What's the Best Time to Publish Your Blog?
You've slaved away to craft the perfect blog post. You've written a careful introduction that grabs the reader, filled it with relevant and carefully optimized content that will provide value and create the need to perform some sort of action. You are ready to hit "publish," but before you do, look at the clock.
Have you been working late into the night? Is it pushing midnight or later? Then you may want to pause before pushing the publish button.
Perhaps you didn't do the writing. Maybe you posted freelance writing jobs online to buy the skills of a writer. Maybe you've invested time in creating a post filled with relevant curated content to share with your readers. Regardless, that post represents an investment, and you want to make the most of it. The time of day when you publish your blog post can have a significant impact on the amount of traffic you see, so take some time to understand these statistics before you post.
High-Activity Hours
If you publish your post during the daytime, when more people are awake and online, you will see more traffic and more comments and sharing activity. Breaking the daytime down further, the morning is the time when the most traffic happens. People grab their phones or tablets and scroll through their feeds in the morning before starting their days. Close to 80 percent of traffic comes during this time of day, according to DashBurst.com.
Even within these morning hours, you can strategize even further. Maybe you want to get more inbound links to improve your SEO. The highest number of inbound links are posted at 7:00 a.m., so you will want your post live at this teem. Maybe your goal is to increase engagement and comments. Then 9:00 a.m. is the best time to have your blog live, as this is the high point for number of comments.
Yet, morning is not without its drawbacks. This time is when most blogs are posted. While you will see more traffic, you may notice a high bounce rate because the amount of noise in the blogosphere is going to distract your readers. Your post could also get lost in the vast number of posts online during this time.
Day of the Week Differences
Not only does the time of day matter, but so does the day of the week. The average blog gets the most traffic on Mondays. Interestingly, blogs see more comments on Saturdays, when people aren't dealing with the time constraints of the work day. If your goal is to get links, you'll have the most success on Mondays and Thursdays. Are you looking for social shares? SocialFresh.com indicates Thursdays bring the highest number of shares per day.
This data can seem overwhelming when all you want to do is hit "publish" and send your piece on its way. What can you take from it? In order to maximize your blog post, you need to know what your goals are. Once you have identified your goals, look over this data to determine the time of day that will best help you meet those goals. Then, hit "publish" with confidence, knowing you will have the best possible chance of reaching your specific goals. Contact us today to learn more about maximizing the content on your sites.
Nicole H is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
