Great question is it not? One of the things I like about Matt Cutts videos on Google’s Webmaster Channel is that often times there are really good information that you can take out of it. As usual though, not everything that comes out from these videos are straight forward. Some you have to “read between the lines”, and some just seems to not answer the question at all. For example, there are some SEO myths that Matt replies to, that debunks incorrect interpretation from many out there. Those are good!
SEO: WordPress vs Blogger
OK, I’m not really giving my opinion here, but rather live it up to you to let me know what your thoughts are about it, after watching the video.
Here’s the question:
I’ve used Blogger for 3 years, but now everyone tells me that WordPress is superior for SEO. After scouring many sites, I’ve been unable to find the SEO advantages to using Blogger – are there any?
So, what do you think? Is WordPress better for SEO than Blogger?
Based on what Matt said, I think that WordPress may have a slight advantage, due to having more “flexibility”, “control” and more “power” as he says. The fact that his blog is powered by WordPress does not really count, since I’m not sure why he has to worry about SEO anyway? LOL
To summarize:
- Blogger is easier to use and more secured, because its in the cloud
- WordPress is easier to get hacked – True, and this is why you should ensure that your WordPress site is secured (and here)
- Both can rank well, provided there is good content and provides good UX (user experience)
Another thing that I caught Matt saying is that Blogger is more for “casual” blogging, which leaves WordPress for Business, better? And BTW, I am pretty sure he refers to WordPress.org and not WordPress.com (can you confirm that?)
Finally, and this is probably what’s more interesting… Towards the end, he says that “both works well in terms of SEO”. There you go, SEO is not dead 
What about you? Do you think that one has an advantage over the other in terms of SEO? Care to comment?
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Your blog is looking really nice and the logo is simply great!!
You are absolutely right as WP is the best platform for Blogging and you are on the right track now. Wish you success ahead.
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Twitter: jonnalarajkumar
March 6, 2013 at 3:54 pm
well SEO is same in both but a person who is new in blogging world should start with blogger because its easy and in this he can easily work also on the SEO…………..
Optimization depends on the person who makes the website not the blog platform where it is hosted. In terms of HTML code wordpress is far more cleaner to “understand for a bot” compared with Blogger.
Also Wordpress code tends to be smaller than blogger because their style sheets come on independent files making easier for bots to access all important features and discarding all the additional code.
Just my thoughts.
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Great post! I plan on sharing it with several bloggers who are debating whether or not to switch from Blogger to WP. I am familiar with the plug-in that allows you to import content from your Blogger blog to a WP blog, but what about images that are hosted on the blogger account. Is there a way to import them?
Twitter: wanjuan85
March 7, 2013 at 6:30 am
base on my personal opinion, wordpress is better than blogger but in certain way when we trying compete each other between wordpress and blogspot using same keyword, it seem blogspot always win
Twitter: kashyap_ksit
March 7, 2013 at 8:59 am
Personally, I think WordPress has an edge over Blogger when it comes to SEO. I myself was using Blogger till a few days ago. After migrating to WordPress, I’ve seen amazing changes, thanks to the SEO plugins.
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Twitter: techforworld
March 7, 2013 at 9:18 am
The biggest benefit of WordPress is great customization: And hundreds of plugins made by community makes it even more wonderful. WordPress is more popular and many people look down on sites built on Bloggers.
The biggest benefit of Bloggers is ease of use, but it lacks customization and great features WordPress provides.
Twitter: Ileane
March 7, 2013 at 10:53 pm
Hi DiTesco,
I left a similar comment on another blog where this video was shared. Here’s my take:
I know that many people in my niche (blogging) struggle with building links simply because no matter how great your content is, people who like WordPress will link to another WordPress blog before they will link to a Blogger blog.
Since I use both platforms I know this to be true because I see it everyday.
I go out of my way to post high value, more content rich posts on my Blogger blog – including podcasts, videos, and SlideShare presentations – however getting quality links from authority sites is still easier with my WordPress blog. But don’t worry, that is not going to stop me from using Blogger. I simply love how easy it is write a post compared to my WordPress blog.
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Twitter: ditesco
March 8, 2013 at 2:28 am
Hi Ileane. You are probably right with the “link building” thing. Some sites do hesitate to link to blogger, favoring WordPress. Not sure why this is the case as quality is quality regardless of what platform is being used… I do use blogger too and I feel it is also easy to use. Maybe one of the things to overcome the link issue thing is for people to get their own domain name (not really expensive and helps in branding), something that many still don’t know that it is possible. From an SEO standpoint (specially on-page) I still feel that WP allows for a bit more control and flexibility, in comparison to blogger. On the other hand, there is the matter of security. I don’t really know of anyone complaining about their site being hacked on blogger….
It’s nice to see that the concept of creating sites for the people, not the search engines, is prevailing again. I am so fed up with people seeing their sites as search engine results. Furthermore, the irony in that case is that sites built with SE’s in mind usually does not rank as well as a user-friendly, (useful!) content-rich site.
Twitter: LolaTips
March 8, 2013 at 10:31 am
Hi DiTesco,
I use both WordPress and Blogger – but I will confess that I use WordPress more; this is because I believe (and agree) that it has more flexibility and I have more control over what I can do with it. I have plans to continue with my Blogger blog because I truly believe in its potentials – as for SEO, I think the content is the key determining factor.
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Yah You Are Right i have both of the platforms and i am using blogger since 2007 and Wordpress 2010 so i think wordpress and blogger both are best in their own way..
