Blogging has come a long way from its very humble beginnings in the mid-1990s. Today’s blogs are an integral part of a successful content marketing strategy. Well-crafted blogs position you as a thought leader, guide your audience along the sales funnel, and boost your search engine rankings.
But the issue that constantly comes up is how often should you publish blog posts. What is the best blog posting schedule?
Blogging frequency basics
The challenge is there isn’t a single answer to the above. The good news is there are guidelines that can help you make the right moves concerning your blogging strategy and creation of your content calendar or editorial calendar.
Pre-launch
If you’ve never blogged before and you’re starting from scratch, don’t jump in with your first-and-only piece. You should have a minimum of three to five pieces of content in the hopper before you hit the “publish” button on your website, a third-party site, or social media platform. As you move forward, it’s a good idea to keep that three-to-five strategy in place. This allows you to work ahead, so blogs are available when you need them.
How many blog posts and how often?
The “now, duh” answer is that the more often you post, the higher likelihood of good results. Google likes high-quality content and plenty of it. Additionally, frequent blogs give your audiences something to look forward to, meaning they’ll visit your website or social media platform more frequently. Frequent visits mean higher levels of engagement. And higher levels of engagement help your audience move quickly through the sales funnel.
4 questions to ask before you start blogging
But before you resign yourself to the two to four time a week rule of thumb for blogging, there’s a “yeah, but . . .” Ask yourself the following:
1. What is my content strategy?
That strategy will have a definite impact on your blogging schedule. If your intent is to increase website traffic or double your subscriber base, you might want to post and publish more often. If you want to educate or show yourself off as an industry thought leader, creating, posting, and publishing long-form content less frequently could be the way to go.
2. What is my platform?
Thanks to the internet, your blogs can pop up on your personal website, third-party site, or social media platform. The latter, such as Facebook and Instagram, connect you to a large audience. The downside is that your blog could appear and disappear without your audience ever reading it, thanks to an ever-changing feed. In this situation, you might need daily blogs to — er — feed the hungry social media feed.
Don’t tear your hair out just yet. “Blog” isn’t limited only to long-form articles. Consider brief listicles or curated content. A two-line comment about other content in your arsenal, such as an ebook, also qualifies. The goal here is to get your audience’s attention.
Now, when it comes to something a little less transitory, like a website, frequency might not be as much of an issue, though the challenge here involves driving traffic to your content.
3. What are my resources?
Whether you’re posting one-liners on social media or crafting a massive infographic for your website, blogging takes time and effort. If you head up a team of creatives, or outsource to an expert content strategy firm like ClearVoice, you can generate a lot of really fine quality content on a frequent basis.
But if you are the sole blogger, you should honestly rethink how frequently you can produce, post, and publish. Once the self-contemplation is completed, decide on a consistent time frame. If you can only produce one blog a month, that’s fine. Just be sure to do so, on the same day of each month.
4. Can I maintain quality?
Quality must ALWAYS surpass quantity when it comes to successful blogging. Cranking out a blog every two days or so is terrific — unless that blog stinks. A poorly crafted blog means your audience will bypass it. As your audience goes, so goes Google (and so goes your search engine page ranking, or SERP). Google is pretty adamant when it comes to content that is E-A-T; expert, authoritative and trustworthy.
Ideal times to publish a blog post
If pinpointing blogging frequency isn’t enough, timing is also an issue. Studies demonstrate that time of day, and even day of the week, can mean the difference between a blog that is viewed and one that might be ignored.
For instance:
- Users say they look at blogs in the morning, with peaking viewing taking place around 9 a.m.
- Morning posts tend to have higher click-through rates
- Research suggests Mondays are best for website posting, especially when it comes to higher page views and more traffic
- Social media blogs posted on Sundays can mean more views and higher share rates
But again, a lot depends on the blog format, your audience, the industry and a whole host of other factors. The key here is testing and data, to determine what works for your specific instance.
There’s no one-size-fits-all blogging strategy
You’ve probably figured out that there isn’t a specific rule when it comes to the best blog posting schedule. Rather, it should fit with your resources, content strategy, and audience. However you create your editorial calendar or blog post planner, consistency is important. Stick to your content calendar’s parameters and timing.
If you find yourself needing a team of expert content producers to add heft to your blogging activities — or need assistance when it comes to crafting successful blog strategies — Let us know!
