DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A WEBSITE AND A BLOG
I’m sure you might have wondered at one point or the other, maybe you’re still wondering; what’s the difference between a blog and a website? I’ll be examining the difference and how it applies to you and your brand.
Often I get asked about what a blog is, and how it is different from a website.
If you are thinking about starting a blog or a website, then understanding these terms will help you meet your goals.
I will be explaining what a blog is, and what the difference between blog and websites is. I will also be talking to you about the usage scenarios.
A blog is a type of website where the content is presented in reverse chronological order (newer content appear first, except when you decide to pin a post to the top).
Blogs are typically run by an individual or a small group of people to present information in a conversational style.
However, now there are a lot of corporate blogs that produce a lot of informational and thought-leadership style content.
A tyypical blog post has comments section where users can respond to the article.
Blogs are a type of website. The only real difference between a blog and other types of website is that blogs are updated on a regular basis with new content, which is displayed in reverse chronological order (new blog posts first).
A typical website is static in nature where the contents are organized in pages, and they are not updated frequently. Whereas a blog is dynamic, and it is usually updated more frequently. Some bloggers publish multiple new articles in one day.
A blog can be part of a website. Often businesses have a blog section where they regularly create content to inform and educate their customers.
In simple terms, all blogs can be a website or part of a website. However, not all websites can be called blogs.
Many businesses are realizing the potential of a blog in their overall marketing strategy.
Business owners now add a separate blog section to their websites in other to get more traffic from search engines.
That’s because blogs are proven to improve search engine optimization (SEO).
Often, these are started together. But in general, a website consists of pages that describe services or categories of products, and provide information about the business. Sometimes, a website may just provide fairly fixed, time-independent information about specific topics.
A blog consists of ‘pages’ that provide information on very specific topics — or answer very specific questions. Sometimes the information goes out of date after a relatively short period of time and needs to be updated regularly. Or a blog can consist of announcements and other types of news (or be a mix of the two).
The main difference between an informational website and an informational blog is that a website will have all the information grouped in menus. Blog posts are all accessed from the same page and grouped by categories and tags. It’s possible to set up a website so that blog categories and tags are accessed from menus but this isn’t done by convention.
In terms of the code, there isn’t a huge difference between a webpage and a blog post but they’re generally given different schema code and have a few other differences.
In some cases, it’s equally appropriate to start a website or a blog and they can easily accomplish similar things. But there are some things you would do with a blog and not a website and vice versa. (You wouldn’t use blog posts to deliver an about us or contact page for instance. And you wouldn’t create a new website just to announce to the world that you’ve just signed a new publishing contract).
A website is a collection of web pages that link together under a domain (A domain is something like www.google.com)
A website is basically created to provide information about a particular brand and it is necessary in building credibility in this current age. People will trust your brand faster if you have a website.
A blog is a type of website; the only difference is that a blog is continually updated with new articles (blog posts) while a website is static and has little and less frequent updates.
A website is a collection of web pages; a blog is a collection of related blog posts.
Many website have a blog attached to them giving information about certain topics. This helps them build authority and appear more on Google searches related to their niche thereby increasing their brand awareness.
For instance if you own a shoe line and you have a blog attached to your website educating people about shoes, when someone searches for say, ‘qualities of a good shoe’, your blog on that topic will come up and in the process they’ll get to know about your brand and it will be easier buying from you since you have shown them your expertise in that field.
NB: for someone to search ‘qualities of a good shoe’ it is likely they want to buy a shoe. So you’ll appear right before the right audience.
The above process is called Content Marketing. You sell without actually looking ‘salesy’; you just come as someone offering help.
Apart from Content Marketing, you can also monetise your blog through embedding Google Ads and make monies from it.
You can setup up a blog by yourself using free tools like WordPress. All you have to do is buy a domain name and hosting. But you’ll do better if you hire a professional web developer. It will make the process easier, they’ll do it more professionally, and it will pay off at the long run, you’ll save money from unnecessary mistakes than if you’re trying to ‘save’ money.
Either a website or a blog or a combination of both, it is necessary that your brand has an online presence.
Of course you shouldn’t kill yourself trying to build a website if your brand is still a small startup. It would be counterproductive except if it is a necessity for your field. But as you grow, you should work towards that too.
The internet is here to stay. Your brand should stay too.
Blogs also come with a RSS feed feature which allows users to stay updated with your latest posts. When a new post is published, the RSS feed is updated automatically.
Smart marketers often connect the RSS feed with an email newsletter or web push notification to send their users a notification alert about recent posts, product announcements, and more.
In summary, a website is bigger than a blog.
SEE ALSO : Why You Need A Website for Your Business
Hope this post on the diferences between a website and a blog helps?
