You should already know by now how important blogging is for your online success, but just in case, I’ll say it through cupped hands:
BLOGGING. IS. SO. IMPORTANT.
To date, it is the best way to refresh your website and rank on Google. It’s also critical for reaching out to your audience. In 2020, blogging is no longer optional.
Knowing you need to keep up a blog is one thing, but knowing how often to blog is another. If you post too infrequently, you’ll see little benefit from your blogging efforts. But post too inconsistently, and Google will ding you as well. You need to find the perfect balance and blog consistently for best results.
How Often Should You Blog?
Generally, you should aim to blog between 1-8 times a month, or up to 20 times a month maximum (source).
However, there are a few factors to consider before deciding how often you’re going to be posting a blog. The first, and most important, is the size of your marketing team. A marketing team of one person and a marketing team of 10 are going to have drastically different capacities. Consider how long on average it takes your team to write, edit and draft a blog post. No matter your company’s capacity, you should create a clear schedule to follow. Instead of writing many blogs in short bursts of inspiration, it’s better to schedule fewer blogs each month and set aside time for them.
The second consideration is your ultimate goal. There are two primary reasons to blog: organic traffic and brand awareness.
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Organic Traffic
When you blog for organic traffic, you’re most concerned with rankings on Google and your overall SEO. Google gives more attention to websites that are regularly updated over those that are stagnant. As well as creating new content, another option if organic traffic is vital is to revisit existing blog posts. Updating content for more relevant information, tweaking SEO and updating a publication date also show Google that your site is constantly evolving, without the need to write new blog posts.
If this is your goal: post frequently.
What “frequently” means to you will depend on your team size. Generally, this means between 1-8 times a month. For SEO, it’s important to constantly generate new content. For some blogging ideas, check out our 20 Questions That Will Give You a Year’s Worth of Blog Posts guide.
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is also a critical goal for many blogs. Being known as a though leader or resource not only spreads your brand’s name, but it also gives a boost to your SEO, too. For example, beauty company DevaCurl is known for their in-depth blog posts and guides, which pulls in visitors just looking for hair care tips and not just products.
If this is your goal: focus on quality, not quantity.
Of course, quality should always be your goal. But if your focus is brand awareness, you don’t need to follow the fast pace that blogging for organic traffic demands. Instead, take the time to sit down with your team and customers and create guides to address their needs.
How often you blog depends strongly on your team size and desired outcome. You industry can also influence how often you blog – if your competitors are avid bloggers, you need to match pace; if your industry isn’t blog-heavy, you can start smaller. Ultimately, the most important thing is to plan and set a consistent schedule.
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