When you publish your blog posts can have a significant impact on your traffic and engagement.
But when should you actually be publishing your posts?
This isn’t the easiest question to answer because there are a few different ways you can look at this.
So, in this post, we’re digging through the data to simplify things for you as much as possible.
Also, while we have included key takeaways, there’s more to this topic than meets the eye. Be sure to read all the way to the end for more insights!
Key takeaways
These are the best times to publish blog posts:
- Wednesday from 9AM to 2PM
However, Monday through Friday during this same timeframe are suitable as well.
Are there universal best times to publish blog posts?
The answer to this question is yes but mostly no.
All blogs have vastly different target audiences that have different habits when it comes to consuming online content. What works for one blog may not necessarily work for another.
What we do know is that the marketing channels you use for blog promotion play huge roles in determining when those best times are.
Unless you publish blog posts directly to blogging platforms like Tumblr, WordPress.com or Medium or have your own business app, your audience will not know you published a blog post the second it goes live.
They need to be notified of this information, and that notification will likely occur in their inbox or on social media.
Therefore, you’re better off following best practices for the best times to send an email and to post to social media.
Testing conducted over a long period of time would be the only definitive way to know when the best time to publish blog posts for your target audience would be.
Fortunately, we’re going to cover all of this in this article.
What is the best blog posting schedule (according to data)?
According to a blogging statistic from HubSpot, only 18% of internet users read blogs daily.
29% of those surveyed read blogs one to four times per month while 17% never read blogs.
The majority, or 36%, read blogs at least once a week:
- Several times a day – 6% of internet users read blogs this frequently
- 4 to 6 times per week – 14%
- 1 to 3 times per week – 16%
This 36% represents blog readers who actively read blog posts by visiting the blogs directly or keeping up with them through social media.
Your job is to figure out the best times to post in order to engage these readers.
Unfortunately, the best data we have on this is from an older study published on many second-hand blogs but not the original.
This original study, The Science of Social Timing, was published in an infographic made for the now-defunct KISSmetrics blog. It included data from Dan Zarrella and Search Engine Land.
The first statistic in the study is from a survey of internet users, over 70% of whom say they mostly read blog posts in the morning.
The infographic goes on to say that blogs receive the most traffic in the week on Mondays and the most blog traffic on any given day at 11AM.
Engagement, however, is highest on Saturday at 9AM. Most blog comments are published on this day.
Key takeaways from this section
If you want to receive the most pageviews, publish blog posts on Monday at 11AM.
If you want to receive the most engagements, publish on Saturday at 9AM.
Since many of you likely promote new blog posts on social media, we’re going to cover the best time to publish new blog posts based on social shares.
Let’s start with this study from Sprout Social, a social media scheduling tool who analyzed social media posts from over 34,000 customers who use their app for social media sharing.
Specifically, Sprout Social analyzed almost 2 billion engagements collected from over 400,000 social media profiles.
According to their data, the best days of the week to post on social media are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and the best times to post on those days are 9AM to 2PM on Tuesday and 9AM to 1PM on Wednesday.
The worst time to post on social media is Sunday.
Here are the best times to post on social media for an entire workweek based on Sprout Social’s research:
- Monday – 10AM to 12PM
- Tuesday – 9AM to 2PM
- Wednesday – 9AM to 1PM
- Thursday – 9AM to 12PM, plus 2PM
- Friday – 9AM to 11AM
The best times to promote blog posts on social media by platform
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the most useful social media platforms for bloggers to use as they allow you to promote direct links to articles.
