Essential Features to Look for in Blogging Platforms
If you’re looking to start a blog, the first and most important step is to choose the right platform. Whether you want to build an audience, monetize your content, or showcase your portfolio, the platform you pick can make all the difference.
As a beginner, you’ll want a blog hosting platform that’s simple and user-friendly yet powerful enough to grow with you. But with so many options out there, how do you choose the perfect one?
In this article, we’ll cover the top features you need to look for in a blogging platform, compare popular options like WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix, and discuss the benefits of hosting with a dedicated provider.
Choosing the Right Blogging Platform: What to Consider
From cost and customization to control and scalability, each of these elements plays an important role in the success and growth of your blog:
Price
Balancing cost with features is crucial when selecting a blogging platform. While there are plenty of free and cheap options available, not all of them offer comprehensive tools or flexibility.
If you’re a beginner, you’ll want to prioritize your budget, but also keep in mind that you may need to upgrade as your blog grows. Look for platforms that offer scalable pricing options, so you can adjust your plan as needed without breaking the bank.
Themes and Templates
By choosing a responsive and professional-looking theme, you can make a great first impression on your readers.
Setting up your website is much easier if you have access to pre-built themes and templates. Instead of starting from scratch, you just need to choose a theme that fits your niche and customize it to match your branding. Platforms that offer a wide range of customization options, including the ability to change colors, fonts, and layouts, will be your best bet.
When your blog grows, you may need to add new pages or sections. Being able to reuse templates simplifies this process, allowing you to maintain a consistent look and feel across your site.
Content Editor
The content editor is where you’ll spend most of your time creating and formatting your blog posts, so choose a platform with a reliable editing system.
WordPress is a popular choice for its user-friendly editor that’s perfect for beginners and experienced bloggers. With a wide range of formatting options and customization features, WordPress makes it easy to create engaging and visually appealing content.
Storage
When you start blogging, you’ll need plenty of storage for all your multimedia content. That’s why it’s important to choose a platform that offers scalable storage options so you can upgrade your blog’s storage capacity without having to switch to a different platform.
To ensure scalability, opt for a platform that offers Solid-State Drive (SSD) and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage options. These types of storage offer faster performance, which can help your blog load faster and improve the user experience.
Security Features
To protect your content and your readers’ information from threats like data breaches and malware, you’ll need to adopt some essential security measures.
For starters, a free Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is a must-have for every blogger. This certificate encrypts the data between your blog and your readers’ devices, ensuring that any sensitive information is protected.
Another essential security feature is protection against DDoS attacks, which can overwhelm your blog with bot traffic, causing it to crash or become unavailable. By having security measures in place to prevent DDoS attacks, your blog remains accessible, even during high-traffic periods.
Security features also play a crucial role in building trust with your readers. If your blog isn’t secure, it can damage your reputation and discourage readers from visiting your site.
SEO Features
Once your blog is live, you might find yourself wondering how to attract the right visitors. That’s where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in.
SEO is all about optimizing your blog to rank higher in search engine results, which can bring you more traffic. But SEO can be a bit tricky to navigate, especially for beginners.
That’s why you should choose a blogging platform that offers SEO features, such as customizable meta tags, SEO-friendly URLs, and sitemap generation. These features can help you optimize your blog for search engines and improve your visibility online.
Scalability
When you start a blog, there’s no way to tell how much it’ll grow or how much traffic it might receive. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose blog hosting platforms that prioritize scalability and can easily accommodate more traffic as you grow.
Opting for scalable hosting solutions means you’ll never have to worry about website downtime or losing visitors due to other technical issues.
Extensions and Integrations
Extensions and integrations can really take your blog to the next level, as they allow you to add new features and functionality.
One of the great things about platforms like WordPress is their vast ecosystem of plugins. These plugins cover every functionality you can imagine, from SEO and analytics to eCommerce and social media. Some useful plugins for bloggers include:
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- Jetpack: Optimize site speed, bolster security, and enhance your blog’s functionality with features like improved search capabilities, social media sharing, and customizable content delivery.
Analytics
Analytics offer valuable insights into your audience’s behavior, giving you the power to make data-driven decisions about your content strategy.
By using analytics to track your blog’s performance, you can identify trends and patterns using real-time data, such as which types of content are most popular and which times of day your audience is most active.
