What Is the Difference Between a Website and a WordPress Blog?
A website and a blog are both platforms for content, but they are used for different purposes. A website is usually for promoting brands, selling products, or providing services. A blog is typically used to share content that is of personal value to the user (e.g., a travel blog). However, as the lines between mediums blur, it becomes harder to know where one platform ends and the other begins. The following will explore the differences between a website and a blog, including some best practices for each type of platform.
The Main Difference: Use Cases
The main difference between a website and a blog is the purposes for which they are used. As previously stated, a website is usually used for promoting brands, selling products, or providing services. A blog, on the other hand, is usually used to share content that is of personal value to the user (e.g., a travel blog).
This difference in use cases leads to a few significant differences in how the two platforms operate. First, websites are generally used to access content quickly and easily. Blog posts are usually long-form content that the user has to seek out and find the value in. Second, websites are usually created and maintained by professionals with specialized knowledge in web design, digital marketing, and SEO. Blogs are typically created and maintained by content creators who specialize in that type of content. Third, websites are usually designed to be accessed via a desktop or laptop computer, while blogs are designed to be accessed via a smartphone or tablet.
The differences in use cases mean that you should approach each with a different mindset. A website is used for promoting a business or brand, so you will want to think about which platforms can help you achieve your business goals. A blog, on the other hand, is used to share valuable information that will be of interest to the reader, so you will want to think about which platforms can help you tell your story and engage your audience.
Usability Vs. Artistic Impression
Although both a website and a blog are platforms for content, they are very different in how they are designed and how they are used. A website is usually optimized for usability and simplicity—it should be easy to find what you’re looking for, and the navigation should be intuitive. If a website doesn’t meet those criteria, it can become difficult for users to find their way around the site, and that results in lost traffic and conversions.
A blog, on the other hand, is designed to look like a magazine or a book. It should have an artistic impression that is separate from the content itself. This gives the blog a unique vibe that is not easily replaced by other content forms, such as a video.
The distinct difference in how these two platforms are designed is reflected in how they are used. While a website is usually accessed via a desktop or laptop computer, blogs are generally accessed via a smartphone or tablet. This is because the information is designed to be consumed on the move, and the design of the site is optimized for easy navigation via touchscreen devices.
Content vs. Accessibility
Another significant difference between a website and a blog is how the content is organized. A website is typically a flat structure, while a blog relies on a series of posts for creating a linear story. The main benefit of this is that you can add extra content to a blog at any time, without having to worry about breaking the flow of the story, or losing any of the existing readers.
This is a significant difference, and it results in a few major implications for content creators and digital marketers. First, it means that a blog post’s topic can change without notice. This makes creating content for blogs much more flexible than creating content for websites, which has to follow a set form.
The second implication is that, with a blog, you have complete control over the content that is published. If you decide that a certain topic isn’t getting enough attention, you can simply go back and re-write the content to draw more people in.
The last implication is that, with a website, all of the content is accessible to everyone. With a blog, you have the ability to give some content to certain people, while keeping the rest hidden. You can also decide which topics to cover, and when to cover them. The advantage of this approach is that you can ensure that your audience is getting the most out of the content that you’re providing, and you can always add more if needed.
The Importance of SEO
When preparing content for publication, whether on a blog or a website, it is vital to perform SEO on the material. This entails adding keywords to the content, ensuring that the content is well-written, and creating a schema for each blog post or website article. This is because the search engines want to present the most relevant content to the user, and creating a schema for each piece of content helps with that.
A website’s SEO is usually done through a combination of on-site SEO and off-site SEO. On-site SEO entails fixing little bits of content on the website, and rearranging the content so that it’s easily discoverable by search engines. Off-site SEO entails getting backlinks to the website, which bring in more traffic and increase the ranking of the website in the search engines.
A blog’s SEO is usually done through on-site SEO. However, off-site SEO is extremely important as well, because a large portion of the blog’s content can be accessed from other websites. When getting backlinks to your blog, you want to make sure that you are submitting your content to reputable and well-known websites. Getting a link back to your blog from a high-quality website can increase the authority of your blog and the number of backlinks that you have.
If you do decide to create a blog, make sure to build a community of people who are interested in your topics. This will help drive more traffic to your blog and increase the chance of getting some links and gaining some authority in your niche.
Mobile-Friendly
Another important factor to consider when deciding what type of platform to use is whether or not the site is mobile-friendly. If you decide to publish content on a blog, make sure to put some thought into the design and format of the site. A good mobile-friendly blog will make browsing on a smartphone much easier. If your current blog is not mobile-friendly, then you should consider creating a new blog for mobile users, or otherwise revising the content to make it easier to consume on a small screen.
It’s also important to keep track of your blog’s performance on different platforms. For example, if your blog does well on desktop computers, but crashes on mobile phones, it’s important to find out why. It could be that the layout is not mobile-friendly, or it could be that the performance is tied to a Google-specific feature called “Universal Links”,”smartphones” or “blogger.” If you decide that the former is the case, then you should look into redesigning the blog to be more user-friendly on mobile devices.
Responsive Design
Another important factor to consider when deciding what type of platform to use is whether or not the site is responsive. A responsive website or blog makes the content easy to access on any device. It has to be mobile-friendly, but it also has to work well on a laptop or desktop computer as well.
This brings us to our next point: if you decide to go with a responsive design for your blog or website, make sure to avoid using a pixel-based or non-retina designed version of an image. The ideal scenario is to use a high-quality image stored on a content-delivering platform, such as Gravatar or Flickr. The image will be retrieved automatically based on the user’s screen resolution.
Pixel-based images are great for small screens, but they don’t scale well beyond that. This usually results in pixelated images and unreadable text on large screens. Using a non-retina designed image can also lead to text being cut off on smaller screens, or entire words remaining missing. If you decide to use an image from one of the above-mentioned platforms, then make sure to resize the image to be appropriate for the platform.
Security
Another important consideration when choosing a blogging platform is whether or not the site has security features. Most blogs and websites these days have some type of security, but it’s often hard to find out what type. For example, do they use 2-factor authentication or SSL security for the login area? It’s important to find out what type of security measures they have in place, and make sure to look at their privacy policy as well.