Is Medium a Better Alternative to a Business Blog?

If you are planning to start a new venture, take up blogging or want to expand your business in the digital world, chances are you will be carefully considering your blogging options. The world of blogging is vast, even for business, but everyone agrees that it is an important aspect of day to day digital marketing strategies. For this reason, carefully considering what platform you want to base your blog on and the strategy behind it is important.

With that in mind, here are some of the factors which you may want to consider when choosing between either Medium or your own custom business blog.

Good for New Content

If you’re just starting a blog, then Medium can be a good way to get a footing in the space and start to grow your following in any sector; from blogging to contentious probate solicitor topics.

On the whole, if you want to do a ‘trial run’ of your content and whether or not it will actually have traction, then Medium is a good option. This can be one major positive if you do not want to invest in starting or running a blog without the knowledge that it could generate some level of success, as it were.

The fact is that whether you’re starting from scratch on Medium or your own blog, there is a lot of work that needs to go into finding your audience in the first instance. But, Medium does have the advantage of being free and so can be a massive draw for those just starting out on a new venture.

Competition is High

The internet is a bustling place, there is plenty of competition in every corner and you are unlikely to find great success without first defeating a few dragons. When posting content on Medium, not only are you battling overall internet competition, but direct Medium users as well. Plenty of individuals and businesses want to get their message across on the platform; so, it’s safe to say your content may end up a murmur in the screaming match of these competitors.

How would having your own blog be any better? Well, for one thing you wouldn’t be competing with others directly on the same URL. You have the benefit of having your own dedicated space for your content and you can actively promote this in any way you want. If someone does click away on your domain, then it’s still to other pieces of your content; not your potential competitors.

Of course, with high risk comes high reward. If you manage to beat your competition then Medium offers a lot of potential traffic and popularity. Which, as your own individual blog, can be much more difficult to organically grow on your own (though not impossible given enough time or effort).

Ultimately, it depends on the time and investment you want to put into the process. As success is possible either way, it only depends on what methods you find most attractive for your business.

SEO Benefits

One of your major considerations when choosing between a Medium or customised blog is your overall marketing strategy. How are you going to market your content? If SEO optimised is part of this strategy, then you may find Medium a poor choice.

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimisation. This means optimising a site or content in a way which can be easily crawled and then ranked via Google. In terms of platforms, Medium is actually quite poor in terms of SEO optimisation.

If you want to create content which you can target with SEO and rank on Google, then a custom blog is realistically the only option. Medium has no reason to actively promote or attempt to rank your content in Google; people are coming to their site either way. Therefore, the options for this marketing strategy is quite limited on the platform. SEO marketing is beneficial for your business, so it is often tailored in that sense – Medium doesn’t need this tailoring.

When it comes to your own blog, you can actively optimise the content for SEO but also work to make the site much more valuable in the eyes of Google crawlers. Technical improvements such as better page speed, removing content trapped in JavaScript and adding Schema to your articles are all an example of this. All of which you have little to no control over on your Medium page.

So, if you want complete control over your content and your digital marketing efforts concerning it, then Medium is not the right option for your blog.

Consider Your Niche

When it comes to Medium success, one thing you may want to consider is whether or not your audience is actively using Medium. If not, then in all likelihood you will be writing into the void when it comes to this platform. Topics which have an active audience on Medium include tech and entrepreneurship, primarily, so you could find a good audience there.

A successful blog–whether on Medium or your own site–is all about visibility. So, if you feel that your visibility will be poor on Medium as a result of your audience preference and activity, then it may not be the best platform for your blog content.

However, that isn’t to say that because your topic is niche you won’t find any kind of audience on Medium. A good social sharing campaign, with strong content and understanding of what your audience want to read can still work. It just might be harder to find your audience in the first instance.

Why Not Have Both?

If choosing between the two options is proving difficult, there’s no reason why you cannot choose to have both your own custom blog and a Medium one as well. After all, the import feature on the platform is overall quite intuitive.

The ‘import a story’ option is simple and it also properly attributes your blog as the original source of the content. It does all of the hard work of getting the images and content from your blog on to Medium, leaving you to fiddle with the layout before publishing. Simple and an effective way to enjoy the benefit of both platforms.

And for those worried about the issue of duplicate content between Medium and your dedicated blog, it’s not a concern at all. Fortunately, the import feature automatically tags your original article as the canonical source for the content. Meaning Google will not flag it as duplicated. If you are concerned, you can also implement this tag on your content as well to ensure it is properly attributed to your blog no matter what.

Final Thoughts

Overall, ensuring that you pick the right platform for your business blog is important. So often a business will create content and post it for the sake of posting, without any real strategy or intention behind the campaign. In such cases, the business would likely be better off not writing the content at all.

Putting thought and devising an appropriate strategy, then, can put you one step ahead of your competitors in the first instance. Whether you choose to post on Medium, create your own blog or choose a combination of both; it is important to have a dedicated strategy for the content you do create. As, no matter the platform, content without a strategy can be as pointless as having none at all.

Guest Poster – Jamie Costello

Jamie Costello is a freelance marketing writer based in the UK. Originally from Bristol, he’s previously studied at Manchester University and likes to use his knowledge gained from his education to write his articles. He’s also worked alongside various media agencies and companies that have helped to develop his knowledge in the sector. You can find him on Twitter at @jamie88costello