Over the past few years, blogging has gone from being an optional “nice-to-have” element, to an essential piece of the business marketing mix. However, there continues to be some uncertainty and confusion around how many times per week a business should be blogging.
Based on our in-depth experience serving both B2C and B2B customers, and “behind-the-scenes” insights we’ve gleaned as experts in the field, your business should be blogging 5 times per week. If this isn’t feasible due to budgetary limitations, then it can be acceptable to temporarily reduce this to 3 or 4 times per week. However, as noted, 5 times per week (once per weekday) is the industry best practice, and has been for some time. Anything less is not getting the most ROI out of your blog.
Why Frequency Matters
There are three key reasons why blogging 5 times a week matters (though as mentioned, this can be temporarily reduced to 3 or 4 times a week if required).
1. Results
The first reason is that, in a word: blogging really works! As noted by HubSpot, providing your customers with a steady stream of quality, relevant and engaging blog content is an extremely powerful and effective way to build trust -- which is the basic building block of any relationship; business or personal.
Naturally, customers who know, trust and like you will gladly give you their business (or refer their colleagues, friends and other people in their network to you). And while there are effective ways to build trust through other channels – such as your inbound marketing, web copy, and so on – blogging is right at the top of the list
2. It Makes Your Website “Stickier”
The second reason why you need to be blogging on a daily basis is because it gives customers a compelling reason to stay on your website, which dramatically increases the chances that they’ll re-visit you again – or perhaps make contact or complete a purchase during that visit. Essentially, the “stickier” your website, the more likely it will help you generate more traffic, leads and sales.
3. It Makes a Positive Impression
The third reason why you want to make blogging an ongoing commitment rather than an occasional effort, is because doing so makes a very positive first impression on new customers who may not actually want to read the blogs (at least not on that specific visit), but are merely “checking you out” to get a feel for whether you’re the right option for them.
Think of it like walking into a state-of-the-art store and seeing the shelves fully stocked with inventory. It sends all of the right messages, and tells customers that they’re poised to do business with a dynamic, successful business that. Instilling this level of confidence in customers goes a long, long way towards and can often mean the difference between winning or losing them to the competition.
Now, compare this with walking into a store and seeing half or completely empty shelves. The optics and perception here are lousy. In some ways, blogs with infrequent or sporadic posts are more damaging to a business than not having a blog at all! It sends the message “we’re either too busy, or we don’t care to maintain this aspect of our business”. Customers who get this message are forced to ask themselves: “if they don’t care about their own business…are they really going to care about me?”
4. It Improves Your SEO
Google and other search engines analyze several factors when determining search engine rankings – and one of the biggest and most influential is how frequently a business is blogging.
Frankly, Google doesn’t pay attention when a business posts 10 blogs in one month, skips a few months, and then post a handful of blogs here and there. This unplanned, ad hoc approach yields no SEO benefits at all.
However, Google is very impressed when a business publishes an ongoing stream of fresh, relevant, well-written and appropriately keyword-optimized content. Why? Because Google is all about trying to help web searchers find the best websites for their needs. All else being equal, your business’s website will outrank your competitors if you’re winning the blogging game. And doing that means blogging every day – not once a week, once a month, or just “whenever someone has the time”.
Additional Considerations
With all of this being said, even if you commit to blogging daily, it’s critical to keep in mind that there’s a right way to blog – and there’s a wrong way!
The right way impresses your customers, and meets all of Google’s criteria for “good content”. The wrong way annoys your customer, and can put your website in Google’s notorious doghouse. If that happens, it can literally take years and tens of thousands of dollars in marketing spend to get out.
In our next blog, we’ll highlight the right way to blog, so that you can ensure that your business is on-track and heading in the right direction. Stay tuned!
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Topics: Inbound Marketing
