What Are Blogs?
The weblog, or ‘blog’, became a prevalent internet phenomenon beginning in the mid-1990s and began by evolving from online journal entries with which individuals would update their personal websites. With the growing trend of these websites came services and tools that would allow users to create the type of streamlined web pages needed for what we have come to understand as blogs today. Blogger, one of the original browser-based blogging services, emerged in 1999 and was soon after bought by Google in 2003, with the world-dominant WordPress appearing that same year.
Blogs differ from traditional websites in a manner that reflects their primary function of presenting regularly updated content to a public audience. Where a traditional website will generally feature a landing page with a series of links leading to sub-pages, the blog will typically have all information on a single page. It’ll typically be in reverse chronological order too, allowing for the public to view the most recently posted update first.
As our ever more web-savvy society moves further into the 21st century, the blog has evolved further still. But for all its purposes, the core function of the blog remains unchanged since its inception.
What Is Blog Hosting?
Without a web hosting service providing a server there is no route to getting a website published online, and this includes blogs. There are providers, however, that offer not only the necessary web hosting but hosting that is specifically designed towards keeping the crucial technical elements of a blog’s success running at high performance. The right blog web hosting provider can manage the maintenance and upkeep of the practical aspects of the server, permitting the blogger to focus their efforts on the production of content for their audience.
Why do You Need Blog Hosting?
Most blog web host providers are salient of the fact that the vast majority of the customers using their service are not programmers or developers. To that end, blog host providers design their packages to take the maintenance of the server and blogging platform out of the hands of the customer and into the capable hands of the host’s managerial services. This allows those great many users that are not experts in this field to focus on using the blog for its intended purpose of providing content. In a similar vein, the blog web host providers will employ features that allow for the accessible construction of a blog’s desired presentation and function. Drag and drop builder tools, one-click installation and the option to upgrade and scale with the success of the blog features are essential for those users that are unfamiliar with the world of coding and PHP scripting support is a robust system for those that are.
A significant facet of a successful blog, regardless of its subject, is its branding. With a blog web host provider, a user will have the freedom to create their own brand domain name that they will completely own and the importance of this is two-fold. Firstly, the brand is not attached as a vestigial façade to a larger corporate brand as is the case with free blogging platforms. This cheapens the brand with a presentation of dependence and unprofessionalism and, furthermore, can allow the blog to become lost in the multitude of similarly registered blogs under the umbrella of the parent platform. Lastly, owning a blog allows for the option of running advertisements, turning the blog into a potential source of income, with all capital generated being supplied to the owner of the domain and not a hosting platform.
What are the Benefits of Blog Hosting?
- Applicable tools and features: Blog host providers kit out their packages with the best tools to create a successful blog. Security measures are covered with free SSL certificates, visibility optimization is included with SEO tools and everything a user needs to construct their blog as efficiently as possible with the script installation and page building tools. Unlimited bandwidth in addition to these features makes specialist blog hosting the superior choice for a potential blogger.
- Server management: To keep a blog visible and available with the necessary performance required, your service provider is performing an enormous amount of technical work behind the curtain. This management included in blog host packages means that your server is optimized for performance, speed, and protection, with automatic software updates to keep things running smoothly.
- Scalability: Blog web host providers have packages that can accommodate any size of blog and their traffic. Beginners to blogging and those starting out at building their brand can enjoy the cost-effective freedom of shared hosting, while those with an established brand can seamlessly upgrade their packages as their traffic increases, to dedicated servers or VPS with no loss of Google rankings.
What Factors to Consider for Blog Hosting?
- Loading Speed: The typical internet user in 2020 expects the average webpage to load in just three seconds before abandoning it, with 53% of the users never returning. Customers will wish to choose a provider that utilizes wide-reaching CDN networks to have data loaded efficiently based on the user’s location, along with solid-state memory drives for the best storage potential.
- Is it Viable for Users with no Programming Knowledge: The presentation and design of a blog are going to be the first thing a user considers after the time it took to load the page. If you have no coding experience, there are plenty of blog host providers out there that have integrated the tools to allow for the desired construction of an attractive and ergonomic website. The best providers will make these processes as simple as possible for the user.
- Price: There are a great many options for blog hosting providers on the market so a prospective customer should not pick the first host that they come across. The customer should view all the features, storage, performance and building-applications that are offered by as many blog hosts as possible before narrowing them down with the price. With such an expensive and competitive market, a good blog host package can be afforded relatively cheaply.