A question often asked by new bloggers is “how often should I publish?” The answer is – as often as you possibly can.

The reason for this is that you need an extensive pool of information to allow you to promote your content effectively. Twitter, for instance, is one of the main social media platforms for promoting content and you should really be tweeting every hour, 24 hours, seven days a week. This is already a tedious job, and if you only have five articles on your blog, it becomes nearby impossible.

This article discusses the benefits of blogging consistently in relation to your overall website traffic and lead generation – and is based on HubSpot’s Marketing Benchmarks From 7,000 Businesses report.

Publishing Schedule in Relation to Website Traffic

When it comes to the effectiveness of blogging in driving traffic to your website, frequency matters. In fact, companies that blog 15 or more times per month get 5X more traffic than companies that don't blog at all. And if you're a small business, increasing your blogging frequency can move the needle even more. Small businesses (1-10 employees) tend to see the biggest gains in traffic when they publish more articles.

- Pamela Vaughan (2012).

Bloggers should make use of editorial calendars and publishing schedules to ensure that posts are uploaded regularly. It’s a good idea to have back-up articles planned in case someone can’t publish when they’re supposed to. Making use of contributing writers also eases the work load. Also, try to stay consistent in how often and when you post. For example, if readers know to expect a new post every second day, they’ll never be disappointed when wanting to read your latest article.

How does the total number of blog posts you've published to your business blog -- past and present -- affect traffic?

Remember, because the articles you publish get indexed in search engines and shared through channels like social media, the impact your business blog has on traffic isn't just limited to the articles you publish this month. By committing to regularly publishing blog content, over time you'll have built up a powerful arsenal of content.

An average company will see a 45% growth in traffic when increasing total blog articles from 11-20 to 21-50 articles. And for all you B2C companies out there, keep in mind that B2C companies see a 59% increase in traffic after growing total blog articles from 100 to 200 total.

- Pamela Vaughan (2012).

An important fact to note is that you should be promoting all of the content on your blog. It doesn’t matter how old the article is, as long as it is still relevant. Creating evergreen content allows you to promote all of your content, making the job much easier than if you could only promote your latest posts.

Publishing Schedule in Relation to Lead Generation

Blogging frequency matters not just in terms of the impact blogging has on driving traffic to your website. It's also critical when it comes down to the effectiveness of blogging in generating actual leads. In fact, companies that increase blogging from 3-5X/month to 6-8X/month almost double their leads. And if you still need to be convinced that you should start a business blog to begin with, keep in mind that B2B companies that blog only 1-2X/month generate 70% more leads than those that don't blog at all. In other words, blogging even just a little bit can make a big dent on your leads goal if you previously weren't blogging at all.

- Pamela Vaughan (2012).

Implementing call-to-actions on your blog posts makes it easy for readers to get one step closer to becoming your client.

How does the total number of blog posts you've published to your business blog -- past and present -- affect lead generation?

Making your blog a long-term asset by publishing a lot of content over time makes a big difference. This is evidenced by the fact that the average company with 100 or more total blog articles is more likely to experience continued lead growth, and even more compelling -- companies with over 200 blog articles generate >5X the leads than those with 10 or fewer.

- Pamela Vaughan (2012).

Publishing evergreen content obviously pays off when looking at the above mentioned figures.

So, to place everything together: write quality content, publish often and promote as much as you can. After a while you’ll start seeing increases in your overall traffic as well as your leads.

Carina Claassens is a Writer for Sound Idea Digital | carina@soundidea.co.za | www.soundidea.co.za

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