The purpose of any blog is to get someone’s attention. What’s the point of writing a blog if you don’t want people to read it? It takes more than a single post to gain traction, though. But how important is it to have consistency when publishing blog posts?
Actually, having a routine publishing schedule for your blog is more important than what a lot of people might realize.
Why Blog Consistency Matters
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with publishing willy-nilly, having a routine schedule can work a lot of magic for a blog. This is especially true if you’re focusing on Google search results or keeping regular readers coming back for more.
So, why is having a consistent publishing schedule important?
Improving Site SEO
There are a lot of cogs turning when it comes to search engine optimization. The biggest cog in the works is content. However, Google looks at more than just a single web page.
The content of your site as a whole impacts how it performs in search. The more often you cover a topic or niche, the more likely the site will appear during those specific searches in Google.
Content Is Indexed More Often
The more often you publish a post, the more often Google will crawl the website. Generally speaking, Google can take anywhere from a couple of days to several weeks.
One of the factors that determine how often a site is crawled for indexing is how often new content is added. Of course, then it will depend on whether that content is helpful enough to be added to search results pages.
Shows Dedication to Followers
Google isn’t the only one you want to please with your blog. What about people who follow or subscribe to your site? When you demonstrate consistency in publishing blog content, they know when to expect something new.
In this case, it’s all about reliability and giving your audience what they want – when they want it.
Supports Your Online Reputation
Producing a steady stream of high-quality content goes a long way to boost your online reputation. I’m not just talking about humans in this regard. Google also uses it as an indicator for EEAT.
This helps you shine in search while also delivering a sense of trust to your visitors. That is as long as you’re providing accurate and interesting content.
Increases the Likelihood of Making Money
The obvious elephant in the room, so to speak, is how a consistent publishing schedule can help you make more money. The more content that is available, the greater the chances of making sales or showing ads.
It’s all about driving traffic to your blog.
Now, consistency when publishing doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll drive a lot of traffic. You can’t force people to visit your website. However, covering a wide range of topics within your niche can increase the chances of getting a few more people to see your blog every day.
7 Best Practices for Blog Consistency
Unfortunately, no one can guarantee success when it comes to blogging. There are simply too many variables at play that can affect your site.
For one thing, Google could deem that most of your content is “unhelpful” and sink your visibility in search overnight. Or, your site could be removed from Google Discover, which may wind up eliminating half of your daily traffic.
The bottom line is that there is no guarantee that having publishing consistency will help you succeed. Nonetheless, data shows that on average, it could be a contributing factor to gaining more visitors.
Let’s go over some of the best practices when focusing on consistent publishing.
1. Create a Publishing Schedule
First, create a schedule for publishing your posts when your visitors are most active. You can find this information through various analytical tools.
If you use Google Analytics, it’s not a default view in GA4. However, you can create your own view in the settings manually. It’s a bit of a pain and doesn’t look as it used to in GA3, but it’s a possibility.
The bottom line is that publishing a post when most visitors are active increases the likelihood they’ll visit once the post is published. If you use something like push notifications, it could result in a quick boost of viewership right off the bat.
An example of a schedule is how I update or publish posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That’s because I don’t have the time to write or update more posts than that every week.
2. Create Blocks of “Blogging” Time
I find it best to set up blocks of time throughout my day specifically for blogging. Part of that is because of the sheer amount of stuff I do every day.
A block of time helps you focus on writing the post while avoiding distractions. Using tools like Asana, you can plan out your day while giving yourself a schedule to maintain.
The trick is to make sure you stick with that schedule. Life has a way of throwing all kinds of curve balls at you. But giving yourself a visual such as blocking time in Asana helps create a sense of urgency and importance.
3. Don’t Get Hung Up On Word Count
Too many people think that the number of words in a post guarantees a top spot in Google. The truth is that Google doesn’t care about the number of words in a post.
In reality, it comes down to how much you explore a topic. The side effect of deep dives is an increased word count. Nonetheless, a lot of topics can be sufficiently covered with fewer than 1,000 words.
It all depends on the sheer amount of information you share in the post.
