SEO Blogging Frequency?

You’ve heard the term hundreds of times. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is easily defined but also quite cagey in its application. With everyone chasing hits and page rankings in Google (and other locales) how exactly does one proceed with efficiency and effectiveness? Well, let’s start first with what SEO actually is:

SEO is what you do (and don’t do) to grow your visibility on search engine pages like Google, Bing, etc. The goal is, of course, to be number one as when someone directly searches for a product or service that you provide you are at the top of the list. In this coveted spot you’re most likely to get the first click, and hopefully the resulting business. it goes without saying that the higher you rank, the better off you are in gaining traction with customers. Sometimes referred to as a “black science,” as there are so many different routes to go in working to optimize your ranking, there are indeed some best practices. That said, the biggest rule of thumb is to offer continual, constant, fresh content in the form of new copy, photography, and video. Getting your website structure and content dialed in to give you the best SEO shot is, arguably, able to drive more sales conversions than any other online marketing effort you might employ.

Blogging is a wonderfully effective way to boost your SEO as it is an excellent vehicle for encapsulating new, non-interruptive content directly on your site. And everyone agrees that every blog post you put out there is an opportunity to bring new people to your website. Each post is, as noted, an opportunity to increase your website’s rank in Google and other search engines. Benchmarks show that Google favors fresh content. This is not to be mistaken for updating existing pages. Older pages are favored in Google results, however, a website that has new content weekly is considered more ‘fresh’. It is logical in a way, Google wants to favor websites that have up-to-date information, it is natural for a website that is updated often with new blog posts to be considered more relevant. In fact, Google adds a timestamp to all the indexed pages. This shows in the search results and is a testimony to how important freshness is to Google. 

Posting often means that your domain gets more relevant. However, if the frequency drops this benefit is short-lived unless you have some strong quality content that has been indexed already and a website+domain that has been around for over 2 years. 

Both Neil Patel and Hubspot advocate that 2 blog posts per week are the benchmarked minimum to start and keep growing your traffic. That said, this depends on your industry. In some cases posting twice a month is just fine, in others not so much. Do you really want a large following? Or are you using your blog to loft up a large, potential client for a down-the-road reference and approach? This is where talking through your current state of business, and its goals (both short and long term), helps to fill out the blogging and overall social media strategy to be employed. However, there are some general stats that do support more frequency posting as shown below:

  • 80% of internet users interact with both social media sites and blogs. (DemandMetric)

  • Blogs can result in a 434% increase inindexed pages and a 97% increase in indexed links. (DemandMetric)

  • Companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that don’t blog. (DemandMetric)

While you will see a jump in web traffic right out of the gate as soon as you start posting to your blog, the real jump comes later when what we call “the flywheel of content” kicks in. Essentially, the flywheel is a critical mass of content that has had enough time to percolate throughout the web, generating valuable backlinks leading to your website. Read more about the value of backlinks in our blog post covering Post-engagement Promotion). A stat from Blog Tyrant states that you should see around a 30% increase in traffic once you reach 24-51 posts. Up to a 77% increase can be seen as you rise above 51 posts. All that said, these posts need to come in a regular, predictable frequency, and they need to continue.

In Summary

No question the more you post the better off your SEO will be. More is better, but quality DOES matter. Well-written, proper length, useful content that gives something real to the reader is crucial. Spend your time and money wisely to craft the proper SEO blogging strategy and then execute consistently. Watch your page ranking jump as you get that flywheel moving!

Dig what you’re reading? We’d love to help your company stand out via regular content postings on your own blog, Instagram, YouTube, or otherwise. Engage us for a free discovery conversation here.

Dan Meyers