What is a Blog?
What is a blog or how a blog even works? Do you have comprehensive knowledge about it? If not, you are fortunate to find this article, and if yes, then, too, this article surely will add some data to store up in your brain. So, I am deciphering every complex aspect present in blogs and blogging.
Today, at the moment itself, there are thousands of blogs created every day. Each day millions of blogs are created.
To know about blogs, let’s dig a bit into the history and the origin of it.
Origin
Jorn Barger first time introduced the term “Weblog” on 17th Dec 1997. Later on, Peter Merholz accidentally named his website as “blog” in 1999.
What is a Blog in 2020
It is a website mostly consisting of information or content in one niche. Almost all blog posts have informal text for the blog audience.
Important Terms Used in Blogging
AdSense-
If you know what a blog is, then you definitely know what Adsense is. Yes, it’s the thing that a blogger dreams of. Making money while sleeping, and this tool helps in that thing efficiently and accordingly. Google pays the money to the bloggers to show ads! You get money either in terms of pay-per-click(PPC) or Cost-per-mille. Did you notice something?
Yes, you are correct that mile spelling is wrong, and it is because that is mille in Spanish, which gives a meaning of thousand. And it means that the person or blogger will receive the money based on thousands of clicks.
Analytics-
The reports and the in-depth analysis that will help you to plan your strategies, improving them, and implementing new ones. Who do you think will provide the best analytics?
If you didn’t know, it’s Google themselves who are providing them, so why take others’ service if you directly get them from them.
Audience-
This term means visitors who follow and take interest in your blog. And regularly read your blog posts.
Blog farm-
It means that a particular website has some links which mainly serve the purpose of leading to other content.
Google’s advanced algorithms, search filters, and modern SEO tactics have made it ineffective.
Content Remarketing-
This strategy is usually used by online business owners which help them to convert regular readers to their business client.
And it is essential in today’s world where everything is online!
Conversion rate-
This is most likely the term that you have heard the most. It is a measure to calculate the success of your website’s certain things. Such as signing up for free templates, signing up for newsletters, signing up for free ebook, etc.
The more the conversion rate, the better it is for you.
Direct traffic-
This is the most crucial element you will run in your whole blogging career.
The more the direct traffic, the more the visitors, the more the visitors, the more the impressions of the ads. And hence, the more the ads, the more the revenue.
Explaining in a simple form, it takes the shape of More direct traffic=More visitors to your webpage=More impressions of your ads=More revenue in your pocket
Deep links-
Deep links are usually for sending users to a specific app in the app store/play store/Windows store e.t.c. It is beneficial for the website viewers as they can save time by clicking on those links. It is a helpful strategy that improves the overall user experience.
Editorial calendar-
Bloggers who keep themselves attached to a schedule, use this. It also helps them to maintain their blog’s organic traffic by assisting them in preparing blog ideas and outlines for publishing.
Ebooks-
It is nothing more than a book distributed electronically and nowadays has a broad audience. Giving ebooks on your website for free can be a way to gain traffic.
Fisking-
This is about how a person, preferably a critic, disintegrates your articles by proving your facts false through a hypothesis.
Flame war-
This is unconventional and even abusive content in the comment or discussion section, which can get others evolved and start a fast argument.
Guest post-
When a blogger writes for another blogger to drive traffic ultimately to their website and increase the online presence. You call that post a guest post.
Gbcw-
Acronym for “Good Bye Cruel World!”. “When a member of a blog or forum disagrees with an argument and makes a decision to leave the blog or forum.”
Hyperlink-
This is the content on a website that is clickable and leads to another webpage. It is often in blue or other colors to distinguish from standard text.
HTML-
This is a way a document is written on a website to be displayed. Though nowadays, it is not necessary to learn HTML for blogging.
Index-
Indexing your webpages means adding your website to Google Search Index. Google has a record of all the websites; similarly, a book has an index on the last pages for all important terms. Only after you index your website, your blog will appear in search results.
Infographics-
These are some data in a visual form for making a blog post attractive.
Jargon-
These are some terms related to a specific field understood by only the natives of that group. People use it in technical writing but not in blogging. That is to ensure smooth flow and increase readability.
J-blog-
This is a specific blog with impressions of journalism.
Keywords-
Yet another essential term of blogging, which means some specific words which help you rank up on Google search results. Keywords refer to actual words that a user type in a Search engine.
Keyword Research-
A vital process of researching out the keywords.
Lead magnet-
This is useful for spreading your online presence. It is the gathering of visitors’ emails in order to give everybody some benefits such as free downloadable content.
Litblog-
Lit blog is the writing of blogs that are relevant or are directly about literature.
Mommy blog-
This type of blog is related to parental guidance or family.
Niche-
This is a term used to describe a particular topic on which your blog is all about.
Newsletter-
Newsletter is content that is sent to the subscribers by email directly and periodically.
On-page SEO-
These are the practices that you use to perform on your website to make sure your website is SEO optimized.
Off-page SEO-
It is doing those activities used to rank higher on the SERPs outside the website itself.
Photoblog-
A blog mainly made up of photos.
Podcasts –
Audio talk shows, which can be informative.
RSS –
It is a web feed that allows users to access updated content easily.
Retweets-
These are the tweets reposted on twitter.
SEO-
It stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” The most critical aspect of your blog, which helps you to gain traffic and get a higher ranking on Search engines.
Spam-
The practice of replicating the same message.
Traffic-
The count of visitors coming to your website.
Theme-
The appearance and personalization of your blog for user satisfaction.
