Maintaining the company blog can be a pleasure, albeit a labor intensive one. The Content Marketing institute says that 76% of B2B marketers and 72% of our B2C cousins use blogs as part of their marketing blueprint. In light of the statistics I present you with the following scenario:
You've just finished a blog post, and you're prouder than a first grader with a gold star. The post is awesome and has the potential to viral! It's got more SEO elements than you can shake a stick at, you've checked it backwards and forwards for grammatical errors, and you're ready to publish. The question is when should you publish it for maximum impact? Is there a day of the week that's better? Maybe at lunch time – but then people might not be near their computers… so when?!
There are pros and cons to any posting decision and it’s one that needs some serious thought.
Kissmetrics found in a recent study that close to 80% of people read more blogs in the morning as opposed to the afternoon. Although the bounce rate for blogs is higher during the day due to "noise" (i.e. actual work and other office activities). The Kissmetrics study also shows that the average blog gets the most traffic at 11 in the morning and that most comments are made on a Saturday and at 9am.
Tackmaven did a similar study and found slightly different results. Their study shows that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday provide for higher posting frequency. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the highest social media results come at the weekend. The highest competition for readership also comes from daytime work hours, between 9am – 5:50pm.
The best time to post a blog post essentially comes down to what you want to achieve. For less competition and more shares, post in the evenings and weekends, but be ready for your post to get less initial exposure. For higher exposure, but a higher bounce rate post on week days during work hours.