Twitter: koundeenya
March 8, 2013 at 1:12 pm
Hey DiTesco!
That was a lovely article.
But I support WordPress for its functionality. Blogger might be owned by Google, but WP has really got a lot. The plugin support, responsive themes, developers and forums. We can do everything with wordpress. Even the optimization becomes so easy with an SEO plugin.
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Twitter: chndn
March 8, 2013 at 7:08 pm
WP is better than blogger in terms of SEO & other that’s why maximum blogger change their platform from blogger to WordPress.
Twitter: AnaTrafficCafe
March 9, 2013 at 3:58 am
I am sure he’s talking about WP.org, Francisco.
The main problem with being on Blogger is the fact that they can shut you down for violating their TOS – after all, it is a third party platform that “allows” you to host your blog there for free.
But free comes at a price. For instance, you can get shut down for trying to make money off your blog; I’ve heard of many instances of that. Or else, you get on a paid plan with them.
Either way, doesn’t make much sense.
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Twitter: ditesco
March 9, 2013 at 12:11 pm
Hi Ana. Believe it or not, I was just waiting for someone to come up with that “they can shut you down” comment. You are so right, there is always the risk of Blogger shutting you down simply because they deemed your blog to be in violation of their TOS. If that happens, then there is nothing to “SEO”, right?
I have heard cases where that happened, hence why I think it is important to “backup” the data one has on blogger. It is actually a very easy step
Thanks for stopping by. Always good to see around here..
Twitter: BestWebsiteTips
March 9, 2013 at 6:49 am
I find that you can customize a wordpress blog more than a blogger blog but when it comes to ease of use blogger is king. Also I think in terms of SEO that no one platform stands above the other, it comes down to keyword placement and the quality of your content.
Twitter: OshadamiMJ
March 9, 2013 at 8:57 pm
I use wordpress for my blog, it gives me total control over my blog when compared to blogger. when it comes to the issue of SEO, I believe it is dependent on the skill of the individual doing the SEO of the blog, a good SEO expert will make blogger rank better than wordpress, for me the platform don’t really matter much.
Twitter: ditesco
March 10, 2013 at 11:04 am
Interesting point you make here “a good SEO expert will make blogger rank better than wordpress”.. Would have to do a bit of digging on this one
Great points Di Tesco, I think Matt does a real good job explaining the benefits of each platform.
Basically, it is what you are trying to accomplish and what do you value more.
Thanks.
I have used both Blogger and WordPress. Considering SEO, I always prefer WordPress than Blogger. There are many free and premium WordPress plugins available that helps you to get more control on your blog.
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I prefer to have wordpress installed on my own server. Once you have it set up the flexibility and functionality available gives you much more SEO possibilities.
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Twitter: ditesco
March 12, 2013 at 12:32 pm
That’s good to know Paul.. Thinking of moving your blog to WP soon?
Twitter: pksidharth10
March 12, 2013 at 5:26 pm
This was worth reading. Blogger vs WordPress has always been a controversial topic and still be. In fact, WP gives unlimited flexibility, that’s why even Matt confused to choose the best platform. We and he are in trouble.
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March 12, 2013 at 7:49 pm
If you can afford hosting and domain expenses then I think self hosted Wordpress is more secure . Because google can delete your blog and content at any time . Some time without any reason . SEO is very easy in Wordpress than blogger .
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That is an extremely interesting topic to discuss. I have quite controversial feelings about Wordpress. No, I love Wordpress but I;’m not sure about its security issues.
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I had a Blogger blog and was NOT too much for it in terms of it’s features. As I surf different blogs, it seems that the preference of bloggers (I might be wrong), is WordPress. Plus, the fact that WP has Comment Luv – it is a no brainer in my opinion. Blogger it seems to me is for people with hobbies, and WP is for more serious minded people who are more serious in the blogosphere!
Twitter: rushikesh577
March 27, 2013 at 8:01 am
I truly agree because of the variations in wordpress. So many themes, plugins and most importantly the different style of working. Blogger is also good and has its own advantages. I just shifted to wordpress recently and am finding some problems in handling it. Thanks a lot for your views on the two platforms.
Rushikesh
wordpress can’t be compared to blogger, even if they are both blogging platform.
with blogger their is no way to expand the functionality of your site, and if it’s possible it means you have to get a team of programmer to do the coding.
but with wordpress it’s different, with lot’s of plugin, you can turn the platform to what ever you want
Hey DiTesco,
Nice post and I think Wordpress is better than Blogger as wordpress offers so many functions and lots of free plugins. Thanks for sharing this post.
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The freedom and flexibility you get with WordPress.org (I’m sure he meant that not Wordpress.com) is hard to beat, and when you combine that with the fact that Matt says both are good for SEO, Wordpress wins hands down!
I think it’s very revealing that Matt of Google, does not use Google’s Blogger, but uses Wordpress.org instead…! Case closed! I’ve shared your post with the blogbods community to see what everyone else thinks! Let the debate continue!
Personally I had found Blogger to be better for SEO and ranking, they have a simple yet very effective interface when it comes to SEO. If you use the webmaster tools along with the simple tools like “add description” and write up a keyword targeted description within the editing box, you are good to go. At this point in time blogger is the only platform that enable your blog to be seen with your G+profile pic in the search results, and that alone had given me more traffic than my WP blogs. I own 3 WP blogs, aging above 1 year and 2 blogs with blogspot under 6 month old – the 2 blogs on blogger are already ranking out the ones on WP.
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