Would you continue to read a newspaper that only updated their articles once or twice a week?  Most wouldn’t.  The same principle applies to blogging.  Most people will not visit a blog on a regular basis unless they are confident that there will be fresh new content waiting for them each day (or notified of updates by their RSS reader).  The more frequently you can post quality information to your blog, the more your traffic will increase and your audience will grow.

Kissmetrics provided some great statistics in their infographic that supports this notion.  When you post content to your blog can also affect the amount of traffic you generate (time of day, day of the week).  A strategic blogger is a successful blogger.  Hopefully, some of this data will help you improve upon your strategy when it comes to the cadence of your posts and your syndication strategy.

Post blog updates in the morning to get the most traffic:

My first instinct is likely the same as most others’.  Once I finish a blog post, no matter the time of day, I want the gratification of posting it.  But if it is 11:30 P.M. at night when the blog post is finished, publishing it that night will not produce the same level of traffic than if I waited until 9:15 A.M. the next day.

Of course, the corollary is if the blog post topic is highly time-sensitive, and will be incredibly old news by the next morning, sometimes the first to market is the appropriate tactic.  But it’s so rare that you’re the first to break the news.  Best to share in-depth thoughts and analysis, helping you build trust with your readers and develop thought leadership.  But I digress…

If the average blog gets the most traffic at 11 A.M., you should try posting around 8:30 to 9 A.M. to catch the earlier crowd.  Your content will still be recent to catch the lunch wave of traffic.

Blog posts work best on Monday Morning:

Please note that I am not suggesting to only post on Mondays.  But rather, if you have a stockpile of blog posts, you should syndicate your best stuff on Mondays.

The Most Blog Post Engagement Happens at 9 A.M.

Perhaps not surprisingly, blogs also receive the most comments in the early morning.  It’s another reason to post first thing in the morning.  Plus, as search engines look to promote more meaningful content, and measure the extent to which peers have shared or commented on your content, do yourself a favor and try to post discussion-generating content.

Mondays and Thursdays at 7 A.M. Generate the Most Inbound Links

Not only do Inbound Links help spread your content and generate visitors from other peoples’ sites or social media mentions, but it can also be critical to help boost your content’s exposure through Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Note: Not all inbound links are equal in the eyes of search engines.  If a proven source like CNN.com links to one of your blog posts, it is likely more valuable than if you get an inbound link from Fred’s personal blog.

Blogs are receiving Inbound Links early in the morning because they are being linked to by other bloggers who want to catch the early wave of readers on their own blog.

If you Blog Daily, You Can Generate 5x More Traffic:

It is no secret that the more you increase the cadence of your posts, the more Inbound Links and visits your blog will get.  Bloggers who blog daily will get five times as much traffic than those who blog once a week or less.  Not all companies have the time and resources to post multiple times a day.  The key is to find a comfortable cadence that your readers can become familiar with, and to avoid major gaps in-between posts.  This is where most businesses struggle, because busy schedules can come in waves and blogging can get put on the back burner for a week or two.  Unfortunately, temporarily halting your blog posting can cause permanent abandonment by your readers that you had worked so hard to build.

We suggest you build an editorial calendar and stockpile a few “stock posts,” in case you run into an extra busy work week.  By planning ahead, the task of managing a consistent flow of content becomes a much easier task.

If your company is struggling to post to their blog on a consistent basis, then you should consider using Relaborate.  We have the tools and features built into our product to help with those same pain points.

This blog post was created using Relaborate.