It’s easy to be confused about the difference between a blog and website. There is good reason for this confusion, because a website can be a blog, and a blog can be a website.
If you’re thinking about building a website, or starting a blog, this is a really good question and we hope to provide clarity to it.
In this guide, we’ll go over the main differences between a blog and website, how to use each one, give a few examples for each, and finally, how to get your website or blog started.
What is a blog?
A blog is a website that contains blog posts, sorted from newest to oldest. Blog posts can contain a lot of different kinds of content: your thoughts, ideas, feelings, news about yourself, and more. More than 90% of the blogs on the internet are run by individuals, or a small group of people, to share their thoughts and news to the world.
There is a second type of blog, which is more corporate. Companies have started using blogs to share news about their most recent developments, leadership, innovations, and more. Blogs are great for companies to share this kind of information, because it’s quick, easy to read, and comes off as a personal message.
When you share content on your blog, you’ll usually want to hear back from your readers, and most blogs, especially if powered by WordPress, will give you the ability to enable the comments section for additional feedback and building your community.
The history of blogs
Blogs have existed since the late 1990’s, when the internet was still young. They didn’t know it yet, but the people who were sharing their thoughts online were creating a whole new way to share content and information. Eventually, the word “blog” came about, and popularized through various free services.
There were many blogging services back in the early days of the internet. Some, like blogger.com, have been bought by Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and rolled up in their services. Others, like livejournal.com still exist today. With the popularity of WordPress and other free blogging services, these pioneers of blogging are a shadow of what they once were, however their early contributions to blogging should always be noted.
What’s a website?
A website is comprised of pages, not posts. These pages are usually static, rarely updated, and have content on them that isn’t updated all the time. Think of a website like a store. The store itself will rarely change. The look and feel of a website, just like a store, will be there for a long time. Websites are good for selling products and services, or to have a static presence online, like your resume, portfolio, corporate presence, and so on.
About 42% of the internet now builds their websites using WordPress. There are other website builders out there as well, that will help you get a website online.
What’s better between a blog and website?
Now that we’ve gone through the main differences between a blog and a website, what’s best for you?
Go with a blog if:
- You want to post your thoughts and ideas frequently
- You want to share information quickly
- You like the idea and simplicity of a newsfeed for your readers
Go with a website if:
- You have a lot of information to share in a specific way
- You have an Ecommerce store
- You have multiple pages with different looks and styles
Conclusion
Choosing between a blog and a website is an easy choice, once you know the main differences. A blog is much easier to set up and get online. A website can take a bit more time, but contains more functionality and features.
We hope this guide helped you choose between a blog and website!
