Post Time
Post time! A familiar phrase to horse racing fans. However, what I’m referring to is “What is the best time to publish a post?” I’m not sure if you have thought about this, but I believe it’s important.
The best time to publish a post differs depending on what your post and blog topic is. If your blog or post is about sports then the best time to post is shortly before and after the event you’re writing about. Sports fans look for immediate information on their favorite team or sport. In an hour after the game is over another is there to take it’s place. So timing here is critical.
Non-events
What if your blog is about topics not tied to any specific event like sports or, heaven forbid, the Oscars. I’m no fan of today’s cinematic offerings, generally speaking, as you can tell. The best time to post an article is when your readers are looking for it. Duh! Whoa there Captain Obvious.
The question then becomes “When are readers looking for something from me?” Check your stats. You say you don’t have stats. Okay. Do you need stats? No, if you aren’t trying to build your traffic and you post just to post and amuse yourself and anyone that bumps into your blog. And, yes if you are trying to increase traffic.
Web stats from StatPress
Web Stats
However, if you’re wanting to build traffic and followers then stats are important. There are probably hundreds of plugins and analytical tools available for you to use. Some of the most well known and free ones are Google Analytics, Statcounter, Webstats Basic, and ShinyStats. I use Statcounter on a few of my non-blog (static) sites.
If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog you can choose from several plugins. I use StatPress. I like its interface and detailed breakdown that includes the time of day when people and search engine spiders visit my site. Incidentally, you can train these spiders to visit your blog at certain times by posting at a consistent time and schedule.
A review of my stats shows most of my readers are from the U.S., about 93%. The remainder are scattered around the world. My peak readership time slot is between 10 AM and 3 PM EST. So, I set my posts to release at 10 AM.
I also know from reviewing my stats that most of the readers are during the standard work week. I, therefore, make an assumption that they are reading my blog from work (don’t let your boss catch you). By publishing at 10 AM I catch three of the four time zones when people are either cranking up their computers for the day or taking a coffee break.
Conclusion
The time of day you post and the regularity of posting are important to both your readers and to the search engine spiders. Your readers are hoping to find new information and ideas and they can be disgruntled if they visit your site to see the same old, same old. Yes, they should probably subscribe to your RSS feed or by email, but the fact is a majority of people don’t. And, won’t unless you hogtie them and make them subscribe.
Your task for today is to get some web stats installed and begin tracking your visitors and the spiders. Make sure you have about a week’s worth of data or at least 125 visitors to analyze before making a decision on when you should post. Then start your routine of punctual posting ( I just made that up. I like it “punctual posting”.
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Comments
2 Comments on Post Time
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Chelle from WAHM jobs on
Tue, 24th Feb 2009 9:22 pm
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Hal Major on
Wed, 25th Feb 2009 6:43 am
It’s hard to when exactly when to post. It really depends on your blog audience and if they are coming from search results or if they are rss subscribers. I think most importantly is consistency – something I know I need to work on myself 
Chelle’s last blog post..Becoming a Virtual Assistant
Hi Chelle,
Yes, every blogger needs to discover when their readers come lurking and adjust their posting schedule using the 80/20 rule.
One of the reasons I use StatPress is it tells me where the visitor came from. It shows if it was a RSS feed, search engine, social bookmarking site, etc.
Posting consistency is also important. I try to post at least 3 times a week. I’ll sometimes write posts in advance and schedule them for future release. Works for my blog, not so much for hot news topic blogs.
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
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