As more businesses use blog content to boost their SEO and to engage with their customers, two common questions come up: How often should they post new blog content to their website, and how long should that content be? The way website owners answer these questions will have a profound effect on the effectiveness of a content marketing campaign. In this brief article, we will cover a few of the factors to keep in mind when deciding how often and how much to post in blogs for your website to boost SEO.
Generally speaking, website owners should post as much blog content to their site as they reasonably can. Most commercial websites remain relatively static from when they are first set up. New blog content is keeps the site fresh by ensuring there’s always something new to look at and learn from. According to Meaningful Brands, 84% of people expect brands to produce content that entertains, provides solutions and produces experiences and events.
Furthermore, every blog posted to a website is an opportunity for the brand to create new pages that showcase their more-important keywords. Besides the obvious benefit to SEO, having more recent pages about a topic will help the content appear in more search results. If a search engine algorithm has a choice between relevant content that written years ago, and another article from the last few months, it’s likely to give the more recent article higher placement. According to 2018 research from Kumo, 51% of content consumption derives from organic search.
Website owners should try to remain consistent with their blog posting schedule. Start with a simple goal of posting one blog post every week or every other week. This consistency will give the audience a reason to periodically check back with the website. Additionally, a haphazard schedule can make it less likely for someone to return to the site since there’s no guarantee that there will be something new to read.
The other thing that website owners need to consider is the size of each blog post. When writing about something in your subject matter, there’s a tendency to go overboard and to try and cram as much information as possible into a blog post. A blog post that’s too long runs the risk of alienating someone who might consider reading the post. Once a blog post exceeds 1,000 to 1,500 words, it becomes more likely that only the most committed audience members will make it to the end.
On the other end of the spectrum, writing short blog posts that are less than 300 words long may be too short to capture the attention of someone looking for information. An article that’s just 300 words long only comes out to a few paragraphs. If someone is looking for accurate, in-depth information, there’s a good chance that they won’t find everything they need in such a short article. The same is true is for search engines, if someone is searching for an answer to a question, they are more likely to be better served by a longer article than something really short.
While there are no hard and fast rules, 500 words is a good starting point for any blog post. It’s enough space to make a coherent article that the audience will find enjoyable. For blog posts that are corporate announcements or fun diversions, a shorter post may be appropriate. On the other hand, an article may need to be much longer if there’s a lot of information that needs to be shared with the audience. Just remember to break up the text with useful H2 and H3 headlines, so it’s easier for the audience to find what they’re looking for in all of the text.
If you’re interested in adding more blog content to your website, Small Business SEO can help. Our team of writers can produce engaging content on a wide range of topics. Send us a message online to learn more about a our content writing services and to get a see how effective blogging can improve your business.