One of the most common questions in content marketing is, “How often should you publish blog posts?” Usually, business owners, executives, and administrators want the answer to this question because either: (i) they are trying to make an informed decision about where to direct their marketing budget; or, (ii) they are trying to write blog posts on their own, and they want to know how much they have to write in order for blogging to be worth their time. So, what is the best blog post frequency?
The short answer is, “It depends.” While you might assume that the answer is, “As often as possible,” this isn’t necessarily the case—especially when you take budgeting constraints into consideration. Companies, institutions, and firms need to use their resources wisely, and this means choosing a blogging schedule that will generate the best return on investment (ROI) based on how much they have to invest.
5 Key Considerations for Determining Blog Post Frequency
When talking about blog post frequency, it is also important to talk about blog engagement. In many respects, these equally amorphous concepts go hand-in-hand. While one school of thought is that publishing blog articles daily (if not multiple times per day) will maximize engagement, oversaturation can also lead to loss of readership. As we discuss in greater detail below, blog articles need to be engaging to serve their intended purpose; and, here too, there are multiple factors at play.
So, let’s talk about how to choose the right blog post frequency for your company, institution, or firm. Here are five key considerations:
1. Why Are You Publishing Blog Posts?
The first thing to think about is why you are publishing blog posts at all. In other words, what is your goal in trying to determine an appropriate blog post frequency? For most businesses and institutions, the answer is one or both of the following:
- To increase website visitors through organic search engine optimization (SEO); and/or,
- To increase audience engagement—and therefore generate more online business or inquiries.
If you are focused solely on audience engagement, then the analysis is relatively straightforward. For most professional services firms and other business-to-business companies, publishing once a week or once every other week will usually be enough. This is frequent enough to maintain an audience, but not so frequent that people start ignoring your posts. In other industries, it may make sense to publish more frequently, though this is where social media comes into play as well.
If you are focused on organic SEO, then the analysis is significantly more complex. Organic SEO is a science; and, while it is not a precise science, there are tools and metrics for deciding how much content—and what type of content—is needed. For some businesses and institutions, publishing once a week or once every other week may still be enough. For others, a much more frequent blogging schedule—perhaps even daily—may be necessary.
2. How Often Are Your Top Competitors Publishing Blog Posts?
One way to get an idea of how often you should be publishing blog posts is to look at your top competitors. Here, we are talking primarily about organic SEO. When you search for the terms for which you want your business or institution to rank, click through and see how often your competitors are publishing. Importantly, however, while this can provide some useful insight, it is just part of the story.
3. How Much Should You Focus On Updating Existing Content as Opposed to Writing New Articles?
Consistent blogging is just one aspect of an effective organic SEO strategy. Along with publishing new blog articles, effective organic SEO management also involves updating a website’s existing content. In fact, depending on a website’s stage of growth, this could be the primary focus of the company, institution, or firm’s strategy. So, even if a competitor isn’t publishing new articles every day or every week, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it is only lightly invested in content marketing. These days, if a business or institution is in the top three on Google for a desirable search term, it is almost certainly investing heavily in organic SEO.
4. How Much Should You Be Publishing on Third-Party Platforms?
Along with updating existing content, another key aspect of organic SEO is publishing articles on third-party platforms. Articles published on established third-party platforms that link back to your business or institution’s website increase its authority under Google’s algorithm—and this can increase the site’s overall rankings. So, while consistent blogging and on-site content updates are essential, businesses and institutions should budget for publishing articles on third-party platforms as well.
5. What is Your Company, Institution, or Firm’s Content Marketing Budget?
Speaking of budget, this is obviously a key consideration for many companies, institutions, and firms that are seeking to increase their online visibility. If you can only afford so much, is it worth blogging at all?
At a minimum blogging is an effective tool for audience engagement—and even publishing once a month will help keep your business or institution top of mind. However, from an organic SEO perspective, there is definitely a critical threshold. If a business or institution isn’t investing enough into its content marketing strategy, then it is unlikely to see significant returns from a search rankings perspective.
As you can see, when it comes to blog post frequency, there is no single “right” answer. It is also important to keep in mind that your business or institution’s blogging schedule doesn’t need to be set in stone. If you are getting plenty of website traffic, then maybe you can think about publishing less frequently. Conversely, if your initial budget isn’t enough, then publishing more frequently could produce a better ROI.
Common Misconceptions About Blog Post Frequency and Blog Engagement
Along with understanding the relevant considerations for determining a blogging schedule, it is also important to understand the considerations that won’t help grow your business or institution’s online presence. To illustrate, here are three common misconceptions about blog post frequency and blog engagement:
Common Misconception #1: It’s More About Quantity Than Quality
While this used to be true to an extent, it is absolutely not true today. Google now encourages publishers to produce “people-first content” that focuses on providing original, practical, and engaging content for readers. As a result, while organic SEO strategies used to focus on pumping out lots of 500-word articles, modern content marketing is all about publishing long-form content that informs your audience first and foremost, and that incorporates just enough relevant keywords so that Google knows when you want your content to appear in the search results.
