Setting up a blog has its benefits, but you can maximize those benefits by figuring how often you need to update it. Unfortunately, there is no single answer to how often a blog needs to be updated because it is different for people with different goals and industries.
It is important though because if you update it less often, you may end up losing readers. If you choose the other extreme and update it twice a day may be your readers will have a hard time keeping up with all the new changes. The only way to find an answer is by experimenting with different frequencies and deciding what works right for you.
1. As a solo entrepreneur
In case you are a small business owner, you may get away by updating your blog once a week. Anything less than this will make your readers lose their interest. However, if you really want blogging to work for your business, you will have to experiment a bit more.
For instance, you can publish a post twice or thrice a week – you can even go with one post per day and see how it affects your traffic and what your readers say about it. Once you know what works right, you can then work as per a schedule and stick to it, so that your readers know when to expect some new stuff from you.
2. As a beginner blogger
If you are just starting out, you may want to stick to one post a day. You need to add more content to your new blog to make Google take note of it. However, be sure to keep your posts short and concise. Publishing everyday does not mean you should come up with sub-standard content. Do it thrice a week if you find it difficult to maintain the quality.
Moreover, you should not publish the same type of posts when posting daily or every two days – mix things up by sharing image-heavy posts, video posts, how-to posts, etc.
3. As a News Blogger
When the aim is to generate money with adsense or similar means, keeping your blog up to the date, fresh and entertaining with the freshest possible news is a great effort. More reasons you give your audience to see your blog first for the first best news appearance, higher are the chances to have recurring traffic and new traffic from search engines. This may need you post as frequent as thrice a day to minimum twice a day. The best advantage comes from a group of bloggers or guest authors to make such news blog effective and running for long term.
4. As a Review Blogger
Review blogs take faster to attain authority and audience. Interestingly, the posting is completly under your control. having the blog updated with a new product review as it arrives or the news of its arrival hit the market works. It can be as frequent as twice or thrice a week.
It is worth pointing out that sometimes you can make your blog work with one post a month. It is usually when you already have a sizeable audience who understands that you will eventually come back with nice stuff. To build that type of audience, you will have to put in a great effort in the beginning.
It may take 4-5 months and even longer. It is different for every blog though, as some usually grow a huge readership in no time but others take ages. Just pay more attention to adding real value to your posts to build loyal readership.
The fact of the matter is that successful bloggers have different take on how often you need to update a blog. The best thing is to experiment, but you should give it some time. Changing things too abruptly like going from five posts a week to two posts a week is not a good idea.
Be patient and if possible, consider surveying your readers and find out what they want. This will help you find the right frequency of updating your blog.
Sunita Biddu is a digital business coach and power blogging mentor helping coaches and small business owners. She helps with building a strong and profitable online presence and reputation that creates a self-sustaining business. Sunita writes on this blog once a week about easy-to-use guides and articles about business, coaching, social media and blogging. You can grab some of her free resources and ebooks from the resources section.