In the past, people often wrote in diaries to tell their daily lives. However, since the internet access is everywhere, people have started to switch to using blogs as a substitute for diaries. But does you know what a blog is?
Blog is an abbreviation of web log which means a website application in the form of writings (or posts ) on a website page. The posts on this blog are usually arranged with the most recent posts recently published. Initially, blogs were used for personal use, such as telling experiences, traveling, writing hobbies and some. But now the blog has many kinds such as blogs traveling , politics, community, lifestyle , beauty, fashion , literature, food , automotive , and many more. Blogs are also loved by all ages.
Blogs are not only active for personal needs but have been used as a business field by many bloggers (a term for blog users). There have been many business owners who have used this platform to promote their brands. Blogs that were once managed by one individual are now being used together to achieve the target audience of visitors .
Due to the popularity of blogs that can be used by everyone, in Indonesia there is such a thing as National Blogger Day. National Blogger Day was first coined by the Minister of Communication and Information Technology on October 27, 2007 at the opening of Pesta Blogger that year. After four years later in 2011, Pesta Blogger turned into an On Off Indonesia (OnOffID) event. Until now, this event is still celebrated by bloggers in Indonesia.
There are several blog platforms that are quite well known in Indonesia, namely Blogspot and WordPress. These two blogging platforms have their own advantages that have made these two services popular.
Blogspot
Blogspot or Blogger was launched in 1999 which was formerly owned by Pyra Labs before being acquired by Google in 2003. Blogspot is hosted by Google under the subdomain .blogspot.com . This blog, which is famous for its iconic orange color, was once widely used in Indonesia because of its free, simple and easy to use service especially for beginners. This platform is also the right choice for bloggers who don’t want to pay for hosting and still don’t know how long it will take to be blogging.
WordPress
While WordPress is an open source application ( open source ) which is used as a blog engine ( blog engine ). WordPress is built with a programming language and database. WordPress itself was created in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. WordPress has several versions, namely WordPress.com and WordPress.org. There are also free WordPress and some pay for complete features. The majority of those who use WordPress are people who own businesses, companies or professional bloggers.
These two platforms compete with each other because they are used most often. But over time, Blogspot began to be displaced by the presence of several other blogging platforms such as WordPress which were much better in performance and functionality. There are many shortcomings of Blogspot that make it difficult for users. Nowadays, people rarely use blogspot for several reasons and switch to using other platforms that are more compatible.
10 Reason You Should Not Use Blogspot Anymore for Blogging
To that end, we summarize some of the reasons people are turning away from Blogspot. Here are 10 reasons why you should leave blogspot now. Check out the following article
1. Simple Display and Limited Customization
Blogspot is user friendly and suitable for beginners. Therefore, the tools options offered by Blogspot are fewer than other blog platforms . Therefore, users are not free to explore creating content on Blogspot.
Blogspot by default only provides a set of templates which are very simple and limited to use. Blogspot users can still change colors but cannot create a unique layout that is customized as desired. Also, Blogspot users cannot add blog logos or favicons to the blog header. This basically removes all Blogspot blogs from any identification and personalization.
If you don’t understand HTML, CSS or are not a web developer , then you will find it difficult to adjust the appearance of Blogspot to make it pleasing to the eye. There are several non-official Blogspot templates that can be used but they are low quality with limited customization . This makes the appearance of Blogspot very simple and similar to other Blogspot users without striking uniqueness. Again, this feature fails to meet the needs of those looking to build a brand or blog owner identity.
2. Less professional and considered amateur
The Blogspot platform provides free services compared to several other platforms such as the example of WordPress. Since the platform is free, Blogspot is associated with amateur blogs. For those of you who want to make money with blog intermediaries, Blogspot is not recommended to use because you cannot manage your own domain. This platform allows it not to attract the target market we need because of its domain name. By default, the domain name from Blogspot is the site name.blogspot.subdomain (for example, matob.blogspot.com). This looks less professional. Conversely, a company looking to establish its brand as a serious competitor buys your own custom domain and website hosting.
Blogspot is also considered an amateur because as explained in the first point that it looks very simple and similar to other users. Blogspot will be less competitive if you are looking to use blogs to promote your brand . Because a business blog must be unique and different from its competitors in order to attract attention.
3. Less than optimal SEO and backlinks
Even though Blogspot has been acquired by Google but Blogspot doesn’t rank well on search pages. Google ranks the top based on several factors such as content quality, domain authority and SEO optimized. One that affects SEO is backlinks. Backlinks are a very influential source of traffic for blogs. Not only directing visitors to your blog but also as a key to Google’s assessment of your blog.
However, because the blog’s domain name is almost similar, which by default uses the automatic one using .blogspot.com, it makes it difficult for visitors to distinguish each blog name. Finally, bloggers are increasingly skeptical of linking backlinks .
In addition, Blogspot actually made a major update in 2011, namely the Blogspot Dynamic View . However, Dynamic Views are not SEO friendly. Google spider can only read text only. They cannot fully detect images, videos, flash and javascript. Furthermore, comments on Blogspot are hidden unless clicked. Comments are hidden by the Google Spider which makes it less likely to detect a lot of content in a Blogspot comment which could be that the comment might include keywords. Though these comments can increase traffic to the blog.
