While you’re surfing the internet, you surely must have stumbled upon these platforms that are aimed at blogging.
At some point or another, you must have also wondered what exactly does a blog mean? And how is it different from a website?
In this article, we’ll explain the difference between the two things and the various ways in which they can be used.
What is a Website?
A website, on the other hand, is a group of web pages that are related to each other and listed under a single domain name.
A good example of a website which includes a blog is HuffPost (online news) & GadgetDecision (gadget & consumer electronics reviews).
What is a blog?
A blog (short for weblog) is basically a website where the content appears in a reverse chronological order: from the newest to the oldest.
The content of a blog is usually named an “entry” or a “blog post”.
Usually, a blog is run by one person or a small group of people.
They present their idea, thoughts, and information in a conversational style. Although blogging has grown more popular with corporations to present informational content for example.
Blogs typically have a comments section where people can express their feedback on the article.
The Major Differences
In brief, every blog is a website. It is called a blog because of how the content is chronologically orderd. However, not every website can be called a blog.
A website can include a blog or several of them.
The Dynamic Nature of a Blog Versus the Static Nature of a Website
The content of a website is usually static as it’s organized in pages, and frequent updates are not predominant.
This is the complete opposite of the dynamic nature of a blog where new content has to be added all the time, and people can make multiple entries per day.
Terminology and Layout
A website can have blogs and pages, while a blog can have posts and pages.
The difference between the pages and posts of a blog is that posts are the single entries displayed, and for your audience to view older posts, they’re going to have to dig deeper into your blog to find them.
While a blog (or website) page is usually static and includes specific information like an “About Us” page or a “Contact Us” page which doesn’t change as often.
The Purpose
The purpose of a website is usually to provide fast information and services, it’s pretty much to-the-point.
Whereas the purpose of a blog would be used to engage with audience and bring in more traffic and recognition to a person, idea, brand, or product.
The Narrative and How Each Passes Their Message On
Websites typically phrase information in a formal tone with a third party perspective while blogs use a first-person, casual and conversational tone.
The Way of Communication
Blogs have sections for comments where the audience can interact with the blogger(s) and give them feedback and where the bloggers can interact with the audience, whereas websites have more one-way and monotonous methods.
Moreover, blogs often provide you with the freedom to subscribe to their e-mail newsletter to be notified whenever they post a new entry relating to the subject you’re interested in.
The Cost of Creation
A good blog can be recreational so you might not 100% own it, and you can run it with no costs whatsoever (such as Tumblr, Quora, or LinkedIn).
You can also start a free website, but usually they are used professionally for providing a service or specific information, so they can have more costs than blogs.
How Audience Are Enabled to Navigate Through Each
While websites allow you to navigate through them with hyperlink or tabs, blogs offer you so much more.
They have categories and tags. Categories divide the topics of a blog into different groups, while tags divide them into sub-groups.
This classification system greatly facilitates navigation through the blog.