Does Blog Post Frequency Really Affect Traffic?

How often you should post on your blog is often a hotly debated topic. Whether you post weekly (lazy!), every few days (me), daily (me with ideas), or multiple times a day (HOW?!?!?!), though, it’s clear that it does have an effect on traffic.

WHY?
There are three main ways in which blog post frequency affects traffic:

• More posts = more indexed pages = more search engine visitors = more pageviews (this also applies to blogging consistency.)
• More posts = more content for readers to absorb = more pageviews.

• More posts = more resources for the reader = more likely they’ll return to the site/link to you = more pageviews/publicity

All of these seem to show this seems to point to one thing: the more you post, the more traffic you’ll generally get. In most cases, this is true - you just have to make sure your content doesn’t suck and your readers aren’t getting overwhelmed if you put out more than one post per day (this is why I don’t read Problogger).

SO, IN CONCLUSION…
Posting on your blog more often generally leads to more traffic. Can you still have a successful blog and post once a week? Yes. Will it be harder than if you posted daily? Generally. Just remember that frequent posts should take a backseat to post quality and marketing - you can be successful with the latter two but expecting visitors just because you crank out a bunch of generic, boring posts every day is folly.

The 10 Best Ways To Increase Blog Traffic

SEO
Without a doubt SEO has been my favorite way to get traffic to my blogs. The Google algorithm loves blogs, which makes SEO a very good way to get traffic to your blog.

Commenting
Leaving comments on blogs in related niches is a great way to get new targeted traffic to your blog. It is also an excellent way to build relationships with other bloggers which leads me to number 3…

Networking
Networking is possibly the single most important skill for making big money online. It is also a great way to build traffic to your blog.

Word Of Mouth
Simply tell your friends and family about your blog and/or specific posts on your blog. You will be surprised by how much traffic that can generate.
Linkbait
Create posts that are designed to grab people’s attention. Controversial posts are often associated with linkbait, but there are plenty of other ways to create linkbait. 101 lists make for good linkbait and so do posts that are out of the ordinary in some way.

Link Out
Link liberally to other blogs in your posts. Many bloggers keep track of incoming links to their blog and will come check out your blog when you link to them. This can also help you get comments.

Stumbleupon
I am a big fan of using stumbleupon for getting traffic to your blog. If you haven’t signed up for it you should. Stumbleupon is this blogs third best traffic source, behind retuning visitors, and Google.

List Posts
I have found that posts with lists (like this one) generate more traffic to your blog. They tend to get bookmarked and voted on more on social sites. The more list posts you write the more traffic you will get.

Blog Memes
Create a blog meme and tag other bloggers. Participating in blog memes has definitely increased my blog traffic. One blog meme in particular really helped this blog out and I never even participated in it.

Quality Content
Quality content is the key to keep people coming back for more. If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will come back regularly to read your posts. Having regular readers is a great way to increase blog traffic.

Those are the ten best ways I have found to get traffic to my blogs. What are your favorite ways to get traffic to your blog?