The perfect volume of blog posts per week

Blogging has been around for years and years, often declared dead, but today, it is even more alive than ever.
If you are a (beginning) blogger, I think you often have the same question as I had. How many posts should you publish per week?

The truth is that it is different for everyone, there is no secret or perfect formula for it.
But don't be disappointed and continue reading because I will give you the numbers that should be ideal for you, your audience, and the search engines.
I visited many blogs and did research: it is very easy to come to the ideal number. Let me explain in this article.
Spoiler alert: according to Hubspot, the sweet spot is an average of 4-5 posts per week. After reading this article, you'll understand why.

What determines the right amount of posts

Several factors determine the amount of blog posts you should (or can) publish in a week: your time, your audience, the age of your blog, the niche of your blog, ...

Here are the most important factors:

Your time

If you are a hobby blogger who only writes once or twice a week after finishing your job, you cannot expect to post 5 to 10 high-quality articles weekly.
If you blog to make money and have lots of time, you can easily create five blog posts a week (research and editing included). If you are a professional and have a team of writers, 20 to 50 weekly posts should be possible.

Your niche

The niche you are blogging also plays a role in how many posts you should publish every week.
If, for example, you are blogging about 'growing vegetables on your balcony', there are only limited possibilities for topics. So, it's better only to post 1 or 2 posts per week and be consistent.
On the other hand, if your niche is AI, you should post almost daily to stay relevant and up-to-date.

The age of your blog

When you're a beginning blog (say between 0-20 blog posts), you are still looking for your style and improving your writing technique, so one to two posts a week should be possible.
If you have more experience (around 50 posts online), keyword research and writing will go more smoothly; you should be able to publish at least 4 to 5 blog posts per week.

Also, if your blog is new, it gets assigned a small crawling budget from Google (see How do search engines work). Google still needs to understand your site and is still discovering it. If you post 100 articles a day, a red light will go off at Google saying this is not natural, probably AI-generated content.
So, as a beginner, take your time and focus on quality, not quantity.

knowing your audience

Knowing your audience is also important to finding the perfect posting schedule.
If you get lots of traffic, publishing frequently (one or two posts every single day) might be a good option.
If your readers are less engaged, posting four posts once a week should be sufficient.
The key is to stay consistent and stick to your posting schedule.

What is your goal?

I think we all want to make money with our blog, but blogging is like a marathon and not a sprint.
Thousands of new blog posts are published daily, so it will take a while before Google or other search engines fully have indexed your blog.
It takes a while before Google has understood your blog and knows what it is about. In the beginning, try to publish at least 50 blog posts at your own pace. Don't expect it to be ranked in week one, it can take several months (on this blog, it takes Google up to 2 months to find relevant keywords for my posts)

Ok, you published around 50 posts in the last few months. Google starts to understand your site, and you get a few visitors per week. Now it is time to start increasing traffic (and we all know what more traffic means. Indeed, more revenue).
Compare it with fishing, the more fishing poles you have, the more chance you have to catch a fish. The more you blog, the more traffic you get. It will bring more organic traffic, and your visitors will return more often to see your new content. (Also, make sure every post is worth visiting.

So, in conclusion:

Beginner site (10-30 posts): 1-3 per week

Growing site (40-60 posts): 4-5 per week

Large sites (+ 100 posts): 1-2 per week

Bigger sites can post less often because they are already established, have posts that attract traffic, and can always update or rewrite existing posts.

How fast do blog posts rank?

how long it takes to get your post ranked

And again, there is no specific formula or rule for this. The most important factors are:

Your domain age

Google tends to prioritize older sites over new ones. They see older websites as more authoritative and trustworthy.
When you have a new site, Google still needs to learn what your site is about and what content you are publishing. Be patient, and slowly, Google will send more traffic to you.

Domain authority

Authority is a bit related to your domain age, but it's different. Authority is measured on your expertise about a certain topic, and the higher your authority, the easier it will be to get ranked.
You can gain authority by writing many high-quality posts. If you do this, the chances are higher that others will link to your site. And these backlinks play a big role in increasing your authority.

Your niche

Some niches are oversaturated when it comes to blogging.
If you are blogging in a popular niche, it will take longer to get ranked, and you probably won't get ranked on the first page as major companies already occupy these positions.
It's easier to rank when you blog about 'wedding cakes' than when your blog is about finances.

Keywords

The keyword you are SEO-optimizing for is also an important factor in how fast your blog ranks.
For beginning blogs, ranking for long-tail and low-competition keywords is easier.
Also, having original content (not just copying and rewriting other content) can speed up your ranking.

For a new site, it can take several months for search engines to find the keywords you write about. This is why it is important that you post at least 50 articles about the same topic. This way, search engines will be able to recognize what your blog is about and categorize it.
Note from the author: Don't make the same mistake as I did. I did write random articles. In my eyes, all were high-quality posts, but there was no structure in them. So, how would search engines be able to find what this blog is about? So, be consistent and try to write about the same topic as much as possible.