Competitive Blogging Schedule: How Often Should You Post on Your Blog?

Many aspiring bloggers are intimidated by the need for fresh content for their blogs. They doubt they can keep up their blogging schedule of posting several posts per week over a longer time. But do you need to post so often? Is quantity the key to blogging success or should you focus more on quality? How often should you post on your blog to have a chance of success?

My answer may surprise you – or not since you can easily see on this blog that I don’t post that often and focus a lot more on the quality of each blog post I publish.

There are different opinions about the question of the perfect blogging schedule. There are the ones that tell you that you need multiple posts per week to have a chance and then there are others who only post every couple of weeks. And for both, there are examples of successful bloggers. 

Brian Dean on Backlinko – who used to publish a new post every 4-6 weeks. He partnered with SemRush in 2022 so now it is a different situation.

Helen in Between – she publishes a new post every couple of weeks.

Neil Patel – publishes content several times per week.

We could now assume that the reason lies in the traffic sources. Search traffic needs more content. And this can be true for Helene in Between, who finds her audience mainly on social media (Instagram and Pinterest). But Neil Patel and Brian Dean both relied on traffic from search. Brian Dean’s blog Backlinko was (is) in fact a blog about SEO. So these two use the same traffic source with different approaches.

Obviously, there are different strategies for blogging schedules and both can bring success.

But what strategy is the best for you? What blogging schedule should you aim for?

The answer depends on many factors like your niche,  your audience, your content creation ability and more – let’s look a little deeper.

Blogging success is all about consistency

A stale blog is a dead blog. If you don’t publish new content regularly people will think you have given up. Google also prefers blogs that are regularly updated.

A blog that regularly features new content builds trust with your audience. They will recognize that you not only have one tip for them but are a reservoir of extensive knowledge.

Regularly updating your blog will also encourage your audience to come back for more useful content. That brings you more recurring blog visitors and your audience will grow.

So the answer to the question of the perfect blogging schedule is clearly more than once a year.

But there is not a definitive answer as to what people (and Google) perceive as “consistently updated.”

Although content often needs months or even years to rise in search results and until it brings your blog traffic, a regularly updated blog still has a better chance of ranking in search results than a blog with only sporadic updates.

A blog that publishes new content regularly may also be perceived as more professional while blogs that only rarely showcase new content may seem more like a hobby.

BUT.

A blog that gets multiple new content pieces per week or even days also risks that people doubt the content. A too-frequently updated blog seems like a content machine where content is not personally created but either bought from writers or created with the help of artificial intelligence.

And right you are, I have seen content passed off as personally created that clearly was not created by the author. In that example it was about Pinterest marketing while the author had no profile on Pinterest, clearly was not using Pinterest, and was also not working as a Pinterest assistant. I don’t want to point fingers at other bloggers. I just want to explain that sometimes too many new posts are not helping to build trust in your chosen content pillars.

It is always a thin line. And sometimes too much is too much.

A blog that gets updated more often has more content and therefore more chances to rank for different keywords. Every new piece of content poses a new chance to attract traffic from search engines for new keywords.

There are people who need a fixed date when they have to publish their next post. For them, a fixed blogging schedule can be better. They need the alarm to ring “write a new post” – if you need that you have to figure out a schedule that works for you and set a reminder in your calendar or to-do list.

The elements and benefits of a content calendar is a story for a different post. Maybe you don’t even need a full-blown content calendar but a recurring reminder in your calendar that pops up in regular intervals and reminds you to create a new post.

But to do so, you have to find and answer to the question “How often should you post on your blog?”

The truth about blog traffic and your blogging schedule

There is a connection between your blogging schedule and your blog traffic. I don’t want to deny this when a quick search will bring your statistics like this:

Important Note: The data and image come from an article published on the Hubspot blog in 2016 and updated in 2017. In their most recent study about blogging frequency and its connection to blog traffic published in January 2024 they say that you can’t ignore Google’s shift toward high-quality content over quantity:

There is also a proven connection between the quality of content, the time you invest into creating your blog content, the depth of the content and the extra effort you put into visuals:

High-frequency content creation is diametrally opposed to creating in-depth, long-form content that provides visuals and data.

Images from Orbitmedia

There are many factors that influence your blogging success and it is not just about the blogging frequency. The depth and value of your content, the effort you put into visuals and data also has an impact.

And you cannot have it all!

Which factors influence your optimal blogging schedule?

If the best blogging frequency can be different for every blogger, what are the factors that you need to consider when you set your blogging schedule?

Your audience

The answer to the question of “how often should I post on my blog” strongly depends on your audience. Some audiences expect frequent updates, they engage more with blogs that post often and come back for more content if they know that there is a new post every other day. 