UGC-
Acronym for user-generated content.
User interface-
The personalized appearance your visitor sees from his/her side.
Viral –
The things which are extremely popular or trendy on internet for a short time.
VA –
Acronym for virtual assistant.
White Hat SEO –
The ethical strategies of proper SEO implementation.
Webinar –
Online Video Conferences
Yoast-
An exceedingly simple, and awesome WordPress plugin for on-page SEO.
What is the current status of a blog?
So, now having understood all of this, let’s move on to the current state of blogs.
There are around 1.7 billion websites currently active. And together, they have contributed to over 600 million blogs—now that’s huge! So, you might question yourself—how do search engines keep track of what is happening, and why don’t they lag? Keep re
How does it work?
Actually, blogs are arranged in a reverse chronological manner—why?
So, the updated blogs or the edited blogs come to the top and show up to you. No one likes to see outdated content. Even Google can penalize the website for doing such things.
Now, let’s talk about that if there are so many websites, then how does Google manage it?
How does Google’s search engine algorithm work?
There are three steps in this complex process
- Crawling– Once you index your website, Google crawlers or bots crawl your webpages and perform a quick scan of your website. Crawling includes all visual and textual content, as well as the structure of your articles. Based on content updates and other factors, Google decides your webpage ranking in SERPs.
- Indexing– This is the process by which Google takes and understands your content. They follow the links which your website has. And it is officially stored in Googles’ Supercomputers!
- Ranking– This is the most complex part of the process. It is done in terms of keywords, backlinks, SEO, PPC, and all other things, which, if I explain it, will be really boring to read this article. If interested to know more details, visit this page.
What kind of blogs drives the most traffic?
Well, it depends on many factors of which some are:
- Quality- It is incredibly essential to make your blog rank higher on Google’s search results and drive organic traffic to boost your sales and leads.
- Spaced content-You is reading this right now, which means I have triggered some interest in you. But how did I do it? It’s simple yet effective and proficient—spaced out content.
It means that all of the content is well organized, has good formatting, and there is no stuffing in a paragraph that will do nothing except driving traffic away.
- This is simple and you can do it by writing in a conversational tone as your reader is your friend, but also you have to keep in mind that you are not too informal.
- Avoiding passive voices is another way to eradicate boringness and complexity from your content.
- Adding images to your blog is another way to make content engaging. If your blog doesn’t need any pictures—I would recommend at least adding one image before the text. It is a potential step to make your blog successful and engaging.
- Adding videos to your content can also act as a booster of your content.
- Lastly, avoiding plagiarism is the best way to prevent Google penalization, which can result in dropping your rankings on the search results and drowning your traffic.
- Focusing on the title that will display on the Google search results is another way for achieving success. You can use Moz.com to find what will be the SERP result, among many other tools. Always make sure that the title doesn’t have ellipses, which is due to long titles.
Shall you start Blogging?
Now that you know what a blog is all about, think about how many people with Smartphones actually stay online all day. And this is only going to increase in the future.
The short answer will be definitely—yes.
But if I answer in the long-form—although the number of advantages wins over the number of disadvantages. It will be worth mentioning them here.
Advantages of Blogging
There are numerous advantages of blogging, but the significant ones are as follows:
- It can help gain knowledge- Yes! You heard it right! Because whenever you blog about something, you research it. So, the content is engaging, and that process itself is a great way to build self-reliance and a good knowledge base.
- You can make money– This one is also true and is possible using AdSense, affiliate marketing e.t.c. But it is also to let you know that this is an extremely tedious and lengthy process. Hard work and experimentation is the key to success.
- There is no loss- Yes, this is the most serene privilege a man can enjoy in life, and by blogging, you get the chances to do it.
Disadvantages of Blogging
Many factors make blogging hard. The ways of starting a blog are like—doing absolutely nothing. But I’m going to highlight the disadvantages so that you can’t blame me afterward!
- You can’t be with fellow members– That’s a disappointing factor. Even, you get to meet people using social media; it isn’t enough.
- Maintaining a work schedule– This is a vital point to keep in mind while blogging. Most of the people when they start to work alone as a blogger. Don’t adhere to the schedule and subsequently become lazy to work, which has severe impacts on their business, and they can’t even think of it.
- Proper updating of blogs while you’re ill or not have access to workstation– This is the most intimidating reason as the work you have already put in it will be in ashes. You will lose organic traffic, money, and the limited growing reputation among the few bloggers in your niche as they want to search for a product or service that they are looking for using their phone.
And as you can’t update content, you lose the game!
The deduction about Blogging and Blogs in and after 2020
Blogging and blogs are just developing like us. As we develop, they walk with us and grow. And without any uncertainty, it can be said that blogging is going to unleash and transform into something even more awesome.
The blogosphere has already seen many changes in its course to arrive at this point and will definitely see more in the future.
Each minute, thousands of bloggers upload content so that this will happen, and without any doubts—information overload will happen. That will force Google and other search engines to change their search algorithms and the ranking process even more rigid to eradicate “poor content or average content.”
And after that, what will happen?
The answer: Obviously, the best blogs with the best content will be shown on the search results and drive the sub-par content to shift to the pages beyond them—although it happens now, in the future, it is only going to increase tremendously—and as nobody sees those contents the bloggers then will retire. And of course, this has a severe impact.
Nonetheless, to say you have to consider many things before entering the game—blogging will never change; what will change is bloggers and the era, but blogging will stay.
Finally, I hope now you understand what a blog is, the important terms, how it works, its a perfect time to start blogging.
