Nearly every company or online business has a blog nowadays. It is easy to see why.<\/p>\n
Content is the undisputed king, and even in this era of digital marketing where businesses are vying for attention of their potential customers and target audience, good and high-quality content<\/a> continues to pop up, compete, and thrive. Although most companies now have active blogs, very few of them actually get the eyeballs they think they\u2019d get.<\/p>\n Not too many views lead to disappointment \u2014 not to mention \u201cwasted\u201d efforts, no potential leads, and, obviously, not much sales to show for it.<\/p>\n Perhaps this is the reason why Medium<\/a> pops out as such an interesting and tempting platform. Started by a Twitter co-founder, Medium is a publishing platform (well, a part-publishing, part-social platform) that solves one of the biggest<\/p>\n problems in today\u2019s content marketing world: exposure. Several big companies, including BMW and Sweetgreen, have decided to host their blog entirely on Medium.<\/p>\n But is it worth it?<\/p>\n Like everything else in this world, publishing on Medium has its pros and cons. In this article, we take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of publishing on Medium.<\/p>\n The biggest benefit of publishing on Medium \u2014 as we just mentioned \u2014 is the exposure. Medium receives more than 60 million visitors per month. Can your blog get the same audience? Although most websites use WordPress as a content management system (which is great!), Medium also has a great CMS to power it. You know the biggest struggle for taking off a new website? It\u2019s the lack of SEO power in it. Medium is built by a Twitter co-founder. Can we really expect that it wouldn\u2019t be social friendly? But it isn\u2019t all a bed of roses. If you like things different, you can\u2019t do much about it. While you could be creative and create lead generation opportunities, Medium does not have a built-in method for consistently generating high-quality leads. Medium analytics vs. Google Analytics? Another one of the biggest cons of publishing on Medium is that you can\u2019t leverage the SEO juice your content generates for your own website.
\nHowever, there is one problem.<\/p>\n
\nAs Medium already has a huge following, it gives you more opportunities to get in front of audiences that you couldn\u2019t have otherwise, which is what makes Medium so interesting for content marketers as well as huge corporations.<\/p>\nThe Pros of Publishing on Medium<\/h2>\n
1. Exposure and Views<\/h3>\n
\nProbably not \u2014 at least not when you are just starting.
\nSo if you are interested in getting your content in front of as many people as you can, Medium offers the best opportunity to do so.<\/p>\n2. A Great Content Management System<\/h3>\n
\nIt\u2019s clean and very simple to use. Moreover, the way content appears on Medium is another great advantage. Most of the custom-made blogs aren\u2019t this pretty.
\nThere\u2019s a lot of white space on the Medium platform, which leads to a great readability experience. Readers can also highlight and comment on specific quotes, and the Medium platform also tells readers the estimated time required to read a certain post \u2014 all of which improves an already great reading experience.<\/p>\n3. SEO Power<\/h3>\n
\nMedium generates so many backlinks on a regular basis. Moreover, with such great content, it has built an excellent reputation for readers as well as search engines, which helps with higher rankings in SERPs.
\nMoz gives Medium a domain authority<\/a> of 92\/100 \u2014 which is way more what you could expect for your own domain.
\nIn other words, publishing on Medium offers a rare advantage in today\u2019s competitive digital landscape, i.e., if you write great content and strategically optimize it for SEO, you have a solid chance of ranking for competitive and valuable keywords.<\/p>\n4. The Social Angle<\/h3>\n
\nMedium strategically use the social media sharing elements to add a new dimension to content, organic power, virality, and more traffic<\/a>. While it appears simple to replicate on your own website, Medium does it so much better.
\nMoreover, when your content is published, it is immediately syndicated to a huge network. This interaction and the potential of virality can be extremely valuable to companies.<\/p>\nThe Disadvantages of Publishing on Medium<\/h2>\n
\nPublishing on Medium also has its disadvantages.<\/p>\n1. Less Control<\/h3>\n
\nMedium is a one-size-fit-all platform. So if you don\u2019t like how your content appears on Medium, you can\u2019t do anything about it. You have way less control on Medium than you\u2019d have on your website, obviously.<\/p>\n2. Less Potential for Lead Generation<\/h3>\n
\nIn our opinion, this is perhaps the biggest disadvantage of using Medium.<\/p>\n3. Fewer Numbers and Analytics<\/h3>\n
\nThere\u2019s no comparison there.
\nWhile Medium does offer great insights and information regarding your published content, it does just enough.<\/em>
\nOn the other hand, if you have a website with Google Analytics installed in it, you could uncover so much more about your audience, their behavior, content funnels, etc.<\/p>\n4. Can\u2019t Leverage SEO<\/h3>\n
\nWhile it is difficult to generate backlinks<\/a> with contents on a new website, they are worth it when they eventually propel your website up in the search engines.
\nWhen you publish your content on Medium, and those posts generate lots of backlinks and attention, you can\u2019t leverage all that SEO power to propel your own domain up in the search engine rankings. You could have done it had you published the posts on your website.<\/p>\nFinal Words<\/h2>\n