What Is The Difference Between A Website And A Blog? Here Is My Answer
This week I was in the live chat helping newbies at Wealthy Affiliate community and I realised that as much as they were ready to build their very first website, they couldn’t understand what is the difference between a website and a blog.
I already discussed this question within the community, and one of the community members, Patrick, said the following:
“What a wealth of information… My wife is a webmaster and I struggled with how what I was doing was different from what she is doing. NOW IT IS CRYSTAL CLEAR!….they call those epiphany’s don’t they?”
This gave me an idea to write this post for other Internet users and explain the matter in detail. I truly hope that after reading this post, it will be crystal clear to you too.
Now, I don’t think it’s possible to give an exact answer to the aforementioned question, however it’s possible to examine the differences between a blog and a website, as well as consider the pros and cons of each.
If you are new to online business and blogging and want to try things out, by the end of this post you will know which one do you need – a blog or a website.
Table Of Contents
What Is A Website and What Is A Blog? A Definition
I feel that first I need to define these terms for you before I move on to the difference between a website and a blog.
Of course, you can search the definition on the internet but it is likely that you will run into a strange set of words that don’t make sense to you as a newbie online, or worse, will confuse you even more. (Trust me, I’ve been there).
Let me try to explain this to you in simple language.
So, what is a website?
Absolutely anything that you find on the vast internet, be it a forum, online store, news portal, and even a blog can be defined as a “website”. We all are used to call anything on the web as a website.
If we think about it, it makes sense. The word “site” is a synonym of “place”. If a website is a place on the internet, then all aforementioned examples are just a kind of website, which belongs to a webmaster (owner of a website).
And what is a blog?
If we follow our chain of thought, then a blog is just one kind of website. That’s the short answer.
However, I’d like to give you a more detailed answer to the definition of a blog.
Generally speaking, a website or a blog are created for the purpose of sharing information with the public/internet users.
Here is the thing though.
Website owners (also called “webmasters”) do not stay in touch with their audience, they do not share their personal life stories and the audience doesn’t even know who these webmasters are.
Blog owners (also called “bloggers”) act completely opposite of website owners, they don’t hide their face, they are completely open with their audience and they can share all kind of information on their blogs.
This is the most basic way to explain what these two terms are.
Website vs. Blog – The Differences
As already mentioned before the main difference between the two is that the website owners are unknown to the public whereas blog owners show their face and share personal life stories with their followers.
As a general rule, blog owners include an “About” page where they share their image as well as share their short autobiography.
Let me use my own blog as an example.
If you look at my blog, you will see that I posted my personal picture right in front of my audience, I shared a bit of information about who I am and what I do, I have an “About” page, as well as I use informal language to connect with the readers of my blog.
If you go through my blog posts, you will notice that I don’t talk about one topic only, in fact, I share the things that I liked, the things the I’ve experienced, and the places that I visited.
If the readers of my blog want to reach out to me, they can find me on social media, send an e-mail or simply comment in the comment section of each post. In other words, they can stay in touch with me and I can stay in touch with them.
All of these are indicators that my website is a BLOG.
A Few More Distinctions…
Besides the main difference between the two that I mentioned earlier, there a couple more distinctions that I should mention.
We all know that websites and blogs are created for the purpose of delivering information to Internet users, as well as make money with it.
Now, website owners (webmasters) may have multiple websites, may provide content not really understanding the subject matter and their websites are mostly a source of income.
For bloggers, as a general rule, their blog is a hobby, which happens to eventually feed its owner (if they monetize their blogs, that is).
Because webmasters tend to outsource their content, the language that is used in their articles is rather formal, whereas bloggers write blog posts themselves and therefore they are easy to be emotionally connected with.
The websites use professional language, and bloggers try to deliver information in simple language.
A few words on an audience of each.
While both website owners and blog owners have their audience, the main distinction is that the website readers generally find the information they were seeking for, leave the website and never come back.
Now, if we look at a blog site, due to the nature of a blog structure, it has the ability to unite its readers who share common interests with a blogger.
WordPress Blog vs Website – Which One Do You Need?
Let’s say you explored the online opportunities and you are ready to build a profitable online business.
