Differences between BLOGS and WEBSITES?

Blogs are websites. They are a type of website. All apples are fruits but not all fruits are apples. So, what are the differences between blogs and websites?



What are blogs?
The word BLOG is a truncation of two words:

WEB + LOG = BLOG (removing the ‘WE”)

Blogs are discussion or informational websites published online. Justin Hall, the founding father of personal blogging, started his personal blogging in 1994 while he was a student at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania.

Blogs started out as personal journals. Blogs could now be appearing either on a hobby, personal, commercial, or any business website. The blogs could be the work of an individual, a small group of people or commercial corporations like:
*CNN,
*BBC America,
*Huffington Post,
*TMZ…
Each of the above commercial sites has millions of monthly visitors. You may refer to all the above sites as websites but they are blog sites.

We say all the above sites are blog sites because they are using the WordPress platform. We won’t get into arguing whether they are blog sites or websites. The line between blogs and websites is very, very thin.

Still, there are differences.

Here are the main differences.

First difference – latest blog content appears first
Blogs are updated frequently. Blogs are arranged in reverse chronological order with the latest content appearing first.

Each time when you visit the CNN news website, the latest news would appear on the first page

Second difference – blogs allow interaction
Unlike the normal static webpages, blogs are more dynamic and they usually allow readers to interact with the publishers of the blogs.

There is a difference between interaction and engagement. Let us explain in our context here. Interaction brings an exchange which does not mean the readers are interested. Engagement means the readers are interested although the exchange may or may not result in conversions.

Third difference – readers can engage with publishers
A blog can be as simple as a basic webpage or as complex as tens of thousands of webpages with all the different multimedia content. Bloggers would present content in such a way that not only fosters interaction but also engagement and hopefully conversion in the process.

Websites tend to be informational and not engaging.

Fourth difference – blogs are great internet marketing tools
This stems from the above. The more engaging blog content you create, the more opportunities for the search engines to rank your sites, driving more traffic to your blogs.

Blogs allow readers to connect with you, the publishers, by posting comments and responses on the blog articles. You should have your social media contacts shown on your blog articles. Then readers do not need to locate your contact information elsewhere to send their responses

What are websites?
Websites are a collection of webpages with multimedia content. Read this definition again.

The website content will include texts, images, animations, sounds, videos, virtual reality and more under a domain.

These websites are hosted on the web servers belonging to the website owners or more commonly the case, the web hosting companies.

We can classify websites into many categories:

• Static websites
• Dynamic websites
• Education websites
• Brochure and catalogue websites
• Charity or Non-profit websites 
• eCommerce websites
• Social media websites
• Personal, business or government websites
• Membership websites
• Forum websites
• Web portal websites
• Search engine websites
• Video Streaming websites
• CMS – Content Management System websites
  (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento…)
• Blogs

There are many more different categories of websites. We listed blogs as the last category above on purpose. It is to reiterate the fact that blogs are a type of website.

In essence, websites provide information, usually written in either formal or professional way. Most websites are usually static. They do not encourage engagement with the readers

Static websites often do not allow readers to respond to the content on the webpages themselves. Another word, the information is presented in one direction from the publishers to the readers.

From the origin of the word blog (web+log), blogs are websites at their core except the content of the blogs is updated regularly.

Blogs usually focus on content. Websites are emphasizing information.

Summary of The Main Differences
WEBSITES

• provide information in all media formats, 
• tend to be static,
• are usually written formally or professionally,
• are for personal, commercial or business purposes.

BLOGS

• provide content and engagement,
• are frequently updated,
• are more dynamic,
• are informal or formal depending on the publishers,
• are more fun, they can be personal, business oriented or a hybrid.

Important Blogging Statistics
Every now and then, we hear people saying blogging is dying or dead. That is like saying websites are dead, not by any means. Blogging is growing exponentially. Envisage, an UK company, reported 4.4 millions blog posts are published each day!

With so many blogs being published daily and the benefits they bring to any business, everyone should learn how to blog.

Ages of Bloggers range from 6 up to 107
There are bloggers as young as 6 years old and as old as 107 years old. As long as you have internet access and a writing device, you can be a blogger. Here are few more young bloggers.
https://domain.me/top-5-children-bloggers/

Again, everyone should be blogging.

We are convinced every website should have blogs to complement the main website. And everyone should be blogging.

You are welcome to add your comments below. If you find more differences, share them with us below.