This post parallels are podcast episode “Page vs. Post.”….enjoy.
Should you have a blog or start a website? What’s the difference between and blog and a website.
Web + Log = Blog
The term originates from a combination of Web(site) and Log. Blogs started in the mid-1990s and were traditionally run/managed by individuals. In the beginning, the term blog was associated with someone who chose to express his or her opinions openly on the Internet, in the form of a blog. Basically, it was a website where one could easily publish a rant or editorial…but it had a unique feature in that readers could respond and leave a comment.
Blogs also had a very rudimentary design. They weren’t very fancy. Blogs originally were heavy with content and not so great for design, graphics, function, etc.
Blogs were dynamic and it was easy to create and publish content.
I encourage you think of a blog as a dynamic website.
Websites are Static
The traditional website had to be custom coded, looked great, but was static. More emphasis was put into graphic design, appearance and flow and little emphasis was put on content. The whole practice of SEO, or optimization, was not even created yet. The only way to rank a website in the mid 1990s was to use blackhat techniques.
Adding content was, and still is, difficult and expensive.
Think of website as a static site that is difficult to optimize. Optimization, or SEO, is the practice of ranking websites.
SEO and Webrankings
In the 1990s, the only way to rank a website or find a website was to use blackhat techniques. For example, you had to pay a company to click on your website (this doesn’t work anymore, but was at one time true).
Google and the other search engines (Bing, Yahoo, etc.) have made webrankings more legitimate and less blackhat. Each has an algorithm by which they compare webpages. The “best” webpages get ranked at the top and are felt to be the most relevant webpages which answer the search query.
SEO algorithms all have a common denominator. The best webpages have the best content. The websites with the freshest and most relevant content get ranked the highest. Therefore, webrankings are dependent upon the quality of its content. Period.
In essence, this is the crux of content marketing. Creating content to bolster the exposure of your website when a patient is Googling for your goods and/or services.
Modern Website
Every modern website should be a blog. Every website should be created on blogging software (technically called CMS – content management system).
Blog and website should be synonymous.
A blog allows you to easily add content. Blogs can be optimized better than the static counterparts so they can rank better. Blogs can also have fully customized design like their website counterparts.
Blogs offer the best in optimization (so they can rank) and design.
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