How Often Should You Post to Your Business Blog?
By Brad Stitgen
A common concern business owners have when deciding whether or not to include a blog on their business website is how often will it need to be updated. Truthfully, there really is no one right answer. As is often the case, it really just depends. The following are some guidelines to help you determine what’s best for you and your business.
Check out the competition.
A good way to determine how often you should blog is to check out the blogs in your industry or in similar industries. When doing this you’ll want to be sure that businesses you are looking at are similar in size. Larger organizations may have more resources to dedicate to the task, or for that matter, have outsourced to an outside service. You may find that posting one well-written blog post per month is all you’ll need to place your business way ahead of your competition. The key thing to remember is that while in some industries you may need to blog multiple times each week, or even once a day, it’s not that way for everyone. Keep in mind, you don’t need to be faster than the bear… just the other campers!
How much time do you have to spend on the task?
It’s important to be realistic as to how much time you or your team members can spend writing articles. If you have the time, and enough ideas for interesting blog posts which allow you to consistently post 2 or 3 times a week, great! If like many business owners you don’t have that kind of time to post that often it’s better to post less freqeuntly but on a consistent basis. Even if it means posting just once a month!
Tip: If your business is seasonal or you find you have some extra time and some good ideas for blog posts you may want to stockpile articles for later use. This, of course, assumes your blog posts are not time sensitive! If this option is available it really can help take the pressure off you when your time is being taken up with everything else.
Remember, Your blog is just part of your website.
For sites that are solely a blog, attempting to attract a steady readership, posting often is important. For sites that are simply a business site with a blog section, blog traffic may not be critical for the success of the site. What the blog brings to the table is a way to consistently add content in an organized and logical fashion over time. This, in turn, should help with the overall SEO for the site.
As time permits you can always increase the number of posts.
You may find that after an initial period of posting say once or twice a month that you could easily post more often. Alternately, you might find that hiring a writer or assigning the task to a team member makes sense. Either way, by having a realistic idea of how much time is needed to create posts you’ll reduce the risk that your blog will site dormant without any new content.
