Articles, blogs, content, as simple as ABC! Or is it?

With many people taking to the internet to showcase their vast writing skills, the edges between articles, blogs and other types of format have become slightly blurry, leaving audiences thinking, ‘So, what’s the difference anyway?’

There are, in fact, a lot of differences between the two content types. So sit back, relax, and allow me to explain.

A for Article

The main purpose of an article is to provide in-depth information that will educate the audience thoroughly about a particular topic or idea – this is why they are normally written by professionals/workers in a particular field, who have spent countless hours researching their chosen area of study. For this reason, they are normally a lot more formally written than blogs and can be found in journals and online databases. Articles normally work with facts, and therefore primarily feature data rather than fancy images. Due to their length of over 1,000 words, articles are not easy to skim through while maintaining a high level of understanding. Articles have sometimes also been referred to as ‘long-form content’, which I suppose does seem an accurate way of describing it, and an easy way of remembering the difference between the two.

B for Blog

Blogs are almost the opposite of articles – they aim to deliver lots of information without getting into excessive detail. With a much shorter word count of around 500 words, blogs don’t have the space for the extensive data that articles do, however they do include a small amount of this. Blogs are normally written in first person, and are normally more intriguing and chatty than the formal articles. There will most likely be images that accompany the post, as these visuals often help to keep the reader engaged.

C for Content

To summarise, the content of both articles and blogs work towards the same goal of informing an audience, however the routes they take are slightly different.

See blogs as the every day, and articles as the ‘every once in a while’. This is how you will be able to decide which is most appropriate for the content – the C word – that you are wanting to get out there.

It’s important that you don’t just throw up content on your site that doesn’t bring value to your readership. Quality is key, and that’s why you should look to primarily utilize blog posts, and create articles where you feel it is absolutely necessary.

And there you have it – as simple as ABC. Now, gather your ideas, get online and give your content the platform that it deserves.