4. Forget Content Ownership
Blog content has both sentimental and monetary value. This becomes a personal thing for the individual or company that manages the blog. Perhaps the most important consideration when managing a blog is control over its content. Every user must have signed the rules or terms when signing up . This means that we have to follow the rules of Blogspot if we want to have a blog.
Indeed, the content that you post on Blogspot is content created by you, but it is not yours. That’s because your content is on Blogspot which is automatically on Google. Google has the right to shutdown your content by removing your content deemed out of the line (violating) in an instant. Or Blogspot will turn off your access at any time. If you have this, users cannot do anything to restore lost content. Unlike WordPress, which can determine when you want to maintain your content at any time or decide to share it with a third party.
5. Little Image Storage
Images are an important factor that can support your blog’s content, attract the attention of visitors so that it can increase traffic to your blog. Articles with good writing, images and other multimedia elements such as audio and video can attract visitors’ attention to read and share.
But unfortunately Blogspot only offers 1GB storage for images which is very limited for your blogging needs. For some people, that kind of capacity is not enough because it is too small.
Actually Blogspot offers a paid option to upgrade to Google+ which will be stored in Google+ Photos. But Google+ began to be shut down effectively in 2019. Another way is to use your Google account which is directly integrated with Google Drive with a capacity of 15GB. If your blog content has a lot of pictures, you should avoid Blogspot and look for alternative blog platforms.
6. No Comment Control
The presence of comments is a big part of the success or failure of a blog. Comments can promote reader engagement, act as a source of topic ideas, generate valuable feedback , and leave positive or negative comments on your posts. As a result, maintaining control over your comment section is extremely important for serious bloggers.
On the Blogspot dashboard tab used for managing comments is very limited. To reply to comments, there is a comment option which specifies the length of the comment and the user is required to go to each post which makes users feel complicated because there is no comment management.
7. Lots of Spam Due to Lack of Plugins
Some people feel annoyed by spam piling up in the inbox . Most blogs that have comments enabled will be familiar with an inbox full of spam . Don’t be surprised if you are a Blogspot user, your inbox is full of spam . This is because Blogspot has limited tools and plugins . Blogspot does not have an anti-spam plugin that can be installed. Apart from comments, backlinks can also be spam which of course can annoy you. This is different from its competitors, namely WordPress.
WordPress offers users control over spam . Just log in as an administrator on WordPress, click on ‘plugins’ and search for ‘Stop Spammer plugin’ then install the plugin, your blog will be free from spam .
8. Character and Page Limitations
A blog, of course, has a personal or company profile page to introduce the blog’s identity. Blogs also include information that tells readers who the author is and why they want to share the information. Unfortunately, Blogspot has a drawback to this, namely limited character.
The ” about me ” section of the profile page is limited to 1200 characters only. Not only that, the ” info and hobbies ” section is only limited to 2000 characters. Not to mention the blog description is up to 500 characters long. This is a disadvantage of Blogspot with other competitors who want to convey many details to readers.
Not only are the characters limited, Blogspot also applies page limitations. Blogspot limits the page size to 1MB. It could be just because 1 image can take up page capacity. Even though the average content that ranks well on Google is over 1800 words.
To get around the limited capacity, Blogspot added an option, namely adding an unblocked page of text by dividing it between pages. But users are not allowed to register more than 100 posts on one page. Users can only create 20 pages on Blogspot. Of course it’s a hassle and you should leave Blogspot.
9. The Blogspot Via Mobile device is not good
Mobile apps are the best way to stay blogged anywhere and anytime without using a PC or laptop. We can share moments or add content or posts at any time, for example when traveling . Blogspot has an application that can be accessed via mobile. But the Blogspot application is arguably bad. The Blogspot application is considered slow loading and it is difficult to upload images that are not as simple as on the website when opening them on a PC. Many complained about this and decided to leave Blogspot.
10. No Significant Upgrades
Over time, technology is increasingly developing and sophisticated. This has led many people to upgrade their services and product capabilities to a higher version to take advantage of existing technological advances. Considerations for the future are the main determinants in making decisions. This includes determining whether you want to keep using Blogspot or switch to something else. The reality is that Blogspot isn’t doing a significant upgrade and fixing existing problems.
Many bloggers criticize Blogspot for not improving the quality of its systems and services. Blogspot also doesn’t have paid options to take advantage of more advanced functions like WordPress. Finally, many people don’t stick with Blogspot and switch to other, better-performing platforms.
Conclusion
There are many reasons why people start leaving blogspot because of several things: simple appearance and limited customization, less professionalism, lots of spam due to lack of plugins, less than optimal SEO and backlinks, not making money, forgetting content ownership, little image storage , there is no comment control, limited characters and pages, the Blogspot application via mobile is not good, and most importantly, there has been no significant upgrade to the Blogspot service in the past few years.
The choice is up to you to determine whether you want to stick with Blogspot or start switching to another blog platform that is better for the purposes of your blog.