Unless you have some sort special software that tracks how many unique individuals visit each article, you may never know whether some of your best content is being read or not—especially if your readers are on the shyer side and typically don’t leave any comments.
While you may not be able to track unique article visits, there are things you can do to ensure that your best blog post content (particularly the controversial and buzz worthy posts) are not buried underneath the rubble because you posted your article at the wrong time—yes, there are certain time periods where readers are most likely to flood your blog and read your material, no matter if they choose to leave comments or not. That said, to learn the various times that you should (or shouldn’t) publish content on your blog, continue reading below.
Never Publish on the Weekends
If you have a really great article that you think your audience will love, it’s best to save it and post it on a mid-week day, such as a Tuesday or Wednesday (Mondays are not recommended because your audience is just recovering from the weekend and may not be able to focus on a great read). That said, the weekends are just as bad because readers will be too busy unwinding and spending time with their families and thus won’t even bother opening a lap top to read—and who can blame them? It’s their break from a hard work week and sometimes reading an article during their down time is too much of an effort. Whether you consider Friday as part of the weekend is up to you but do know that it comes with both its advantages and disadvantages: you risk losing readers who only work-4 day weeks, but you may just very well get the readers who have easy work-days on Friday and thus have time to catch up on some reading.
Never Publish on or Near a Holiday
Similar to posting on the weekends, it’s an even a more terrible idea to publish important posts on or near a holiday. People will be busy running errands and prepping, while others will be out of town. Your post will certainly not get the attention it deserves simply because your readers are out celebrating.
Never Publish After 5 P.M.
For those who are familiar with a 9-to-5 working scheduling, when 4:50 p.m. rolls around most shut off their computers and their brains along with it. Instead, some experts suggest posting your articles early in the morning is best. It makes sense. Not only are your readers’ minds fresh and rejuvenated, which enables them to absorb information with more ease, but your readers will most likely give themselves an hour or so to read emails, check up on some headlines, check social media, and read blogs before really kick-starting their day and being productive at work. But this really all depends on your target audience. If you blog for stay-at-home moms for example, early mornings may not be best—they’re busy sending their kids off to school and making breakfast. If you have an international audience, time zones will be different. But if you target professionals who typically work at computers for example, early mornings or near lunch time (10 a.m. to 11 a.m.) can be really effective.
Never Publish Integrated links to Twitter and Facebook Just Once
Lastly, if you depend on the power of social media to bring traffic to your blog, you should always post links to your best content at least twice. To figure out the best times, you need to first evaluate your Facebook friends and Twitter followers and discover what times do they condone in their highest and lowest activity.
Publishing your link during a high activity time will mean that it can potentially be seen by more people; however it may very well get buried underneath the tons of status updates and tweets. Posting a link during low activity times on the other hand may mean that you less exposure, but the ones that are online will definitely see your link. To cover all grounds, you should post during both high and low activity times.
3 Comments
great post alvina, thanks for the tips!
Excellent points on timing. I would also add that if you’re going to post a new blog entry and tweet it, Friday at 4pm is the peak time to get a tweet noticed.