I tell you all this to illustrate that I've tried a lot of approaches. That's important, because my newest site is the opposite, as it contains static site pages, but the entire site is built on the WordPress blogging platform. Though it requires some trade-offs in organization and presentation, there are off-setting benefits.
This newest site was placed on a WordPress friendly hosting service I've never used before. It used a domain name that had been idle at GoDaddy for a while. Three days after getting started, some of my posts were getting first page position in Google searches. Granted, they were very specific search phrases, but the point is that it was indexed that quickly by Google.
Part of my reasoning in making the switch was the search engine piece. But it also was heavily influenced by my style and time availability to keep a site fresh. I found that I liked to write about the area, people, entertainment, outdoors and real estate in Taos, NM. The blog format allowed me to write about all of these things easily, assign them to the appropriate category, and tag them for the search engines as well.
I made my site planning more difficult by choosing a free theme that is set up in online magazine style. It just really seemed to fit what I want to accomplish. Over time, the plan is to develop a large reader audience who comes to the site to read and see what's happening in the area. It's easy to embed YouTube videos, so I can cross-promote from that site as well.
Using the static page abilities, I can have certain material on the buttons that is friendly to all users accustomed to standard web page design. However, the blog structure allows me to get them to specific articles of interest easily as well. This is not a solution for everyone, but it has its place in the real estate Internet marketing plan for many. The cost for the basic site is only the hosting, averaging about $12 per month.
