Post frequency is a topic that comes up often among bloggers. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just started or you’ve been posting for years – people change, algorithms change, and even your motivations for blogging change. No-one is immune from wondering if their schedule is working, or if tweaks can be made for more successful audience interaction.
As I said in my previous FAQ post on how long posts should be – it depends on several factors. The length of posts, the frequency of posting, and definitely post content all require trial and error, and for the blogger to know what their readers respond to best.
There’s been a shift I’ve seen lately – two shifts, actually – in posting schedules that work for certain bloggers posting certain content.
There’s the shift toward following the Upworthy/BuzzFeed model of 10-20 posts a day, and others doing slow, longer, deeper posts.
The choice can even depend on your monetizing model. If you are dependent upon banner ads, your’e going to need more posts. More eyeballs mean more clicks, which mean more money can be made that way.
If you’re selling a product or service, then you’ll do better with slower paced, deeper content. You’ll notice that’s what we’ve been experimenting with here on ProBlogger recently.
Finding a posting schedule requires some homework on the part of the blogger – checking their Analytics to see what posts work best, what times work best, and at what speed. You can canvass your audience for their opinion outright by asking them on Facebook, email newsletters or including the question in your regular surveys and make your decision based on their answer. You also need to canvass yourself – how many posts can you reasonably fit into your schedule before quantity overcomes quality?
In this post on How Many Posts Should a Blogger Post I go into detail about the pros and cons of daily blogging, which might help you make your decision. Of course there are benefits of both, and sometimes it can take a while of testing before you find which works best for you.
You might also find this post useful where our guest writer Ali Luke discusses the surprising answer she found to the universal question.
Have you struggled with this? Or have you found the perfect posting schedule? I’d love to hear in the comments.
Exactly, I was looking for this answer quite a while. But I never found the right answer for this question. As per my experience consistency in writing a blog post is what it takes. If you are posting one article in two days then keep that consistency through out. That is what I try to follow. Any thoughts?
I agree to some extent with you Sahil about posting one article in two days, but I think timings are also a factor because when I was working on one of my sites, I usually used to post one or two post on a daily basis around the same time daily and I have seen that my alexa rank used to improves very well with this.
So I think post timings must also be having some importance.
Hey Darren, Your post looks extremely informative. Actually, I have heard many SEO gurus that one should post on regular basis to get better rank in SERPs however few days ago I read a post of Brian Dean where he claimed that post frequency has nothing to do with Search Engine Ranking. He said that he has not posted any article on his blog for a long time but still he’s getting enough traffic. So your post has cleared many concepts of post frequency. Thank you very much
This is very common question in my mind that what should be frequency of my post. Thanks for sharing this informative article.
It depends.
It depends on your niche. It depends on your time and energy.
It also depends on your content marketing strategy. I personally think, blog post frequency shouldn’t be your primary concern. Give visitors what they want and they will be happy to help you!
That makes so much sense. Thanks Anil!
For personal blogger lke me, how often should I post?
Posting everyday is good, and multiple times daily.
Personally I don’t really consider post frequency that important. The QUALITY of your posts is much more important than the quantity, post frequency or length of your posts. I know a few bloggers who only write a really helpful post once or twice per month and they have a huge following and are doing just fine. So I guess it depends on what your audience is used to and what other bloggers in your niche are doing.
Tom,
Yes, quality is good. But also, the search engine judge frequency of postings.
Hi Darren,
I am HUGE on getting clear on my intent – or I have gotten pretty dang clear – so I have my posting frequency down. I do recall how addled my mind was thinking through how often I should post. I hear the quality thing; although this is big, I have seen guys like John Chow make a fortune with a few hundred words – if that – and I have seen other guys like Glen Alsop do a pretty penny with in depth, pillar style, eBook-sized posts. It’s all what you’re clear on, really, because both guys are adding quality and value in their own way, it’s all just in the eye of the blogging beholder.
I publish one, 6,000 word blog post weekly and 1 eBook release post, about 1000 words or so, because it feels awesome to me. Feeling awesome while doing the blogging bit attracts other folks who feel awesome reading my posts, based on the length and publishing frequency. It’s just an inner clarity thing because again, if you’re clear on bringing value to the market in 200 words, or 6,000, your audience will find you.
Google seems to be bigger on long form, resource style, pillar posts, so that’s another reason why I take that route. It never hurts to go with the search engine gods lol.
Thanks Darren for your share.
Tweeting and Pinning from Bali.
Ryan
Hi Darren interesting read you certainly raise some interesting points.
I think with blog posts you’ve got to focus on a combination of the long term and short term effects.
What I mean by this is that there are posts you can write about such as current news affairs / posts which have the ability to go viral which will draw traffic into your website for the short term. Of course this will only last for a limited period of time.
Post which hold more long term value are well researched articles containing unique statistics which can be used as a trusted resource for users looking to create other articles.
In order to maintain a steady flow of traffic to your blog you really need to think up a content strategy which combines both of these two elements.
Interesting topic, Darren. I think this is the struggle of bloggers. It will take some time to get the formula right because it all depends on the target audience. I think we must be more vigilant to observe their online movements to accurately test what works and what doesn’t in getting the attention of the target audience. For starters, should we aim for the short or long term to get traffic? Let me know your thoughts.
Hi,
Fast I want to say thank you.I am a new blogger.There are many information here which are very important for us.I have found many interesting topics here as Post frequency.I don’t know what type of post on blog but I know now.
We hear this all the time. Blogging is definitely a snowballing process. It takes a ton of time and effort to build the first little ball and get it rolling on it’s own. However, if you keep at it you can create a massive juggernaut that almost runs itself! Does anyone have a sense for how long it takes people to build up self sustaining blogs
I’ve wondered this myself. I follow several people on youtube over the years and have seen that the ones who stay consistent have gained many more followers and the ones that didn’t actually lost followers.
