You may have heard SEO experts and marketers say you need to create content on a regular basis for your blog.
While this is generally true, what counts as a ‘consistent basis’ can vary.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you publish content once a week, once a month, or once a day… consistency is the key.
Do you create and publish content whenever you can?
Maybe you stack up ten blogs and publish them all at once, or just trickle them out over time?
No matter what your publishing schedule looks like, here’s why you should work on creating content on a consistent basis.
The number one reason to publish regular content is to not let your visitors down by not meeting their expectations.
Ultimately, you get to decide how frequently you publish, but it’s important to keep your posting schedule consistent, even if it’s just once a month.
Whether you realize it or not, you create implied expectations for your visitors as soon as you start publishing content.
If you start off by publishing one article per week, your regular visitors will come to expect you to keep up that pace.
It doesn’t matter if you never explicitly promise to publish one blog per week – the fact that you start out that way will create the implied expectation that you’ll continue.
Unfortunately, unfulfilled implied expectations can make visitors feel let down and disappointed.
It’s a tricky situation because implied expectations become very real in people’s minds – just as real as explicit agreements – and it’s something you’ll want to manage from the start.
There is no ideal publishing schedule that applies to everyone.
The ideal schedule is personal and ultimately depends on how often you can realistically publish content to your blog.
The only exception would be if you’re in a fast-paced industry where people need to consume fresh content daily.
For instance, you probably can’t get away with posting once a week if you run a local news blog.
To figure out how often you should publish, determine a pace that seems doable, and then scale back slightly to allow for those times when you just can’t get your content written on time.
This will also allow you to create a bunch of content ahead of time to always have something on hand.
For instance, if you think you can publish every two weeks, scale back to publish every three weeks. At least to start.
Don’t just create your schedule arbitrarily, though. Sit down and create content on that schedule and see how it works.
Learn what you can realistically do before you make a commitment.
Do you have a regular fan base? The fact that people love your content is a great reason to publish regularly.
People love reading their favorite blogs and their loyalty will only increase the more content you publish.
If you think people don’t read blogs, think again. According to survey data published by Hubspot, 60% of participants said they read blogs on a regular basis.
That’s a lot of people.
When asked why they read blogs, they gave several important answers:
These are excellent reasons to read a blog, and they’re also good clues for you to start creating regular content.
These reasons provide a roadmap for you to either start creating content people want to read, or fine-tune your existing content to focus on what matters to your audience.
If you run a professional business, look for ways to provide new information to your audience and teach them something new.
Don’t forget that people love to laugh and humor is a big part of entertainment.
If you can throw in some humor once in a while, you’ll gain more loyalty from your readers.
You’re probably heard the phrase, “content is king.” This is absolutely true, and fresh content drives the internet. It also helps you with search engine optimization (SEO).
First of all, fresh content is brand new content. It’s not making updates to existing pages. When you add fresh content to your site, you get the following SEO benefits:
The bottom line is that fresh content will get indexed in the search engines and will drive new traffic to your site while keeping existing visitors engaged.
Who wouldn’t want a site with an abundance of content?
The more content you have, the easier it is to get people to visit your site because each piece of content is like one hand reaching out from the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to draw people to click through to your site.
Although you want an abundance of content, you can’t just publish any content.
It has to be high-quality and provide real value to your visitors.
Some of the most popular websites on the internet have tens of thousands of blog posts, and although it seems overwhelming, it’s not.
Most visitors only see a handful of blog posts while visiting a website.
They can search for more content if they want, or they can consume what they came for and bounce.
Each piece of content you publish increases your chance of getting visitors searching for keywords and related phrases.
If you only publish 20 blogs, you only have 20 chances of getting ranked for your related keywords and phrases.
However, if you publish blogs on a regular basis, you’ll continuously increase your chances of getting found in the search engines. This is how you want to approach your content strategy.
The more content you produce, the more of your market you can reach.
Your market is made up of smaller, more targeted segments or niches, and the best way to reach those segments is by crafting highly specific content written just for them.
For example, say you run a marketing company and you mostly work with law firms.
You’ll want to publish individual blog posts to cover the details regarding all areas of practice.
For instance, you’ll need separate posts to reach attorneys that specialize in criminal defense, DUIs, medical malpractice, and personal injury cases.
Even within each practice area you’ve got plenty of opportunity to dive deeply into individual topics.
If you write blogs that speak to twenty different practice areas, you could end up with hundreds of unique blogs that show up in the search engines when all types of attorneys search for marketing advice.
Reaching lawyers in different practice areas is just one example.
The same logic applies to any market. When you create a plethora of specific, targeted content, you can narrow down your focus in each article and get specific with your messages to reach whatever segment you’re after.
Publishing regular content can help you develop authority in your niche.
With authority, people will start returning to your blog to look for more information when the need arises.
They’ll link to your content when publishing related articles, and your pages will start showing up higher in the SERPs.
There are some blogs that get linked everywhere as the go-to authority in their industry.
For example, HubSpot pretty much dominates the niche of online marketing advice.
The volume of content they produce is enormous, but it’s also high-quality, informative, and extremely helpful.
There’s no doubt that anyone searching for marketing advice will come across HubSpot articles.
Their blog has become an authority in the industry. Since their blog is frequently cited by authors across the internet, they’ve also acquired a generous number of well-deserved, organic backlinks.
You can also develop this type of authority by publishing high-quality content en masse.
It’s not something you can do overnight, but with a long-term content development and marketing strategy you can work your way up to gain authority in your niche.
There’s no way to publish too much information. If you have something important to say or information to share, don’t hold back.
There are many industries that have endless angles to cover, and if that applies to you, it’s okay to publish as much content as you can produce. As long as it’s quality content, there really is no limit.
Publishing plenty of content is a great way to demonstrate your depth of expertise in your industry and niche.
It’s also an opportunity for you to share more expertise with your audience as you grow within your industry.
To get an edge on your competition, try to cover subjects that aren’t readily covered by other blogs in your industry.
Look for opportunities to produce content that your competitors miss. Or, look for ways to bring new light to existing topics that aren’t being discussed anywhere else. Don’t be afraid to publish controversial viewpoints. Sometimes those will draw in the most people.
Also, don’t hesitate to get pretty detailed. You might be surprised at how many people look for small bits of information or obscure topics related to your industry.
You might end up generating all the search engine traffic for those topics if you’re the only one discussing them.
Having a variety of blogs on your website makes content marketing easier.
With content marketing, you’ll be crafting articles to publish on other people’s websites that contain backlinks to one of your webpages.
However, you can’t just toss in a link. It has to be relevant to the publisher, and the more specific your content, the better.
If you’re ready to create a strong foundation for content marketing, boost your SEO rankings, and acquire some authority in your niche, it’s time to start publishing regular content.
Don’t have a blog yet? If you need an easy platform for publishing content, get in touch with us today.
Tell us about your business and your industry, and we’ll help you add a blog to your website so that you can start earning the authority and SEO credibility you deserve.
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