Here are the best times to publish to each of these platforms, according to Sprout Social:
- Facebook
- Monday from 8AM to 1PM
- Tuesday from 8AM to 2PM
- Wednesday from 8AM to 1PM
- Thursday from 8AM to 12PM
- Twitter
- Tuesday from 9AM to 2PM
- Wednesday from 9AM to 1PM
- Thursday from 9AM to 2PM
- LinkedIn
- Tuesday from 10AM to 12PM
- Wednesday from 10AM to 12PM
Here’s their data for other social media platforms:
- Instagram
- Tuesday from 9AM to 1PM
- Wednesday from 10AM to 1PM
- TikTok
- Tuesday from 2PM to 6PM
- Wednesday from 2PM to 5PM
- Pinterest
- Wednesday from 1PM to 3PM
- Thursday from 12PM to 2PM
- Friday from 12PM to 3PM
Hootsuite’s study
And just in case you want a little more data, here’s what Hootsuite found when they analyzed their customers’ social media engagements:
- Facebook – The best time to publish on this social media platform is Monday at 10AM
- Twitter – Friday at 9AM
- LinkedIn – Monday at 1PM
- Instagram – Monday at 9AM
- TikTok – Sunday 1PM
Key takeaways from this section
In general, the best days to publish to social media are Monday through Friday from 9AM to 2PM.
Facebook and Twitter may be the best options for you if all you want to do is promote links to your posts.
In this case, the best time for you to post is Monday through Thursday from 8AM to 2PM on Facebook and Tuesday through Thursday from 9AM to 2PM.
Hootsuite’s data on this is a little different, but these differences are a great example of why running your own tests are so important.
Even so, let’s continue.
The best publishing time for blog posts based on email marketing
In case you rely on email marketing to promote blog posts, let’s cover what the best times to send emails are.
This data comes from Moosend, who analyzed 10 billion emails sent through their platform.
Their data revealed Thursday as being the best day to send an email followed by Tuesday. These days had the best open rates with Saturday and Sunday having the lowest.
The best times to send an email are from 7AM to 10AM.
Email open rates tend to drop after 6PM.
Here are average open rates GetResponse customers receive throughout the day:
- 9AM to 10AM – Average email open rates are 21.35%
- 1PM to 2PM – 22.09%
- 5PM to 6PM – 20.74%
This data was included in Moosend’s report.
In spite of the 1PM to 2PM timeframe having the highest open rate, Moosend still thinks the morning is the best time to send an email as there’s a sharp decline in open rates as soon as 3PM comes around.
Key takeaways from this section
Send your emails between 7AM and 2PM.
However, you may receive more consistent open rates when you only send emails in the morning.
How to find the right blog post schedule for you
Data collected from trial and error in analytics tools is the best way to determine the right publishing schedule for your own blog.
Use tools in the following categories:
- Website analytics, such as Google Analytics or Clicky.
- Social media analytics, such as those collected through a social media management tool.
- Email analytics collected from your email marketing service provider.
With website analytics, you can switch your view to Day and Hourly to see which day(s) of the week and hour(s) of the day your blog receives the most organic, direct and social traffic.
This should give you a decent set of data to work with as you decide on a time and day to publish your next blog post.
You should be able to do something similar with analytics provided by the social media scheduling and email marketing tools you use.
These tools will let you see when your audience is most active on social media and within the inbox.
A more complicated way to determine the best time to post would be to run specific tests at specific times.
For instance, you could spend a month publishing at 9AM on Mondays, then a month at the same time on Tuesdays, then Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Then, compare your metrics for pageviews, bounce rate, time on site, social shares, comments, likes and open rates for each month.
Whichever month performs the best is your winner.
You could then perform the test again with a different time slot.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time to release a blog post?
Research suggests that the best time to publish a blog post is in the morning or early afternoon.
However, there’s not a schedule that works for all blogs universally, so you’ll likely need to run a few tests to determine your own optimal posting times.
What day of the week is best to publish blog posts?
Wednesday is likely the best day of the week to publish blog posts. It makes several appearances in almost every study on this subject.
However, weekdays in general are optimal, especially the middle days: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
How often should a beginner blogger post?
As often as you can so long as you’re publishing high-quality content that’s optimized for your audience.
While research suggests a correlation between higher posting frequency and higher search engine rankings, quality and consistency are far more important to search engines.
To put it simply, when you start a blog, it’s best to upload a new blog post at a posting frequency that allows you to create high-quality blog content consistently.
Sources
- KISSmetrics Study
- Sprout Social Study
- Moosend Study
