In the past two days I have had two separate clients ask me whether or not they should switch from Blogger to WordPress. Coming back from conferences to which they heard information regarding how WordPress is the best blogging platform right now, it’s no wonder there is some confusion and bloggers only want what is best for their site.
Reasons Blogger is Better than WordPress and Why Switching can actually hurt you in the long run!
- Blogger is free
- No paid hosting
- 99.9% up time
- Blogger does it’s own SEO you are in good hands
- No plugins to break your site
- Google indexes Blogger blogs faster than any other on the Internet
- You can advertise on Blogger the same as on WordPress
- Blogger themes have come a long way
Now I know you are reading this and saying… “Um mm Jodi aren’t you on WordPress?” And of course I will reply yes I am. Why? Because at heart I’m a designer and that is one area WordPress surpasses Blogger, ease and control over designing a site you want the way you want, without any limitation to get in the way.
Or are there?
Last week I had one plugin which I purchased blow up my site! I didn’t lose my posts (because I back up) which you can back up in blogger also. But this plugin caused me so much grief, I spent hours on the phone with my hosting provider and after two days my site was back and up and running.
Another thing I love about Blogger is how easy it is to use and manipulate. Sure WordPress looks great, but learning PHP and MySqL was a nightmare for me. Blogger still runs on basic HTML which is fantastic for me because I can do almost anything. And for those who say blogger doesn’t have themes that are as clean and professional as WordPress. I beg to differ.
Check these out!
http://www.downshiftingpro.com/
http://www.demo.bestbloggertemplates.net/2012/01/flexor-magazine-blogger-template.html
http://www.demo.bestbloggertemplates.net/2012/07/unite-blogger-template.html
http://www.demo.bestbloggertemplates.net/2012/02/elite-minima-blogger-template.html
Blogger has come a long way with its themes and more and more themes are being used without having to add extra SEO plugins or having to add your blog manually to a deposit to get recognized.
Am I saying WordPress sucks? Heck in a hand-bag I am not. I love using my own hosted WordPress Blog. I don’t like paying for hosting though and I don’t like that when WP updates it sometimes breaks your site. I hate that most themes are now costing us money, and that my blog doesn’t get indexed as fast.
What I’m saying is that if you are an established blogger, running product reviews and doing giveaways as many of us are. There is nothing wrong with staying with Blogger. There are many benefits for staying with Blogger and you won’t run the risk of losing your page rank or readers by making the switch which isn’t as easy as people think.
There are some things to consider though.
- Make sure you read and follow Blogger’s TOS so you don’t lose your blog. Blogger will delete you if you don’t.
- Make sure you use rel=”nofollow” if you are going to link out heavily or Google sees it as spam and of course this affects Blogger because Google cleans up their own backyard and is strict with their rules
- Higher a designer (LIKE ME LOL) to give your blog a much needed face-lift you want.
- Buy your own domain and ditch your blog-spot URL
They said in Field of Dreams … “If you build it they will come.”
Well that is not always the case. No matter how pretty your blog is, how much you love it, what platform you use doesn’t really matter as both have good and bad points. What matters is that you write quality content your readers will enjoy!
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I have to disagree. I used to be with blogger and I had SO many problems with them. They would lock me out for days at a time. The third time that happened I was like to heck with that and I switched to WordPress and I love it and I haven’t looked back.
I have a blogger account and have been happy with it. I did hire someone to do a make over because I wasn’t to keen on their templates, although they have come a long way. I also bought my own blog URL name. They one thing I do not like about blogger is when you reply to a comment, the reply doesn’t go directly to a persons email. Who wants to keep going back to a persons blog just to see if they replied to a comment??
Tami recently posted..Batten down the Hatches!
Actually there is a way with a hack Tami http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/2010/03/reply-button-option-blogger-comments.html check it out and if you need help adding it let me know.
I think Google provides a great platform for blogs through blogger. I have a blog on each platform and have been happy with both.
Just to clarify though – you don’t need to work with PHP or mySQL when you own your own hosted WP site. A lot of hosts provide WP pre-installed for you and it’s really not hard. So, if you want to change, this shouldn’t be a major purpose for concern.
One of my blogs I originally started on Blogger and moved almost right away. Why? Because of this:
“Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.
When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services….”
It seemed creepy to me to think that although the content is intellectually my property, Google could take it and use it for something else if they chose to. I don’t regret changing. I like all the extras and design features that I can get with WP.
That being said, I still run my personal blog through blogger. It works, its got a mobile version built in, they are increasing their extras all the time and making things much more designable. It’s perfectly useable and I like the simple user interface.
Great post Jodi. I agree – the switch isn’t necessary, doesn’t make you more “professional” or anything. You can always run a blogger blog with your own domain name and be just the same as anyone else.
