[AD]How Blogging Has Changed Over The Past 10 Years? (Brief Timeline)

It’s 2020, almost all of us are familiar with blogging. We even follow many bloggers through the ebbs and flows of their life. 

However, what not many of us know is that blogging is not at all a new trend. In fact, one can trace the history of blogging back to 1994. But at that time, it was referred to as a “personal homepage.” It was only in 1997 that the name “weblog” was created by John Barger for his personal blog, Robot Wisdom. The term is supposed to have been a simple mix of logging the web or “web + log.” 

A Short Recap

Over the years, the concept of blogging has progressed and expanded to become one of the top digital industries. Today, blogs are no longer merely a personal page, but they can give you an expert opinion on academic research papers. Like that from professional writers of https://essaypro.com/, or it can be your ultimate guide on technology. However, it has been almost a decade before blogging became so diverse. 

From the later 1990s to the early 2000s, blogging saw a hike in resources. When the programmer Peter Merholz decided to shorten the term weblog to blog, he might have never guessed how far the industry might grow. In 2002, the world saw the rise of bloggers like never before.

Currently, there are over 400 million Tumblr blogs and 60 million in WordPress, along with other platforms, making a total of over 600 million blogs on the web.

If you are curious about its evolution, walk down the memory lane with us, 

2010 – 2011, The Stagnation of the Blogging Phenomenon

After the hype in 2002 and the next few years, blogging had reached a stagnant point by 2009. There were no new trends in the industry. Google then released the Google Panda algorithm and the update wiped out blogs that Google deemed inadequate in content quality. This saw a dramatic decrease in blog website rankings.

2012, Medium Came to Existence

Evan Williams created the newest blogging platform Medium, which since then, has become a platform for decentralised content. The online publishing platform gave broad access to audiences and resources for both professional and upcoming writers.

It became one of the most prominent outlets for social journalists and bloggers to create unique voices for their creativity. Medium currently hosts a partnership program that pays writers based on the reading time for their content.

2013, Linkedin Introduced Pulse

Following medium, Linkedin also developed a publishing site to help users establish their voices in the professional fields. It began as a collection of articles offering valuable analysis and insight by professionals into the current economic, global, and political issues. Initially, the content was written by public figures and experts in respective industries to help the users find success in their business. 

By 2017, Pulse became a feature wall integrated into the news feed while users could continue to contribute. 

2015, Blogging in Content marketing 

By 2015, blogging has become not only a career choice but a favorite tool of all businesses. Blogging has grown to be a significant part of content marketing and brand awareness. Audiences started preferring blog content about products to advertisements. 

And as a result, every website and brand started dedicating an entire section to blogging for lead generation and audience engagement. According to statistics, sites with blog sections saw an increase in index pages by 434% in Google. Blogging took a massive leap from being personal websites to the realm of content creators.

2016, WordPress Launches .Blog

Though WordPress was released in 2003, it was only in 2016 that the platform started offering domain extension .blog to the list of possible URLs. So from that point, users could make their blogs more visible to the readers. Bloggers could distinguish themselves from generic extensions such as .com, .net, and .org. Users could also choose their own domain name along with the extension.

The best thing about .blog was that it was accessible to everyone, regardless of whether they have a WordPress site or not.

2017, Content Quality Revisited

Google released a series of algorithm updates in 2017 that significantly affected the SERP based on content quality and amount of advertisements. Relevant websites with refined content started getting more visibility. With blogging as a marketing tool, this encouraged bloggers to revamp their strategies.

Writers were spending 65% more time curating content, compared to 2014. Content quality was aimed to be ten times better than the best results. Marketers were able to drive nearly 49% more organic traffic by improving the quality of their content alone. 

2018- 2019, The Niche Expands

If blogs started as mere articles, by last year, bloggers were entrepreneurs in their own way. They started venturing out to start their product lines, ebooks, and create entire businesses based on their blogs. The sphere is continually expanding, and in fact, what blogging used to be is making way for the other interpretations. 

Vlogging and social media have had a considerable impact on the changing interests. Blogging is now focused on social networking than ever before. 

2020, Now and the Future

Right now, blogging is the primary way of business marketing. It has come a long way from weblogs to a powerful tool, essential to reach high SERP. Today, blogs answer specific questions, targeting particular audiences, and promoting other businesses. It has also encouraged other industries, such as content writing and visual media. 

With mobile visits comprising 48% of internet views, blog designs are now responsive and optimised for all devices. There is an emphasis on not only the content but how it’s presented and when.

This is a collaborative post.