Based on the information that I shared earlier, you will know that you will need a BLOG if you are OK with showing your face, want to be popular online and, for example, sell information products.
Because you are open to your blog visitors, you have a unique chance to build a high-trust relationship with them and, therefore, convert your visitors into clients.
However, not everyone wants to be popular on the Internet and they would rather prefer to make money in quiet and peace. If you fall into that category, then you need a WEBSITE and you can hire freelancers to do the work for you.
Outsourcing content is optional, of course.
Final Words
From what I’ve seen in the last year of blogging for business, I noticed that every successful online businessman is involved in the blogging trend, as they can build a high-trust relationship with their blog visitors and therefore have more sales.
Your visitors need to TRUST you before they hand over the money to you for the product that you produce or recommend.
Logical, isn’t it?
One more thing to leave you with.
If you are seriously planning on becoming a blogger and getting paid, then I recommend you to check this post: “How To Become A Blogger In 2018 And Get Paid? Useful Tips For Beginners“
In this article, you will learn about various ways of making money online and will be given step-by-step instructions on how to get started online.
Any other questions on what is the difference between a website and a blog? Let me know in the comments below!
Hi thank you for this enlightenment, indeed this nitty-gritty sometimes will affect how things go down in the future.
I would like to ask you though, what about e-commerce site from provider like Shopify. Do you think it is more as a website although for site like this, people want to know who is the author and behind the scene.
Plus, could we build e-commerce site by using wordpress?
Thanks a lot
Hello Habil,
Wonderful questions – it made me go and research further. I've heard about Shopify before but never used it as a means to grow my online business. Only used Wealthy Affiliate platform to learn and grow online.
Back to your questions: to me Shopify site seems more like a website, even though it does have a page of blogs written by regular people.
As for building an e-commerce site, I know that most people use Shopify or BigCommerce.
In terms of WordPress, it has a free plugin to WooCommerce, which is owned by WordPress. It's completely compatible with WP. Woo has two themes working great: Canvas and Storefront. I heard that Storefront is the one that's easy to use. Also, you can have a blog or other content as you wish. So it's quite versatile.
And absolutely free to use on WordPress.
Sorry for taking it a bit too long to respond, I had to ask your questions in the online business community that I am a part of. Since I personally don't run e-commerce sites and I wanted to be sure with my answers 🙂
I hope this helps!
Wonderful post, thanks, Zarina! Nicely expressed, a few lights just went off for me. I used to think that blog and website is actually one but thanks to your article it brought clarity. I realise now why blogs are so much more engaging & entertaining than websites.
Quick question. Can you connect the two together? (have your website accessible via your blog).
I am not sure exactly what do you mean by having a website accessible via a blog – I assume you mean having a link on your blog to your website? I know of the “hybrid” websites, which is basically a website but has certain features of a blog (like author information is available).
You can have a website with a ‘blog’ menu page on it. You can write a blog post to refer traffic to your website. The more traffic you refer to your website through your blog posts, the more popular your website will become in the eyes of Google and other search engines. That’s you are going to attract more traffic to your site and that’s how your site will get ranked higher on search engines, hence more conversions etc.
Hope this helps!
Hi Zarina, very nicely explained, thank you. I’ve been thinking my website is more of a content site because not all my articles are based on my life and opinions, I interview other Mom entrepreneurs as well. However, I do show my face and do express my opinion so now I’m leaning towards it being a blog. By the way, been meaning to ask, are you using a plug-in for your About Me side widget?
Hi Lauren, welcome to my blog.
From what you said, I’d say your website is more of a blog – even the interviews make it more personal and entertaining; imagine a pure website being let’s Reddit, or some medical forum. I’m curious, what do you interview other Moms about?
As for the About me widget – there is no plugin that I used for that, just the widget itself. Maybe it comes with the theme? (I have Ignite Lite).
Hi Zarina Im a newbie about this things too. Ive read that a blog is like a diary where you log in your interests, views, and experiences which is done on the internet or the web (or website) making it a log on the web or a weblog, in short a blog. So that’s what it is! lol.
Pretty much so, Bernie! There is no strictness in terms of what you log into your blog, although for the purpose of making money, it’s best to know what you are doing and know at least a bit how and where you want to direct your blog to.