a source of irritation and frustration to the owner.

But with a blog, you can breathe new life into those sites.

An updated blog filled with quality, practical content will reap dividends for almost any business.

The three main benefits are:

1. Return site visits.

I’m sure many business website take up space on some server and rarely get any kind of return readership. With a regularly updated blog with fresh, timely and practical content, people will come back more often.

More people coming back more often means the next time they are in need of your product and service increases the likelihood they give you a call.

2. Search engine visibility.

Google likes to see regularly updated content. Blogs do that. And with enough time and quality content, you can boost your visibility — i.e. PageRank — in Google.

The greatest value for typical small businesses with this is for local searches.

This means someone goes to Google and types in “Dallas plumbers” or “Phoenix real estate agents.”

Blogs are especially good at helping you target these smaller niche keywords in your city and state.

3. Customer-centered value.

Done right, blogs can provide substantial value to your customers and clients. If you have a product, you can teach your customers how to use it … in basic and creative ways. If you have a service, you can give tips on how they can save money, or prevent a big problem, or simply realize they need an expert — you — to help them.

FOUR SMALL BUSINESS EXAMPLES

Here are just a couple of examples of businesses that could use blog to boost their search engine visibility and return readership (and thus, top of mind memory when a prospective customer needs something):

Heating and Air conditioning Repair Businesses – can start an “article library” of common issues and repairs of HVAC units they sell. At the start of the summer, write a blog post or “article” titled “3 Keys to Maintaining your Air Conditioning Unit.” Example: About Appliance.

Insurance Agents – can start a blog about each type of insurance and teach their clients about their policies. For example, “Home Insurance 101: What To Do When You Get Robbed on Vacation.”

Real Estate Agents and Brokers – can talk about how to buy and evaluate a home … or sell one. They can also use the WordPress blog platform to showcase their properties. For an example of this, check out our real estate WordPress theme.

Personal Consultants and Coaches — can showcase their expertise and knowledge of their niche and topic. Example: David Bohl’s Slow Down Fast.