Ask Google how often you should publish blog posts, and you’ll be bombarded with all kinds of different answers.
Many bloggers and marketing companies advocate for publishing a new blog post every single day. For example, Stan Smith, CEO of Pushing Social, says that publishing a new post daily is the path to rapid growth, and entrepreneur/marketer Seth Godin publishes a new post on his popular blog daily.
But – let’s be honest – doing that is both mentally exhausting and incredibly time-consuming!
Luckily, I’m here to tell you that you absolutely do NOT need to publish a new post daily. In fact, doing so will likely cause you more harm than good. Here are 4 reasons why:
1. If you can’t produce high-quality content, then writing every day is pointless.
Let’s say you’re a social media specialist for a large agency. You decide to look for a new social media blog to read regularly so you can stay at the top of your game.
Think about this: Would you rather follow a blog that’s updated daily with mostly boring, useless content or one that’s updated a couple times per week, written in a unique voice, and filled with actionable tips?
The answer is pretty obvious – you’d choose the second one.
Why? Well, Jon Morrow, founder of BoostBlogTraffic, says it plainly: “Quantity no longer wins. Quality does.”
Seriously. If you can’t deliver high-quality content, you shouldn’t be writing at all because mediocre blog posts will hurt your brand and send your audience running off to read your competitors’ content. Consistent, high-quality content is what will get your audience talking.
In fact, marketing influencer Jeff Bullas says that creating quality content is the most effective way to market a business – that’s a pretty powerful statement!
So, make sure that you’re proud to share every blog post that you publish. Every. Single. One.
2. More frequent content does not always translate to more of your target readers.
Your goal isn’t for everyone in the world to read and enjoy your blog. You’ve got a specific target audience that you keep in mind when you write your blog posts, and that’s who you need to attract, which is why it’s critical for you to take a strategic approach to blogging.
If that means posting less frequently, then so be it. A well-planned, slower approach will get better results than blog posts that have been quickly thrown together just for the sake of pumping out new content.
Brooke McAlary, founder of Slow Your Home, explained on Problogger how she found this out for herself when she began taking a “slow blogging” approach. When she started thinking her blog posts through more and focusing less on publishing frequency, her readership grew and her audience became more engaged.
So, there you have it.
3. Generating topic ideas daily could leave your brain running on empty.
Coming up with new blog post topics is no easy task – even for the most inventive bloggers. So, when you’re pushed to come up with a new topic every day, you might just end up feeling burnt out and writing about the same topics over and over.
That’s not good for you, your audience, or your brand.
Think about it – your readers visit your blog because they’re looking to learn something new. So, if you’re re-hashing the same tired topics a million different ways, they’re going to catch on and look for their learning fix elsewhere… Ouch.
Bottom line: Be deliberate when you publish blog posts, and always offer your audience something that will interest and help them.
4. You’ve started to annoy your audience.
Publish every day, and your blog posts could become “noise.”
Not sure what “noise” means? Basically, it’s content that people disregard because the blogging world is already so saturated. One good way to avoid allowing your blog posts to become noise by not giving your readers too much at once.
Instead of annoying them with a ridiculous amount of content, build some anticipation. Be strategic about the times/days you publish. Have your audience counting down the minutes until your next blog post goes live.
It’s worth noting that this applies to social media too. For example, your Twitter followers aren’t going to appreciate you tweeting mediocre blog posts every day. In fact, that’s a good way to get unfollowed! Instead, focus on only sharing what’s useful to your audience.
So, how often SHOULD you publish a new blog post?
It’s simple: post as often as you can provide useful content for your readers without waiting so long that your blog looks abandoned.
Quicksprout founder Neil Patel says that’s at least once a week. Problogger founder Darren Rowse simply says to aim for regularity rather than daily blogging.
So, as you can see, thoughts on the subject vary. But, whatever publishing schedule you choose, keep in mind that you’ll still want to push yourself to publish somewhat frequently – after all, blogging research performed by Hubspot shows that companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got about 4.5X more leads than companies that published 4 or fewer monthly posts.
And make sure every blog post you write is relevant to your target audience and written in a voice that will keep them coming back for more. Because, at the end of the day, you’ll lose more readers from lowering your content quality than you will from lowering your content frequency.
What kind of blog post publishing schedule has worked best for you? Share in the comments below!