Many blogging platforms, including WordPress, provide robust analytics support and integrations, allowing you to track your blog’s performance easily.
Monetization Tools
Monetizing your blog can be a great way to earn income from your content. For instance, you can display ads on your blog to earn money based on clicks or impressions, or collaborate with brands to create paid posts.
One of the most straightforward ways of monetizing your website is to set up an eCommerce store. For example, if you’re using WordPress, you’d achieve this by installing the WooCommerce plugin, which integrates with various payment gateways and other extensions. This way, you can easily sell products and services directly from your website and set up different pricing structures, such as one-time payments and subscriptions.
Exploring the Top Blogging Platforms
To help you find the perfect platform for your blogging needs, we’ve put together a list of the best blogging platforms and highlighted their unique features.
WordPress
WordPress Homepage
WordPress is a popular platform for bloggers of all skill levels. Its extensive range of themes, plugins, and customization options cater to various blogging needs, making it a versatile choice for building a WordPress site. Additionally, the platform’s large community provides constant support and updates.
Top features:
- Extensive Plugin Library: Enhance your blog’s functionality, security, and design with a wide range of plugins.
- SEO Tools: Boost your blog’s visibility in search engine results.
- Blogging-Specific Themes: Choose from a variety of professional-looking themes designed specifically for blogging.
- Community Support: Seek help and guidance from a large community of users whenever you need it.
- Easy Content Management: Manage your blog’s content with ease, thanks to WordPress’ user-friendly interface.
Drupal
Drupal Homepage
Drupal is the top choice for bloggers who need advanced customization. Although it may have a steeper learning curve than other platforms, developers favor Drupal for its scalability and adaptability, making it ideal for large projects and growing blogs.
Top features:
- Advanced Content Management Capabilities: Use Drupal’s powerful tools to manage your blog’s content with ease.
- Customizable User Permissions: Collaborate with multiple authors by adjusting user permissions to suit your needs.
- Scalability for Growing Blogs: As your blog grows, Drupal manages high traffic volumes without affecting performance.
- Robust Security Features: Protect your blog with advanced security features and enjoy peace of mind.
Joomla
Joomla Homepage
Joomla strikes a balance between WordPress’s ease of use and Drupal’s complexity. It’s perfect for bloggers wanting more flexibility than what WordPress provides but without diving into Drupal’s intricacies. With its user-friendly interface and strong community support, Joomla is a reliable choice.
Top features:
- Flexible Content Management System (CMS): Easily manage your blog’s content, thanks to Joomla’s versatility.
- Built-In Blogging Features: Enjoy convenient blogging features right out of the box.
- Customizable Templates: Joomla offers thousands of high-quality templates so you can create attractive designs without touching a single line of code.
- Multilingual Support: Reach a wider audience with built-in multilingual capabilities.
- Powerful User Management Options: Manage multiple users with ease and control.
Wix
Wix Homepage
Wix is famous for its drag-and-drop simplicity, making it perfect for beginners or those who aren’t as familiar with technical aspects. It offers a variety of stunning templates and integrated features, simplifying the process of setting up a blog. However, keep in mind that its customization options are more limited compared to other platforms.
Top features:
- Intuitive Drag-and-Drop Editor: Wix’s user-friendly interface makes it a breeze to edit your blog’s layout, fonts, colors, and imagery.
- Integrated Blogging Tools: Use Wix’s built-in tools to share your content on social media and automatically notify your email subscribers when you post.
- SEO Features: Boost your blog’s visibility and reach the right people with advanced SEO tools built directly into your site.
- Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your blog looks great on all devices.
- Reliable Hosting Services: Wix offers advanced security monitoring, automatic setup, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Squarespace
Squarespace Homepage
Known for its beautiful designs and user-friendly interface, Squarespace is a great choice for bloggers who value aesthetics and want a polished, professional-looking website without having to worry about the technical details. However, you may find its customization options are more limited than other platforms.
Top features:
- Stunning Templates: Take your pick from a variety of customizable templates designed specifically for blogging.
- Integrated Analytics: Get insights into who’s visiting your blog and how it’s performing with built-in analytics.
- Social Sharing Features: Share your content on social media with ease.
