Blogging is fast becoming an addicting pastime for everyday internet users with opinions and information they wish to share. But beyond these casual bloggers, many savvy internet marketers have also discovered that blogging is an effective way for business owners to keep in contact with their customers.

As recently as a year ago, blogging could really increase traffic to your website. Since then, the search engines have begun to adjust the level of importance they attach to a blog entry. So can blogging still be used as a way to boost your search listings ranking and generate traffic?

In short “yes” but the rules have changed. Today, more than ever, the content of the blog must be meaningful and relevant to your website. Otherwise, search engines may disregard it or even penalize you.

If you are thinking about adding a blog to your site, here are some guidelines to consider

1. Do you have an interest in blogging as a way to communicate with your clients?
2. Do you have enough content to deliver to your customers on an ongoing basis? You have to have enough content to spark an interest and a following from your visitors and customers or else it is a waste of time.
3. Does what you have to say provide any value or usefulness to your website visitor or customer? Do you have an opinion, offer advice, product reviews or service information that is of benefit to your readers?
4. Do your customers use the internet and would they interact using this medium? If customers do not use your method of advertising or promotion, how can you expect them to find your information?
5. Do you have the available time to spend blogging? Most bloggers will post to their blog every few days, but at least monthly.

If you answered “no” to any of the above questions then blogging is NOT an effective medium for you.

But if you answered yes, then blogging can be an effective tool to:

1. Make your clients or customers aware of new products, services or information.
2. Be newsworthy and write reviews, tips, articles, links to non-competing resources and more.
3. Receive comments and feedback from customers and blog visitors. You can learn more about the needs of your clients through the feedback of your readers.
4. Receive back links from other blogs and article sites (if you send them to directories). More back links usually translate into higher search engine results.
5. Improve search engine rankings and increase traffic to your website.

So there are real benefits to blogging if you have the time, the inclination and something to say.