Posting Frequency - How Often To Post?
Bloggers with passion and purpose are constantly adding new content to their sites. Why? Well, experienced blog authors know that the more often you post, the more attention your blog will receive. One of the reasons for this is that Google notices how often sites are updated, and factors this in when deciding how relevant a site is. All other things being equal, a blog that gets posted to several times a day will rank much higher than a blog that receives new content once a week. Google also focuses its attention on the subject lines in blog posts, so the more unique subject lines you introduce into the blogosphere, the more searches you’ll be listed in.
This is why you’ll see a lot of short posts on many of the more popular blogger sites. These bloggers tend to break longer articles into shorter, more focused posts. For example, if you were going to write a long piece about a new product you were developing, you might instead break it into several posts covering market analysis, working with the designers, engineering a prototype, going into production, and so on. As a general rule, try to break your topics into the smallest bite-size chunks possible. Not only does this encourage search engines to list your site, it also fits with the way that readers interact with the Web.
While there are no hard and fast rules for what is the optimal posting frequency (and Google does not reveal how it factors site updating), an analysis of the posting frequency of the top 100 blogs as tracked by Technorati shows that the average number of posts per day is between five and six. A number of bloggers who have adjusted their posting frequency and analyzed the resulting traffic numbers claim three posts a week is a minimum, and three times a day is where you begin to see some serious traffic. The best guideline of all may be the one put forth by Buzz Bruggeman, who claims that you need to be posting “more often than your closest competitor.”
With passion and purpose, your blog can be a labor of love that meets pragmatic business goals. Understanding what’s required and using the many tools at your disposal, there’s no reason that you can’t achieve the success of an “A list” blogger. As with so many ventures in life, enthusiasm and commitment can make all the difference.
Whilst we’re on the topic of posting frequency, this particular article is the 1000th post here at bloggingtips.com. I would like to congratulate Kevin in getting bloggingtips.com to this first major milestone and on Kevin’s behalf, Id like to thank all our authors for the dedication in consistently providing our users with quality content this community has grown acustomed too. Here’s hoping for another 1000 which at our current posting rate, will be reached in exactly 358 days from today.
Kevin | April 4th, 2008 at 11:54 am #
Congrats on writing the 1,000th post
The most important thing to remember about posting frequency is consistency. Readers get used to how often you update so irregular updates won’t prove popular.
This doesn’t mean you need to update your blog every day though. For example, one of the best blogging advice sites is North X East and that is updated weekly.
Vegas Signs | April 4th, 2008 at 4:42 pm #
I think posting once every day or two is a good formula, I know that when the blogs in my reader post anymore than once a day I usually can’t keep up with them and end up deleting a bunch of posts without ever reading them.
Its hard to look through 1o posts from the same blog especially if I haven’t checked the rss reader in a few days.
Genuine_Lye | April 4th, 2008 at 5:13 pm #
Just out of pure curiosity, I’m always slightly afraid of posting too much–that my readers won’t be able (or want) to absorb everything that I would write. I am in a less technical blogging area (OK, so it’s knitting and crochet, gimme a break here) and many readers seem to value more thoughtful, less hasty posts. So, how do you handle the info you’ve given when it (seems) like it might not work for your niche?
Thanks.
Buzz Bruggeman | April 4th, 2008 at 6:28 pm #
And when posting slightly more than the competition, it helps to have something meaningful to say.
I have learned that the more you write, the better you write. I find my self saving topics to think about and write about at a later date, as I build and refine my thinking on a topic.
But putting an idea out there for people to mull over, e.g. to build the conversation is a the best idea. Sharing intellectual capital has had massive benefit for me, and for ActiveWords. We have gotten some of our very best ideas from our users who have blogged about our product.
Melo | April 4th, 2008 at 10:53 pm #
Sometimes once a day but mostly a few times a week.
John Simpson | April 5th, 2008 at 12:05 am #
I have always read that 2-3 times per day is the sweet spot. I am in the middle of a posting marathon this weekend. I plan on posting a total of 25 quality posts across all of my blogs by the time I go to bed on Sunday. I’ve done 4 so far, and the ideas just keep coming…
Chris | April 5th, 2008 at 9:53 am #
Three times a day? Wow. I’ve been trying to keep to at least two times a week and three if I can. Using Live Writer to write one day and schedule posts during the week has been a godsend.
Jeff Kumasamy | April 5th, 2008 at 11:25 am #
Hi Andy,
Posting often is surely a great way to get traffic to our blog but on the other side of the coin, posting quality content is equally important.
In this way, even you didn’t post often like 3 per days, you will still get repeat visitors coming to your blog.
Jeff Kumasamy | April 5th, 2008 at 11:27 am #
Andy,
I currently post at least 3 times per week because as I have other important stuff of my business to do, it is impossible for me to post 3 times a day.
I guess those full-time blogger will be able to do that.
Brad Hart | April 5th, 2008 at 4:49 pm #
I quite agree that posting 3 times a week is minimum I try and keep at least 4 posts a week on each of three and now possibly a fourth blog. I am hoping to increase that to at least 2 post 4 days a week for both now that I am about out of technical problems taking up so much of my time. I can also confirm that that days I post more than once to the same blog I get a noticeably higher percent of visitors
Andy MacDonald (Post Author) | April 5th, 2008 at 4:55 pm #
You each of you guys bring up equally good points. As with everything, you can only do what you can do. I don’t think you should ever compromise quality over quantity, quality without a doubt is always better, but also if you are serious about blogging and want some real good results, dedication in posting is a must.
For some corporate blogs, posting that often really isn’t necessary, but lets take for example, the blogging niche, if you want to be a real contender and generate some great results in that niche, a posting once per day is an absolute bare minimum.
online football betting | April 6th, 2008 at 12:14 am #
I think posting once every day or two is a good formula. I always want to maintain it.
Otto Marasco | April 6th, 2008 at 8:07 pm #
My readers have grown used to expecting about 2 posts weekly, now given what I have just read I am not posting enough….I am keen to lift my Google Page Rank up from 3 to 4, would increasing my posting frequency help?
Andy MacDonald (Post Author) | April 6th, 2008 at 8:14 pm #
@ Otto - Well, with page rank nothing is guaranteed, but if you look at it from the point of view that the more posts you create, the more incoming links you will (probably) receive, then yes, indeed you could get a better page rank as a result.
We all know that PR is mostly based on incoming links, so any effort or tactics you use which could potentially increase your incoming link count, then i see no reason why your PR couldnt be increased also.
Otto Marasco | April 7th, 2008 at 12:12 am #
Thank-you Andy