Being a company that deals with Small Business or New Business, questions as simple as what is a blog, why should I have a website often come up. This doesn’t mean that you are ill-informed or stupid. We can’t all be great at everything.
My guess is that most people reading this know the basic concepts of a blog and/or a website. Firstly you are ready a blog hosted on a website so thats a good start. Let’s go a bit deeper so you can understand and get a better idea of how the two can help your business.
The first question when we speak to our customers is – What exactly is the difference between a website and a blog? Whether you choose to believe it or not many people confuse one with the other and we thought we could help.
The basic difference between a blog and a website is how data is being presented otherwise know as the format or layout. Other than that both are very close to each other. Both are tools for business, have benefits and a must in today’s modern world.
What is a Blog?
A blog is a listing of individual blog posts in a chronological order. A blog has the most recent content or updates shown first followed by older posts and so on. I like to think as blogs as small stories. These can be about certain topics, news related information or industry related content. You can also use blogs to discuss your products and services in more detail.
A blog should be a living breathing entity – it is happy when fed with new content and the more regularly it is updated, the more it will grow and generate interest. Blogs can be a complex area but the basics are quality and regularly updated content. Less is more with a blog. If you post loads and of a poor quality you might as well not bother at all.
Blog posts can be any length although it has been suggested that Google has changed their algorythum and posts with over 3000 words or more is ideal. This is good advice but the aim is to produce quality content that customers and prospective customer can get behind and see that you know what you are talking about. If you can say this in 500 words, then go for it!
A slightly more advanced use for blogs and posting regularly is to assist with SEO, this is where Google and other search engines rank you in search results. We’ll go more into this another time as this becomes more complex.
Posts can include links to third party pages, websites, articles or social media. You can include images or video, blogs can be very flexible, entertaining and engaging. If you get it right it can really help your business grow.
Basic summary of Blogs:
- A way to invite readers to participate and leave comments
- A chronological listing of blog posts
- Blog posts are archived by date, category, author, tags and sub-categories.
- Quality, not necessarily quantity, is best
- Any length is fine
- Image, Video, Links or downloads work very well.
What is a Website?
The dictionary definition of a website is a page or collection of pages on the World Wide Web that contains specific information which was all provided by one person or entity and traces back to a common domain. Basically a website is a shop of information, each page relates to a different product, service, piece of information or message.
Creating websites on the internet is massive, there are so many ways to design and present a website so of the more common are HTML/CSS, Java/Javascript/Python/Php, WordPress – there are so many different elements to a site and ways to design it.
The simple go to that we tell our customers when discussing websites, is to think of your website as your shop front. What the world sees in your website represents you, your business and your services/product.
A website can be complemented with a blog, but the purpose of a website is different. The main focus of a website is to offer additional information solely on the company, entity or message you are trying to put across. You need to shout about you. Websites are, if you like, selfish. Its more me, me, me. What can I do for you, how can I do it and so one. A blog is more general and works better when it isn’t all me, me ,me. Make sense?
A blog can be included on a website, in fact we would recommend it. The blog is usually a separate page and has a link in the menu or somewhere you customers can find it. A website is a bigger aspect with limitations from little to none. Websites are built using a single page up to hundreds, it really depends on what the site is about.
Basic summary of websites:
- A homepage that guides you through severl other sections within the website
- Your online shop front
- A blog is part of the site, not the only thing.
- Home, Services, FAQs, Contact are the very basic information your site should have
- Show off your work or customers
- Ensure it is legal – GDPR, Cookies, Privacy etc.
- Website is an envolving digital sales tool
OK, so do you need a Blog or a Website?
Really it depends on what you are trying to achieve. Are you a business? Are you sharing information about a hobby or specific topic? Both lend themselves well to any industry or type of use but all depends on your overall outcome.
If you just want to create content, small stories and engage readers, go for a blog. If you want an online store-front that sells something, has many possibilities or needs to act as a tool go with a website and combine it with a blog.
Websites or Blogs can be tricky, you will find builders out there that for a small amount you can get going but make sure you do your homework. Will coding be involved? Can it do what you want? Do you know how to include SEO so people can find you? Perhaps get a designer to help design the platform and you can manage it. There are so many ways you can move forward.
So does that make sense? Understand the difference a bit better?
This isn’t to make anyone feel stupid or just fill out our blog, some customers genuinelly don’t understand the difference or which would be more beneficial. If you are still on the fence and ensure reach out to us, we will be more than happy to talk you through it and can help design both if you need it.