- eCommerce Functionality: Monetize your blog by offering custom merchandise, creating subscriber-exclusive content, and selling digital services.
- 24/7 Customer Support: Get help whenever you need it with Squarespace’s reliable customer support.
Weebly
Weebly Homepage
Similar to Wix, Weebly is an easy-to-use platform that offers a drag-and-drop functionality. It’s perfect for beginners and small-scale bloggers who prioritize simplicity and ease of use over advanced features. However, it’s not as flexible or customizable as other platforms.
Top features:
- Drag-and-Drop Website Builder: Customize your blog easily by dragging elements like text, images, and videos onto your page and dropping them exactly where you want them.
- Blogging Features: Schedule posts and engage with your audience through commenting options.
- Integrated SEO Tools: Improve your blog’s visibility and reach the right people.
- Mobile-Responsive Designs: Ensure your blog looks great on all devices.
- Reliable Hosting Services: Weebly’s free, dedicated hosting infrastructure ensures that your site loads fast and gives visitors a great experience.
Ghost
Ghost Homepage
Ghost is a minimalist platform designed specifically for bloggers and publishers. Its clean interface and focus on content make it perfect for writers who want to prioritize their writing without getting distracted by complex features.
Top features:
- Markdown Support: Write without distractions using Markdown.
- Email Newsletter Features: Grow your email list with built-in newsletter tools.
- Membership and Subscription Options: Monetize your blog with membership and subscription options.
- Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) support: Improve your blog’s loading times.
- Automatic Content Backups: Keep your content safe with automatic backups.
Substack
Substack Homepage
Compared to other blogging platforms, Substack is a unique choice because it’s mainly designed for newsletter publishing. With its straightforward setup and integrated payment options, Substack is perfect for bloggers who want to monetize their content through email subscriptions. However, it doesn’t let you customize your website like other blog hosting sites.
Top features:
- Integrated Payment Processing: Easily monetize your content through subscription-based payments.
- Customizable Email Newsletter Templates: Engage your readers with professional-looking newsletters.
- Audience Engagement Analytics: Track your newsletter’s performance and audience engagement.
- Content Gating: Offer premium content to paying subscribers.
- Social Media Integration: Share your content easily on social media platforms.
Why WordPress is the Recommended Choice for Most Bloggers
While you can’t go wrong with any of the platforms we’ve covered above, WordPress is the ideal choice for most people, especially beginner bloggers. It offers the best balance of features, affordability, and user-friendliness compared to WordPress alternatives like Drupal and Joomla.
Here are a few reasons why WordPress is the best platform for beginners and experienced bloggers alike:
- Blog-Specific Themes: A blog’s design is the first thing that captures a reader’s attention, so you’ll want to ensure it looks good. WordPress offers a wide variety of customizable, high-quality themes specifically designed for blogging. You can even design your own theme by selecting patterns to create your homepage layout and pairing it with premium colors and fonts.
- Vast Plugin Ecosystem: WordPress offers thousands of free plugins to enhance your blog’s functionality and improve the user experience. From anti-spam protection to SEO optimization, there’s a plugin for almost every need. Plus, you have the option to purchase premium plugins for even more advanced features.
- Native Gutenberg Editor: WordPress’ intuitive Gutenberg block editor makes it easy to create and format your content, even if you don’t have any technical experience. You can personalize every aspect of your blog to suit your preferences.
WordPress Gutenberg Editor
The Role Your Hosting Provider Plays in Your Blogging Set-Up
While blogging platforms like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace automatically host your website, others like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla require a separate hosting solution. This means you’ll need to buy a plan from a hosting provider, which will offer allocated server space to install your preferred blog hosting platform and set up your website.
Though this might seem like an extra step, it’s actually an advantage, and it’s one of the reasons why we recommend choosing platforms like WordPress.
Hosting providers specialize in optimizing server performance, ensuring fast page loading times, reliable uptime, and robust security measures. By hosting your blogging site with a reputable provider, you can get effortless integration, automatic updates, and dedicated support, freeing you from technical hassles and allowing you to focus on creating content.
When you choose a hosting provider, you also get additional features and services tailored to bloggers, such as one-click software installation, domain registration, SSL certificates, automated backups, and advanced analytics tools. These features streamline the blogging process, enhance site functionality, and improve user experience, which contribute to the success and growth of your blog.
