I have noticed many websites have a blog and forum attached to their website.

Is that necessary for every website that we design?

It is not mandatory, but the more pages you have with quality content, the better you will rank in the SERPS. It also really depends on what the site is.

I do think a blog is necessary, a forum is more or less option-able.

Blogs are nice, but you should always think about your goal of having the blog. i.e. do you want to create a method for two way for communication by enabling comments? Are you focusing more on SEO? Do you want to just provide more information for customers? etc. I see a lot of sites that have blogs, and they don't seem to be a benefit.

Originally Posted by birdie

I have noticed many websites have a blog and forum attached to their website.

Is that necessary for every website that we design?

hi birdie..

it's not necessary to put a blog/forum in your website, it's all up to you then. But having a blog/forum in your site especially if contains unique and precise content can increase traffic to your site, which means your site will have the big possibility to rank first in Google search engine.

It completely depends on the client. If the owner of the site can regularly update a blog, then by all means go for it as the site will have a stream of fresh content for search engines.
Same with a forum, if there is a reason to have one, then it's great. But an empty forum is not attractive nor helpful!

A blog would be wonderful if it can be updated a few times a week!