Blogs and websites have become an indispensable part of businesses in the modern age. Any business, in order to flourish needs to have a website or a blog or perhaps both. But, before we go into the details of which one is better between the two, you need to know what a blog or a website actually is and the differences that separate both.
According to Wikipedia, “A blog (a truncation of the expression “weblog“) is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Notable examples are wikipedia.org, google.com, and amazon.com.”
Differences between a blog and a website
While many people use the terms ‘blog’ and ‘website’ to denote the same meaning, they are not exactly the same. A blog is basically a kind of website where one person or a group keep posting regular content, which appears in reverse order. The content is written mostly in an informal style, so as to attract the youth and also to make it easy to relate.
However, unlike blogs, content is not regularly updated on websites. For instance, a company website will have a number of web pages providing the basic information about the company. It might even have a page where one can buy their products. But, that is it! There will be no more discussions or added material published like in a blog!
Advantages of having a website
A website can make you and your business reach out to a lot more people than you can imagine. It gives you a solid presence online. If anybody would want to know more about your business, or if anybody was interested in collaborating with you, he or she can easily find all the information, relevant photographs and news articles about your business on your website. It has your contact details as well. Hence, one can easily contact you via your website.
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Thus, having a website increases your chances of being noticed online. It is like broadening your sector in a way. A website might have limited information, such as just a brief idea about your company, your products and your contact details. But, that limited information would be enough to make the visitors aware about your business and would open up new avenues. Not to forget, one can always sell their products via their website as well, by turning it into an e-commerce portal.
Advantages of having a blog
A blog is advantageous for your business in a number of ways. Blogs have far more interesting content than just a normal website. They are easy-to-read, crisp and most importantly, very informative about pertinent topics. The visitors also find the blog posts more relatable as they are written in a conversational style.
Unlike regular websites, blogs are regularly updated to keep the interest of the visitors going. There is no point posting old and irrelevant content on a blog. Also, one can run a blog for free on WordPress or Blogger, whereas a website needs some investment.
So if your business is new, and you do not have a lot of money to invest, you can easily open a blog instead of a website and can manage it yourself or with the help of someone who is skilled in writing.
And to top it all, one can earn via blogs too. If you have a blog, and you are constantly posting engaging content on various topics, you can earn through ad networks like Google AdSense or if you have enough followers, you can contact advertisers directly too. All you would have to do is promote their products and they will pay you heftily.
While SEO that is Search Engine Optimization works for both websites and blogs, it is the blogs that benefit the most from it as they have new content on a regular basis. Hence, the keywords used bring in more traffic to a blog than a website as more content is put there frequently.
Why having both is better than having one?
The answer to this is pretty simple actually! While a website gives you all the details about the history, the working system and the contact details of a company, the blog gives you a lot more than just the basic introduction. For instance, if it’s an IT company, they can have a blog that has appealing and appropriate content about the IT sector.
Choosing between blog and website is a futile exercise! There are certain benefits that a website has while there are some that a blog has! But, what if we can combine both of their benefits together? Won’t it be a lot more beneficial that way?Most companies today prefer to have a website as well as a blog.
Both when combined together can take the business to new levels of success. The weakness in one can be compensated by the strength of the other.
For instance, if a business has only a blog, one will not be able to know anything about the history, or the present work ethics of the company. It will just have a number of blog posts about the related sector. Whereas, if a business has only a website, one will not be able to find any engaging material there which would make him/her come back.
Hence, instead of choosing between the two, a business owner should try to incorporate both for his business. One will give his business an online identity, and the other will take it forward from there. To put it simply, alone, they are strong but together they are stronger!