Other audiences only want updates when you have something new to say. They get easily annoyed by filler content or unfocused content. For these audiences, you better stick to your content pillars.

Instead of chasing after a new post every day, you need to experiment with various posting schedules and test which resonates best with your audience.

If you already have an audience, for instance on social media or an email list, you can simply ask them what they prefer.

The quality of your content

The quality of your content is crucial for success. If people from your audience can get better content elsewhere, they are going to look for that better content.

You need to make a strategic decision if you want to aim for a high quality of content and accept that your content quality will suffer if you increase your posting frequency.

Either you aim for the best and most valuable content you can possibly create. This is the content that will help you to build authority and authenticity.

Or you can aim for the most published blog posts – and see where it takes you.

If your content quality suffers when you create more content, you need to take a step back and consider if losing the quality is a prize you want to pay to get more content.

In many cases, less quality means less success – often even no success at all.

If maintaining the necessary quality you need for success means you can only produce fewer pieces of content, this may be the answer.

Your goals and resources

How many blog posts can you create in which amount of time? 

There is a limit to how much content we all can create in a certain time. Most of us have other tasks like running a business, working with clients, and creating courses. If the creation of more blog content leads to missing out on your other tasks, you need to ask yourself which tasks are more important?

Beginner blogger or mature pro?

Let me be honest: Content creation gets easier with more practice. Producing better content gets faster with practice.

Also: If you already have hundreds of valuable blog posts on your blog, one or two more may not make so much of a difference as when you are starting out and your blog is more or less empty.

If you are starting out, you may want to invest more time into filling your blogging schedule with awesome content while later when you already published some high-quality pieces you should invest more time into product creation or community building and can cut down a little on your blogging frequency.

A new blog needs more content to get on Google’s radar and build authority to have a chance to rank in search.

A more mature blog that already established some credibility with Google Search can rank for content by publishing a lot less frequently.

The influence of AI on your content schedule

The following is not based on facts but on my personal opinion!

In the past months, AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini won in popularity. You can use them to help with your content creation. Creating content fast has become a lot easier. 

BUT.

Google search now penalizes content that is categorized as AI-generated.

People can detect AI-generated content that people just copy and paste without adjusting and polishing.

Content frequency is losing now against quality because frequency can be achieved very easily with the use of tools but quality and personality still are the factors making your content stand out.

Content quality becomes a rare feature if everyone just uses impersonal machine-generated content without stories and emotional storytelling.

You can set yourself apart from this type of content through storytelling and a personal touch in your blog content. This quality is a lot more important and promises a lot more success than the keyword-rich content you can create with the help of AI.

Analyzing and Adjusting Your Posting Frequency

Since I am not giving you a number as the answer to “How often should you post on your blog” you need some ideas how you can figure out the answer for your situation.

And while I would say, that “gut feeling” plays a part in your decision for a posting schedule, you can still watch some numbers and reactions.

Keep in mind that all of these are long-term observations. The answer does not lie in things happening once or chance peaks.

Traffic:

What happens to your traffic if you post more often? Does it increase?

Then you may want to aim for more content – but keep in mind this will only work if you can keep up the quality of your content.

Comments:

Do you get more comments if you post more often? 

This can be because people come back for more if they know when you post – like: publishing a post every Monday may inspire people from your audience to check for your new post every Monday.

Social media:

A fresh perspective, a new point of view from a new post can increase likes and shares on your social media. If new content improves the quality of your social media posts, it may also help to grow your audience in your social channels.

Not every social media post needs a new blog post though. Sometimes a quick tweet or LinkedIn post is enough.

Audience

If you have an email list or a large social media audience, you can also ask them for their opinion. Be careful about the answers as often people like to get more especially if it is free but then don’t act on it. This means they may tell you that they want more content but it does not mean they are going to consume it or engage with it.

Practical Tips for Maintaining a Consistent Posting Schedule

I found it easier to be consistent with my blog publishing schedule when I published more often.

Since I decided to go slow on my content creation and rather focus on the quality of my content, I sometimes get lost in the other things I do and forget about creating a new post.

If you are like me, you may want to set a reminder in your calendar. For instance, if you publish one post a month, you can set a reminder on each first Monday that you need to create a new piece of content.

If you want to plan out your topics into your posting schedule and use the content schedule strategically, you should use a content calendar that not only tells you to create a new piece of content but also what topic is due.

For me, finding a topic is often almost as time-consuming as creating the content. That’s why I collect topic ideas in various places on my laptop and in a notebook. This way, I often already know what topic I am going to cover next long before I sit down to create the blog post.

How often do you blog? Do you focus on quality or quantity in your blogging schedule?