Ever heard about the “blog vs. website” debate? As the world evolves, the need to build a strong online presence for your business is crucial to its success. This is why choosing the perfect medium to do so is an essential part of the success of any business.
One of the decisions a small business owner will have to make at some point in his entrepreneurial journey is choosing between a blog or a website. If you are reading this post, chances are you are at the same crossroad; trying to find out which of them (blog vs. website) will work best for your small business.
Many business owners have reasons why they think a website is better than a blog and vice versa. However, the key to building strong online brand awareness or online presence is in understanding both mediums and identifying which is best suited to achieve your business goals.
Differentiating a Blog from a Website
To accurately determine the perfect fit for your business between a blog vs. website, you need to understand what they are and how they work. This understanding will give you the insight you need to identify the medium that will help you achieve your business goals.
You should know that a blog is a type of website. Hence, the reason why there are a lot of similarities among them. However, to adequately understand their distinctive features, we need to begin at the crux of the matter.
The Concept of a Website
If you enter any valid domain name like www.sme360.ng in any browser, it redirects you to a website. In other words, any platform that has a valid domain name is a website. Hence, platforms like Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia are often regarded as websites.
However, the question remains; what is the difference between a blog vs. website?
This is like differentiating between race cars and cars. They all have an engine and four wheels, however, a race car is specifically built for racing.
The Concept of a Blog
As stated earlier, a blog is a type of website. However, one of the distinctive features between a blog vs. website is that a blog focuses solely on publishing individual articles (also referred to as blog posts). These blog posts are often displayed on the homepage of the website from newest to oldest posts respectively. The goal is to ensure that visitors see the most recent blog post at the top and subsequent ones under.
A blog is predominantly text-based since it is largely about stories, news, or articles, this is why it runs on a CMS (Content Management System).
Blog vs. Website: Which is Best for my Small Business
Today, small business owners don’t need to worry so much about the best platform to enhance their online presence between a blog vs. website. The innovation of technology has made it possible to have both of them at the same time. With the use of an exceptional website CMS, you can set up a blog as a page on your website. This way, you can have a website with the functionality and features of a blog.
For instance, the most popular and powerful CMS tool is known as WordPress. There is a huge chance that is what this blog is made up of. WordPress is user-friendly to beginners, it is an open-source platform and the best part is that it is free.
“Why would I need a blog”? You may ask.
Well, the simple answer among many others is that a blog helps you connect more with your customers. Having a blog benefits your business in several ways.
Benefits of Having a Blog for your Small Business
Here are some of the reasons why you should consider having a blog as part of your website:
Enhancing SEO
The algorithms of a search engine are built to filter through tons of websites to ensure that searchers end up with fresh and valuable content. One of the ways to ensure that visitors get fresh content is by consistently publishing blog posts. The more you post, the more content search engines have to index. Using hot keywords in your blog posts will help ensure that your content comes up whenever there is a search for such keywords.
Building and Strengthening the Relationship between both New and Existing Customers and your Business
As a business and personal branding strategist, I can tell you that customer engagement is a crucial part of branding and online marketing. One of the ways to conversationally connect with your existing and new customers is through blogging. As visitors go through your blog posts, they begin to trust your content more which ultimately serves as an avenue to pitch a new product or service that you think they will benefit from.
Connecting People to your Brand
One of the ways to help your customers trust your brand is by creating an avenue where they can see the personal side of your business. You can use your blog as an avenue to share the values, vision, character, and personality of your business. This way, your customers know what to expect whenever they have a transaction with your business.
Enhancing Online Presence through Sharing
One of the benefits of sharing exceptional content is that it compels visitors to share your link with others. I remembered creating a post about “Staying Strong” that got a lot of engagement and shares. The best part is that 3 years after the post was made, it still attracts the same share volume as it did when it was published.
Conclusion
You no longer need to worry about the best option between a blog vs. website for your business when you can have both. You can connect with your customers on a more intimate level by creating your blog as part of your website.
This way, you can showcase your products and services on your homepage with links that will redirect visitors to your blog.