I wrote about the importance of consistent blogging for your business last week, and this post goes hand in hand. Once you’re sold on the value of blogging consistently, a blogging schedule is suddenly your best friend. So tell me, what kind of blogging schedule do you have?
Ha, trick question. If you’re new to business blogging, you have no schedule. But we can remedy that asap. Here’s the secret to the perfect blogging schedule: there is no perfect blogging schedule. Or, to be more precise, there is no single perfect blogging schedule. That’s because the perfect schedule boils down to your business and your content and your goals.
Examples, please
For one of my clients, Metal Roof Network, we blogged like crazy – three to six posts a week – right out of the gate for months on end. We had mountains of content to share, so we didn’t duplicate information and we weren’t sharing to social media yet either. It was a smart move for two reasons – it boosted our organic ranking like crazy and it showed us very clearly which content served as our best performers. Turns out, people really, really care about metal roofing prices. And metal roofing colors. And copper roofing. So we honed in on that, and we continue to write posts relating to those topics, even though we aren’t posting multiple times a week anymore. We also figured out that Friday is a great day to publish, since people are home on the weekends and apparently searching the web for a new roof.
My industrial real estate client, Miller Industrial Properties, had lots of great content as well. We ran through stacks of information in really informative, effective posts published on a weekly schedule when we started, and we’ve continued that pattern for the last year and a half. Again, our organic rank has skyrocketed for relevant search terms, and we’re growing our subscriber list slowly but surely.
Since the beginning of 2015, I’ve had three new clients take me up on my steal of a blogging deal – four posts per month for a flat rate – and I’m excited to see their numbers rise. For Pretty Little Paper Company, Salon Lux and Avishi Organics, blogging weekly is going to translate to increased readership and organic rank. It’s a schedule that works for these small businesses to start, and we’ll see how it needs adjusting going forward.
Stay loose
That’s another part of finding the perfect blogging schedule – flexibility. You might find that posting twice a week is really the way to go in terms of numbers. Or you may find that weekly is just enough without running out of things to write and without annoying your audience. Don’t worry about boxing yourself in to a rigid schedule if the idea stresses you out. I work well to deadlines, so knowing I need to have posts written for this client on Tuesday and those clients on Wednesday keep me on task. But that’s a personal preference. If the idea of having to post something every single Thursday terrifies you, commit to publishing during the work week at the very least. You can work your way up to the specific day down the line.
You can break down a blogging schedule beyond the day too. There are statistics galore about the best time to publish for page views, engagement, Facebook shares, retweets and more, but let me summarize it for you here: publish new posts in the morning between 8 and 11 on Mondays, Fridays or Saturdays. Share your posts to Facebook in the morning and to Twitter in the afternoon to take advantage of the most social sharing. Now this being said, you have to keep your audience in mind. You could be missing your prime publishing time if you’re committing to Saturdays when all your readers are enjoying time away from the computer.
So I guess there is a secret to the perfect blogging schedule after all – good ol’ trial and error. Start strong, adjust as necessary and share the good stuff. And if you need some help, you know where to find me.