My personal website has been a live testament of juggling between WordPress and Blogger. Eventually, I decided to stay with Blogger. One might ask why did I do so? I have certain reasons for choosing Blogger.
First let us discuss Blogger and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In the publishing world, the articles and products require strong SEO performance to enhance the visibility of their blogs or businesses. The collective experiences of numerous individuals indicate that Google's Blogger/Blogspot seems to offer limited prospects in terms of technical SEO capabilities compared to other platforms. For instance, WordPress allows the installation of plugins that aid in SEO endeavors.
However, over the recent years, people's perceptions regarding Blogger and websites hosted on this platform have begun to shift. This change arises from the fact that numerous blogs hosted on Blogger now secure prominent rankings on the initial page of SERPs (search engine results pages).
In my case, I've started this experimental website with a small bunch of readers. I wanted to give myself a chance to 1) write about my personal interests and 2) navigate the learning curve of codes, designs, and SEO. That's why I went ahead and picked good old Blogger as my blogging CMS (content management system). As stated earlier, I have finally settled with Blogger platform after trying out WordPress at times. I am also hopeful that Google will continue the development of Blogger as a competent platform in the universe of equally appealing publishing platforms.
Pros and Cons of Blogger
First and foremost pro dimension is that Google offers free cloud storage of 15 GB to its individual customers. Users of Google's Blogger platform can conveniently accommodate their Blogger site within this big space. On top of this, Google offers global distribution of Blogger-based content through its own CDN. This ensures fast-loading of Blogger-hosted sites.
Unlike Medium- another popular blogging platform, Google offers free linking of Blogger-based website with custom domain, that too with free SSL. Finally, you get unlimited bandwidth. Should you have enormous traffic to your Blogger-based website, the unmetered bandwidth offered by Google's Blogger platform will alwayts keep your site up and running.
On the negative side, first complaint that many people have been making is that they do not find freedom of installing plugins for SEO and other functionalities mostly based on database. Being notorious on ever changing policy and terms of use, Google is blamed to have ruthless measures on its own products and even customers. Generally, people complain that Google may delete the websites that are deemed not complying to Google's terms.
Blogger does not offer freedom in choosing URL structure. So is the case when it comes to selecting the blogger themes. Most of the Blogger themes seem same and there are limited developers of the Blogger themes.
Since I've made up my mind to stick with the Blogger platform, I'll be keeping a close eye on its evolution. At the moment, I am leaning towards the brighter side of Blogger, finding it more advantageous than its drawbacks. I can even engage in a nice debate on the the points against Blogger and Blogspot.
Pros
- Free Cloud Storage
- The benefit of Google's CDN
- Can Connect with Custom Domain
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- HTTPS Availability
Cons
- Overly Sophisticated Terms and Conditions of Google
- Non-ability to Install Plugins
- Lack of Freedom in URL Structure
- Mandatory Google Account
- Virtually Non-existent Competitive Themes/Front-end Industry
Ever since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, young bloggers worldwide have once again embraced the advantages offered by the Blogger platform. The themes they choose for their blogs reflect a gradual shift in perspectives regarding websites and blogs. For instance, publishers have now placed more emphasis on lightweight user interfaces (UI) without compromising on SEO capabilities. You may want to explore free Blogger themes and top Blogger themes should you be interested in trying one of those for your Blogger-based blog/website.
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