Quality is more important than quality..things we learn with time to time.
awesome quotes for newer like me.
Thanks a ton
[Do the transformation blogging work] of posting “lots and lots of content” and in numbers of “strength,” so that you can continue to inspire your readers and get better SEO.
Finally the most asked question in blogger community answered. I think niche is the main factor to be focused while setting up post frequency. If we talk about technology, someone writing about tech news must post more frequently than who writes about tech tutorials.
If you use a good speech recognition program to write blog posts every day throughout the day and use a WordPress content scheduling plug-in, you’ll notice quality of life becoming better. Your WordPress blog will continue to post blogs while unattended from your computer or laptop. By having WordPress and a WordPress content scheduling plug-in plus a quality speech recognition program like Dragon on deck use these find tools to keep your site updated without dredging at the computer hours throughout the day creating” lots and lots of content,” you can attend to other things throughout the day such as working on your day job if you have one, home gardening, going to school, and so forth. The more your site is updated with [lots and lots of content] throughout the day, the more search engine’s will give you love and rank higher in search engine results pages such as Google and Yahoo. This is also known as “doing the transformation blogging work.”
Hey Darren, thanks for putting up this FAQ. This is the question, I believe, every new bloggers are concerned with. I think whatever the frequency is, it should be regular. And we should never compromise the quality of content in hurry to post something new daily.
I think posting daily on a blog is the best although some bloggers manage to rake massive traffic to a single post through e-mail list. If you don’t have an e-mail list, make sure you post every day.
Great Info Darren,
For my blog I like writing regularly, once or twice per week. For other niche sites it depends on the type of niche one is into. Thanks.
Great article on blog posting. I try to post at least once a week, sometimes more if the writing bug hits me. I feel once a week is very important to keep you readers engaged.
All too common of a question indeed. After 6+ years of blogging now I keep coming back to Google Analytics. However, there has been a lot of controversy regarding the future of blogging. Some say that podcasting is taking over in terms of mass exposure. Blogs are still utilized especially for content marketing endeavors but becoming more saturated.
Great post. Thanks for the insight Darren. Always a delight perusing through your content.
Thanks for posting this Darren, very useful for getting your blog started as there are so many different suggestions out there. I guess it really depends on your blog and target audience, it just means you need to put in more research into what works for you!
With my experience content quality is important which is off course great in your case.Updating the blog even thrice a week is sufficient.Depends on the niche trends though
Obviously quality is important. But I feel pressured to keep fresh content coming out to improve my overall presence in the SERPs. It’s finding a balance between working hard, and delivering quality. A good post will give you more momentum and views than several poor posts. There is some trail and error needed.
Good read!
I’ve been struggling with this topic myself and trying to find the perfect median. I personally think that quality is king, so things like infographics, videos, charts, etc are what will really help drive traffic over time. Along with consistency, of course.
Great help Darren. I find post once a day or every other day the best as it doesn’t come across as just spamming posts.
Very interesting post indeed. Now I’m trying to limit my post since were not selling any product or services. I also think that what you post matters. I’m glad I read this because I had the habit of “over-posting” for our social media account.
Niche influences posting frequency. If you write articles about fishing or scuba diving, your posts might coincide with season trends, if you’re writing about politics, technology or anything about current events, you will likely be required to publish at least once per day.
Whatever the niche, it’s important to post quality content not merely posting for posting’s sake.
Everyone wants a black and white answer – the truth is, it “depends” on many factors how often to post. Do what you need to in your situation. Love it. Great post!
The size of the post depend on so many factors both on the side of the Author and that of the Reader. Thanks a lot for the Article
Hi,
In my blogging carrier, i use to post articles twice or thrice a week and its giving better results for me till now. So according to me, continuing this process without any interference will give good improvement.
This article is superb and very informative.Darren Rowse please write an article about SEO, I want to explore more about it and thanks for this post.Great job, Hands up for you.
It’s very interesting topic. I’m sure many will be glad to read this article. Thanks for sharing it. Fantastic post!
Website and blog traffic is dependent on organic search results in a number of ways
Wow, Thanks for the awesome infographic.
Get some new idea and Hope will working good
Although most people ignore, Blog post frequency is an essential metric for organic results.
Good post Darren. I didn’t know that the best day and time to publish blog post in my website. Weekly 3 posts would be fine?
It totally depends on your energy, time and attitude. There are many people who make 2-3 posts in a day even more! However, It’s a good thing to make regular post for your site. I think above your tips will help the newbies blogger. Thank you for sharing your thought with us.
I created a blog for my company website and I have been blogging every day only resting on weekends and actually am seeing an increase in traffic. Blogging regularly is a good signal to search engines and speeds up the indexing process of new content. Now am looking for ways of converting this traffic into clients.
How do you suggest finding the right increment of time between posts? I’ve experimented with different gaps and I’m not really sure what is best.
Thanks for the information about blog post frequency. I also ask the same question recently and found your post about this. In my opinion, it also depend on several factors, such as niche, monetization, marketing method you use to promote your blog. What I found is deeper blog post works really well with combination of targeted marketing and social media marketing, which this can make your blog go viral quickly and increased traffic.
In my opinion it all comes down to your audience. I’ve actually tested several times different methods of posting, from posting once a day to posting several times hour. Depending on your niche, people might read your posts in the evening or early morning at work, knowing this you should consider factoring this into your decision.
Thanks for the post regarding the blog post frequency. I also have the same concerns and found your post very interesting
This is a very useful post for all the bloggers. Keep posting valuable content like this. Thank you very much !