Lisa Marie Fletcher recently posted..Pregnancy Update: 16 weeks
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us in a easy to read format. Someone asked me recently about switching and I gave my blanket answer “Not yet”. Now I can say it with certainty.
Besos, Sarah
Zookeeper at Journeys of The Zoo
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You’re welcome
I began using WordPress for a work project I was hired to do. It was confusing to use at first but I slowly got the hang of it (although I was not doing anything in depth that required knowledge of coding). I am familiar with HTML as I began creating websites from scratch back in the day when the Internet first came to our community. But as technology changes, my skills have faded.
I started my own personal blog just over a year ago using Blogger because I heard it was free. I find it a much more user-friendly platform than WordPress. I too think from time to time of switching to WP but it terrifies me of what could be lost, etc.
So, thank you for writing this post and reminding me that it is OK to stay put (at least for the time being!).
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Glad I could help Mamacita. Really it boils down to (for me) if you are running a big business and need lots of plugins to do things WP is better otherwise you are paying for hosting. Why not just use Blogger it’s free and owned by Google!
Always a plus.
As 1 of your 2 clients who through this question to you this morning, I am so glad you shared this as a blog post! I feel confident staying put with blogger you shared some amazing points and I have been doing some research myself! Bring on the blogger templates, I am looking forward to my re-vamp!
Thanks Jodi!
Tammy @inRdream
http://inRdream.com
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Me too Tammy, can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Thanks for writing this, Jodi. I’ve always assumed that “serious” bloggers all eventually move to WP, but you make some good points that this doesn’t necessarily need to be the case. Truth is, I’m quite comfy on Blogger myself and have yet to run across one or more really solid reasons for me (personally) to switch. So good to know I don’t “have to” and can still be taken seriously in the blogging world!
Side note – I may just be knocking at your door shortly as my design is definitely in need of an overhaul!
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Anytime hun.
I cannot thank you enough for this Jodi!!
I do believe you have spared me months of stress, worry and ringing of fingers.
I have just returned from the ShesConnected Conference in Toronto and it seems all the big and successful bloggers have WordPress or their own domain; while I sit here still on blogger. So of course I was debating the switch. I’m probably small enough that I could do the switch without losing much, but I like my current blogspot home.
I designed most of the site myself – took a lot of research and late night learning. I’m kind of proud of what I’ve done with it so far. (although I love, love your recent design over at Domesticated Momma!!) And naturally, my hubby feels the blogspot price is right – ha! So for right now, I am staying at my home sweet home. Maybe I will get my own domain eventually, but I think Blogger works just fine for me.
Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
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No worries Rory I appreciate it!
You did do a good job at your blog makeover!
Tami recently posted..Batten down the Hatches!
Thank you!
Again, thank you for becoming a folwoler. When you started your wordpress blog, were you able to copy all previous posts to it? I’m thinking about doing the same thing with Poems from the Heart’ blog. What is the easiest way getting started with WordPress? Please drop me a line at my email if you have time.. Take care,James Poems from the Heart blog
Thank you for being pro-blogger! I can agree with a lot of this as well. I actually started out on blogger and heard how great word press was etc etc so I switched over. Then realizing wordpress was not for me I ended up switching back and have not looked back. like you said wordpress has some features that may be appealing to some like designers but its at the end not for me.
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Such a great post! I have debated about switching from Blogger to WP, only because so many other people have. But in all honesty, it works great for me, is easy for me to use and I’ve really had no limitations thus far from using it. So why should I change a good thing right?
For now it works well for me, and we’ll see what the future holds!
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Over a year ago, I had someone start to move me to WP, and it was a disaster…because my blog is older and big. So much was lost. So, I made the decision to stay put. I am not very good with the back office stuff, so I think for me I am in the best spot possible.
I switched from Blogger to WordPress about 9 months ago. I’m very UN-savvy when it comes to anything computer related and It was quite an adjustment period. I miss some things about blogger, but all in all, once I settled in, I’m relatively happy with WordPress.
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I think I agree with you on this one, I have most to wp and havent seen any real advantage to using and I will forever regret the hundreds upon hundreds of comments lost and the 2000 subscribers that will never be found. so sad.
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Me too Jennifer. I regret switching at times. I lost so much my first year.
Finally someone who gives me good reason to stay with blogger. This is a fantastic post Jodi!!.
I have almost went with the masses a few times and switched to wordpress. After reading this post I am so darn thankful I haven’t. I am not at all a designer, I know nothing at all about sql or the designing code wordpress uses and I have always felt really comfortable with navigating blogger.
Thanks you cemented my decision to stay put where I am.
You rock.
Kev
Well you are welcome Kevin. I honestly believe you are doing okay with Blogger. I feel dumb honestly for switching because WP is a lot of work sometimes and Google makes it easier. It helps they own Blogger too