4. Know What Your Audience Wants to Read
When creating consistency with your blog, make sure you’re providing what your audience wants. If you find that the majority of subscribers or followers read more of one type of content, it might be something you’ll want to double down on creating.
You can find this information in Google Analytics as well. However, I often use Jetpack’s traffic stats.
For instance, this site was once a hub for Textbroker content for freelance writers. Over the past few years, though, the tempo has changed to mostly self-publishing. So, I’ve been doubling down a lot on writing apps, publishing platforms, and similar topics.
Don’t be afraid to evolve with your site and its audience.
5. Be Relevant to Your Niche
If your blog centers around a specific niche, make sure the content is relevant. This is very important for both humans and search engines. The last thing you want to do is publish content that confuses either one of them.
Niche blogs have a greater chance of success on Google than those that are more randomized.
For example, this blog centers around writing. As such, I cover topics regarding freelancing, blogging, and publishing – which are all forms of writing.
6. Remember to Write “Helpful” Content
Perhaps the most important element of writing any type of content for your blog is to make sure it’s helpful. In 2023, Google rolled out an update that sunk pages and websites that it deemed as having unhelpful content.
In this case, it doesn’t matter if you have consistency in writing your blog posts or not.
The overall gist of writing helpful content is to make sure you’re providing the best information you can while being a credible source. That means no filler, fluff, inaccurate data, or other elements that don’t add quality to your post.
7. Be Patient With Yourself
Lastly, be patient with yourself and your blog. Not everyone has the time available to crank out four blog posts per week. And it can take months before those posts actually make their way up the search results page.
In other words, blogging is all about playing the long game. Sure, there are some “experts” out there who try to sell you on overnight success. Unfortunately, no one can guarantee success in such a manner.
Do the best you can while being consistent, but don’t stress yourself out if you can’t keep up with other bloggers. Create a schedule that is best for your needs and wants.
FAQs About Blog Consistency
Experts say that a blog post should be between 1,500 and 2,500 words. However, the length of a post doesn’t actually matter to Google. It’s all about the depth in which you dive for a topic and its quality. Sometimes that means writing longer posts.
Your key publishing schedule is going to depend on a lot of factors. Mostly, it’ll come down to your audience and what schedule works best for your site. Keep in mind that more posts equals more topics that may be crawled by Google.
Writing with authority and expertise will help demonstrate your knowledge of a niche or topic. Citing your information from reputable sources can also improve your own reputation by showing that you value accurate data.
If your blog has a niche, the topics you’ll want to focus on depend on the overall theme of the site. Using tools like Google Analytics, Search Console, or a variety of data apps can show you what visitors like most on your blog. Give them more of what works on the site.
Some experts attest to publishing a blog post 2 to 4 times per week. However, it may also depend on the topics you cover, your site’s niche, and what you’re personally capable of producing.
Blogs that focus on Google search results will have a much easier time gaining traffic and popularity. However, not having consistency while blogging doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll instantly fail. It just makes success a whole lot easier.
A Case Study of Consistency and Blogging
I am a fan of performing case studies on my websites. For one, it helps me stay motivated to write content. Secondly, I love data and discovering new content strategies from the results.
In this instance, I am performing a case study to demonstrate if consistent publishing over a 12-week period makes a difference for the blog.
In 2018, I performed a couple of case studies that showed how a routine blogging schedule affected the website as a whole. The end result was that the entire domain improved in search results, even posts that didn’t get a lot of attention beforehand.
A lot has changed since then, and I am curious to see if the same holds true in 2024.
The Results
This is currently an ongoing case study. Once the 12 weeks are up, I’ll share my findings. You can also see the progress of the site in the above spreadsheet.
How Consistent Are You When Creating Content?
Consistency can do a lot of good for a blog. From helping solidify a position in search to keeping your audience coming back at specific times, success is all about giving humans and bots a thing to read.
The best publishing schedule, though, is the one that works best for you. Don’t be afraid to test the waters to find out how much content your target audience wants to read.
From my experience, you’ll need more than one or two posts per month to keep everyone and everything interested in your blog.
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