Common Misconception #2: Once You’ve Got a Solid Website, Organic SEO is All About Blogging
Many people assume that once they’ve built out their website, organic SEO is all about blogging. But, this isn’t the case. As we discussed above, an effective monthly content plan will include blog articles, updates to existing content, and articles for third-party publications. Organic SEO has grown in complexity in recent years, and advertisers need to take a comprehensive approach to enhancing and maintaining their search engine rankings.
Common Misconception #3: You’ll Run Out of Blog Article Topics if You Publish Too Frequently
Another common misconception is that you’ll run out of blog article topics if you publish too frequently. We can assure you that this is not the case. We have written blog articles for many businesses and firms for years—and we haven’t had an issue finding relevant and interesting topics to cover. While finding topics to cover can take effort, putting in the effort to find topics (and make sure you are actually publishing articles that your intended audience will want to read) is well worth it.
5 Blogging Best Practices for Companies, Institutions, and Firms
While determining an appropriate blogging schedule is important, it is also important to adhere to some best practices when blogging for business purposes. For example, here are five blogging best practices:
- Align Your Blog Writing Schedule with Your Organic SEO Strategy – Blog writing for business purposes isn’t simply a matter of sitting down and pumping out articles. You need to have an organized publication schedule, and your schedule needs to be based, in part, on your business or institution’s organic SEO strategy (unless you are solely blogging for audience engagement).
- Focus On Publishing Longer, More In-Depth Blog Articles – Google is giving more weight to longer and more in-depth blog articles. This means that businesses and institutions that are blogging for organic SEO purposes need to give more weight to publishing longer and more in-depth articles as well.
- Don’t Only Focus on Organic SEO (Also Focus on Blog Engagement) – When writing blog articles, it is important not to focus solely on SEO. Keyword-heavy blog articles don’t work like they used to, and they are generally less engaging for readers as well.
- Don’t Only Focus on What Your Competitors Are Publishing – When looking for topics, it is important not to focus solely on your competitors. This is a common pitfall within the world of content marketing. If you are writing about the same thing as everyone else, you will have a harder time getting to the top of the rankings. With that said, certain topics should be covered—and, if you are publishing the best-written and most in-depth articles, then your content should rank the highest.
- Publish Blog Articles on a Consistent Schedule – Consistent blogging is essential for both organic SEO and audience engagement. Along with developing an effective organic SEO strategy, researching article topics and content, and producing professionally written content, this is one of the most important ways that organizations can benefit from working with a content marketing agency.
Final Thoughts: Effective Content Marketing Requires a Clear Strategy, Consistent Blogging, and a Focus on Audience Engagement
We’ve covered a lot. So, what are the key takeaways when it comes to blog post frequency? Here are our final thoughts on effectively incorporating blog articles into a comprehensive content marketing strategy:
- The number of blog articles a business or institution should publish each week or each month depends on its organic SEO strategy, audience engagement goals, and other factors.
- While looking at your competitors’ websites can give you an idea of how often you might want to publish blog articles (and how much you might want to invest in a content marketing strategy), blog articles are just one piece of the puzzle.
- Quality takes precedence over quantity when it comes to determining the best blog post frequency. One comprehensive 5,000-word article may be much more effective—for both organic SEO and audience engagement—than ten 500-word articles that barely scratch the surface of the topics they cover.
- Consistency is key when it comes to blogging for business purposes. If you aren’t consistently publishing quality articles (along with leveraging other organic SEO tactics), your blog won’t be as effective as it could be.
- When done correctly, blogging can generate a significant ROI for companies, institutions, and firms. This requires not only quality and consistency, but also a clear strategy executed with a long-term outlook.
If you’re wondering how often your company, institution, or firm should be publishing blog articles, we hope you’ve found this article helpful. While we haven’t provided a direct answer to the question, this is because there is no direct answer to be given.
Each organization’s needs are different, and a well-crafted content marketing strategy will focus on writing enough blog articles (and other content) to address an organization’s specific needs. At Smart Content, we focus on developing and executing custom-tailored strategies that use our clients’ marketing budgets as efficiently and effectively as possible. We provide monthly content writing and organic SEO services at flat rates, and we take a professional approach that is backed by decades of experience.
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If you are interested in using blog articles to enhance your business or institution’s online presence, we can help, and we invite you to contact us to learn more. Please get in touch online to get started.