Darren Rowse gets you thinking about how businesses should use blogs, and gives you the basics in plain English if you want to start blogging.

There are many blogging platforms around, some requiring technical know how, others not. Read this post if you are not sure which platform suits your needs best.

For an easy to use, non-techie approach to blogging, WordPress will give you more than other platforms. Ad-Free, customizable, and optimized for search, Google loves WordPress, so will you. If you are tech inclined, you can run WordPress software (free) on your own site. See also, WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org for more information about the differences.

Ten video tutorials from Stefan Mischook on how to install and configure WordPress if you want to give it a go yourself.

If you decide to go with WordPress software and host it yourself, but don’t want the headache of setting it up yourself, these guys will set up a blog for you, for free. They make their money by providing hosting partners.

If you’re not quite sure what to write about, read this post by Dan Bricklin that offers practical advice for small businesses.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation offers a basic guide to laws surrounding bloggers.

If your blog looks cluttered but you aren’t sure which components you should remove, read this. This is particularly interesting for those who cannot work out the ‘musts’ in a sidebar.

If you want your blog to be user friendly, there is no nicer way than to offer visitors options that are useful and helpful.

Anita Campbell points out what works and what to steer clear of when it comes to Web design.

Things to think about and not do when designing your site.

Vandelay Design helps you understand the opinion of your visitors, and explains why you need to take the time.

Erin Ferree points out seven ‘tells’ that will let you know it’s time to redesign.

Two checklists from Vincent Flanders, author of Web Sites that Suck to help you determine whether you need to overhaul your site. Fill them in, learn from them, and then use this page to help you fix things.

You’ve made the decision to overhaul your site, now what? From .net magazine, the things you might want to consider.

Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research explains why your website may be irrelevant, and gives tips on how to rebuild to stay relevant.

If you don’t like the blog look, but want the advantages that a blog brings, take a look at Donna’s post.

According to Skellie, these six themes are at the forefront of modern, minimalist, typographically interesting WordPress theme design. She also tells you how to tweak them for maximum impact.
Content for Your Small Business Website

Michel Fortin shows how simple copy changes to your site can transform an average site to a great site.

Do you have an “About” page? Was it just thrown together, or did you spend time putting it together for maximum impact? Bryan Eisenberg gives expamles of the most common mistakes.

When putting together a site, not many people think about their contact information. It’s time you did and Bryan Eisenberg shows you how.

Forms that Work: From the book Web Design for ROI (Sample chapter PDF)

If you have forms on your site, read this and make sure you don’t annoy your visitors by making your forms too tricky

What makes up a good error page? Have you even thought about it? If you haven’t, it’s time you did. WebMama shows you what to think about.

While not everyone agrees you should have a coming soon page, if you decide you need one, take a look at this first.

Skellie shows you how to make your site more interesting by incorporating great imagery. It doesn’t need to cost much; oftentimes it will cost you nothing more than time.

A complete glossary of essential SEO jargon for beginners.

Small businesses take note. Michael Gray gives you quick and easy tips to get noticed in search results, that can bring more traffic to your site.

Mike Busson explains that search engine optimization is not rocket science; you just need to be aware of the basics.

There are ways to speed up getting noticed by the search engines; you just need to know what they are. Michael Jensen explains.

Tad Chef walks you through the various components that make up Universal Search and how to use them to increase your chances of being included in Google’s search results.

What is the First SEO Question? What is the Second SEO Question?

The first two questions you should ask yourself before you embark on an SEO program, and a third on the way from WebMama.

How to choose keywords, and how to use keywords; one of the most important articles you can read from Courtney Tuttle.

Mark Blair explains permalinks, and why it is important to get them right if you want search engines to like your site.

Title tags make up the text that appears in the top left hand corner of your browser when you visit a Web site. Did you know that you can choose to put your own words there? Jill Whalen offers the ultimate in title tag explanations.

Rand Fishkin shows you how to make the most of your meta description tags. If you don’t know what they are, you will by the time you read this.

Video is getting bigger on the Web every day. If you decide to use video, Jody Nimetz gives you tips to optimize them for search engines.

Maki explains how to optimize your images, make your site more visually attractive, and attract search engine traffic at the same time. If you’re not doing anything but uploading pictures, it’s time to understand how it all works.