Another major consideration is scalability. As your blog grows, you’ll begin to receive more traffic, and your website should be able to handle it. Using a hosting provider with tiered plans ensures that bloggers can scale their resources up or down as required, ensuring that the blog can handle increased traffic without experiencing downtime or slow loading speeds.
“Hosting is a vital aspect of blogging that should not be overlooked. A reliable hosting provider can make a world of difference in terms of site speed, security, and user satisfaction.”
– Corey Hammond, A2 Hosting
Host Your Blog with A2: Premium Hosting at Beginner-Friendly Prices
A2 Hosting Blog Hosting Page
With A2 Hosting, you can bring your blog to life without worrying about the technical details.
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced blogger, our shared web hosting plans are more than powerful enough to meet your needs, and they start at extremely low prices. If you’re set on using WordPress as your CMS, consider our managed WordPress hosting, which includes pre-installed WordPress and various WordPress-specific features such as the A2 Optimized plugin, which offers features such as CAPTCHA, image compression, and caching.
Take a look at some of our standout features:
- Blazing-Fast Speed: Our Turbo Server options offer faster loading times, which are crucial for your blog’s success and SEO ranking. While new bloggers may not need a Turbo plan right away, it’s a great upgrade for sites experiencing high traffic.
- Always Reliable: We offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, so you can count on us to ensure your blog is always accessible to your readers.
- User-Friendly Dashboards: We make managing your blog a breeze. With cPanel offered on all managed plans, you can easily manage your emails, domains, and software installations. You also get a proprietary dashboard called TurboHub, which allows you to check your site health, get personalized recommendations to optimize your site, and manage plugins.
- Regular Security Updates: We offer free SSL certificates to help you build trust with your readers, and we regularly update our servers with the latest security patches to protect your blog against potential threats and vulnerabilities.
And, if anything goes wrong, our 24/7/365 in-house Guru Crew will be on hand to support you.
One of our satisfied customers, Jairo A., said, “The customer service at A2 Hosting is amazing. Whenever I have a question, I can find the answer within minutes. The experience has always been pleasant, and I can’t recall a time when my server was down or had a problem. My website has always been up and running even in the middle of an outage, something none of my other competitors can do.”
Ready to start your blogging journey? Check out A2 Hosting’s blog hosting solutions today!
Blog Hosting Platforms FAQs
Can you make money as a blogger?
Absolutely! Many bloggers earn a living through their blogs by monetizing with ads, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, or selling their own products or services. It takes time and effort to build a successful blog, but with dedication and a clear strategy, it’s possible to make a profit.
What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?
At their core, both are blogging Content Management Systems (CMS), but there are distinct differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform that offers more customization and flexibility, while WordPress.com is a fully-hosted platform that’s easier to get started with but has limited features. With WordPress.org, you have more control over your blog’s design, functionality, and monetization options.
Which platform is best for blogging?
The best blogging platform will depend on your specific needs and goals. WordPress is a popular choice due to its flexibility, customization options, and a large community of users and developers. Other options include Wix, Squarespace, and Ghost.
What is the best website to host a blog?
WordPress powers more than 40% of websites, so it’s a highly recommended choice. To host a WordPress blog, you’ll need to choose a hosting provider that offers reliable and secure hosting services.
With A2 Hosting, you can pick between shared web hosting and managed WordPress hosting. Managed WordPress hosting is a great choice if your site receives a lot of traffic and you prefer a hands-off approach to backend management.
Are there free blog hosting sites?
Yes, there are free blog hosting sites like Blogger, Medium, and WordPress.com. However, these platforms have limitations in terms of customization, monetization, and control over your blog’s design and functionality. A2 Hosting offers affordable hosting plans that provide more control and flexibility, as well as the ability to monetize your blog and grow your audience.
What blog platform has the most traffic?
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform and has a large community of users and developers. This means that there are more resources and plugins available to help you optimize your blog for search engines and drive traffic to your site.
A2 Hosting offers managed WordPress hosting plans that make it easy to set up and manage your self-hosted WordPress blog. Our hosting plans are also optimized for WordPress to ensure fast loading times and reliable performance.
