One of the questions newbie business bloggers ask time and time again is, of course, how often do I need to update my blog? Convention wisdom usually offers how-long-is-a-piece-of-string? kind of advice, which can be frustrating… but there’s a good reason for it.
The thing is, posting frequency isn’t a one-size-fits-all deal. What works well for one blog may not be a good fit for another, depending on audience, and more importantly, the amount of time you can dedicate to blogging on a regular basis.
Here area few gems blogging experts have shared on blog post frequency to give you some insight.
Quality Over Quantity
If you were your target customer, what would you rather read? A high volume of posts that offer little insight? Or fewer posts that really offer value?
Ali Luke guest posted on ProBlogger:
As a reader, I much prefer blogs that post once a week or even once every two weeks—but always say something genuinely useful—than blogs that post every day just for the sake of it. If you look at the blogs you read in depth versus the ones you skim, you’ll probably realize that you feel the same way. As a blogger, posting once or twice a week lets me write in-depth, carefully constructed posts—ones that are more likely to get links and tweets. I also get more comments per post this way, and have the time to engage with readers over several days of commenting.
Weekly is (almost always) the Bare Minimum
Very few bloggers can post once a month and maintain a loyal readership. There are exceptions to this rule (and in those cases the posts published are often much longer than a few hundred words), but most experts agree you need to post at least once a week to see results.
Megan Totka posted for Small Business Trends:
Even if you have the most amazing quality blog posts ever written, if you’re not updating at least once a week, you’re losing momentum. Search engines crawl your website less often. Visitors and potential customers forget that your blog exists… Company blogs with 15 or more posts per month see more than five times the traffic of non-blogging companies.
Daily Posting Can Yield Huge Returns (if you have the time)
Many people believe posting daily is the fast track to success – but it’s unlikely that those blogs with a focus on quantity can maintain readership with quality (see above). If blogging is your fulltime job, or you have a team who can contribute to your editorial calendar, daily posting can be beneficial.
Stan Smith wrote for Pushing Social:
Publishing daily is the path to rapid growth. Case closed. It’s hard as hell to pull off if you are a single-author publisher. It requires organization, discipline, resourcefulness, and creativity. But, I’m sure someone wise told you that the reward comes after hard and smart work. You’ll find that the top blogs are ramping up their publishing schedule to 7 posts a week or even 2 posts a day. They know what I’m trying to tell you – quality content is always in short supply. Find it, write it, curate it, publish it, get bigger faster.
Find a Rhythm that Works for You
Consistency is often credited as being more important than frequency – after all, your readers are only going to become loyal to your blog if they know they can expect high quality content on a regular basis.
Darren Rowse wrote for ProBlogger:
My main advice on posting frequency is to be consistent and keep the quality of your posts as high as possible… Develop a rhythm of posting that readers will become accustomed to and that you are able to sustain. If that means you post 10 useful posts a day and readers love what you’re doing then that’s fantastic. If that means you post one high quality and thought provoking post a week that gives readers something meaty to think about then that’s great too.
Create Good Blogging Habits (and stick to ‘em)
One of the toughest things about blogging is finding the time (and sometimes the motivation) to write. Setting time aside to write every day, or every other day – even if you’re not posting that often – can help you form good habits. If you’re posting weekly you might only wrote a couple of paragraphs every day to stay on track, and if you get into the habit of writing daily you’ll always have something on the go for those days when inspiration fails you.
Seth Godin said in an interview with Ad Age:
I write at least one a day. I queue up the extras, and replace ones I don’t love with a new one. This discipline does two things… first, it treats each post as a precious opportunity (which it is) and second, it cajoles me into overcoming whatever little voice in the back of my head says “nahhhh.”
How often are you updating your blog? What seems to work for your business?
