How Many Blog Posts Before I Get Traffic
How many blog posts before traffic is probably one of the most common questions I hear. I totally understand why you would ask it, but the answer isn’t what you think.
Don’t you wish that you could have a given number of posts and poof the traffic started to pour in? That would be amazing if only it was the way it worked. Maybe if there was some magic number where Google says “oh hey there you are” and sends x amount of traffic. I would love it to work like that, well kind of!
Why kind of? Because if that was the way it worked, it’s likely that the number would be higher then we wanted and be discouraging. But it would be helpful if you knew at a certain number you would be good.
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How many posts do I need?
The answer to this isn’t as simple as a number. I really wish I could tell you a specific amount, but this will vary for every blog. There are so many factors that it is not a one size fits all.
Variables
There are many variables that go into how well you will do with a post. And even then, it is ultimately up to Google which ones it will show.
- Keyword research – did you do your research and find the keywords? If you are just starting out, you need long tail keywords.
- Targeted keywords – are you keeping within your difficulty range? If you are starting out, you will not rank for chili but maybe you can rank for chili with (insert something you add to your chili.) If you are targeting chili, you are out of your difficulty range.
- Niched down – I am not the best example here because I do have a general recipe blog that has everything from grilled and oven baked to dessert and breakfast. But I was thinking niched down was food blogging (as compared to all the other types of blogging.) Yeah, I was wrong… You can do a general food blog but it might be harder to rank as fast.
- Photography – is your photography amazing or is it crappy like mine was (it couldn’t get much worse then mine.)
- Theme – are you using a free theme that is not really the best for functionality and speed, or are you using an optimized theme? I first started on a free theme because I didn’t want to spend money to make money. Not a good idea, you do need to invest a little to make this work!
- Social media – are you just starting out or do you have a following? Social media is a great place for traffic but can take some time to grow.
The list can go on and on, but these are some common examples of the variables that go into how many blog posts before traffic.
Examples
You can have 3 bloggers start blogs on the same day. All in a similar niche, let’s say they are all food bloggers blogging about desserts. I love dessert so it’s a pretty good topic to discuss! Will they have the same amount of traffic if they all create the same amount of posts? What do you think?
- Has a dessert blog that is about any and everything dessert – from ice cream to tiramisu. It is a pretty broad topic for the niche, but it should be pretty easy to create plenty of content. They know very little about keyword research but a lot about making dessert. Their pictures are pretty, they have an eye for photography.
- Has a cake blog that is about every cake you can make. Niched down pretty good and should be pretty easy to come up with new content, there are a huge variety of cakes you can make. They know a lot about keyword research (maybe it’s their second blog or they took a course for research.) But they don’t have great photography skills and they really do not know the rest of SEO.
- Has a general dessert blog like number 1, everything from ice cream to tiramisu (I am getting hungry typing so please if you start a dessert blog do let me know!) They are a general topic and yes it is a great niche but just not as niched down as the cake blogger. But they know SEO, take amazing photographs and know how to use keyword research tools.
Which one do you think will see growth the fastest? If they launched their blog on the same day and created the same amount of posts, there is a good chance that number 3 will get traffic the quickest. Being good at photography and being able to really capture mouth watering food is another factor that will help them.
This is not a guarantee so please do not hold me to it, but they have a much better chance of ranking faster for the keywords. I can tell you that it doesn’t always work this way – I had the crappiest picture (no exaggeration) on a post in the beginning.
Because I was literally the only person that had a recipe for it, it took off on Google like you wouldn’t believe! Once I started learning more about photography, I cringed at the looks of this picture and had to update it.
I had no keyword research put into the post – had no idea what it was in the beginning. It has the worst picture ever and it was a pretty crappy written post. But here I was getting all the traffic because I was the only one that took this squash, cooked it and shared it with the world. Now I am no longer the only one, but I was the first one so it has been holding pretty strong.
How many blog posts should I have before launching?
I hear this question a lot! People have different ideas about launching their blog. For some, they just want to have say 10 posts drafted before publishing. Some people consider launching to be a huge public announcement after they have been telling their fans about it for a while – building up hype.
The huge public announcement really works best for established bloggers creating new blogs. They have the email lists and the following to be able to send out all the “new blog launching soon” hype.
DO NOT stress about launching. If you are asking yourself “so how many blog posts should I have before launching?” I am going to tell you 1. Seriously, just get the content out there! It takes time for Google to notice new domains, don’t delay that until you have a certain number of posts.
Get your domain, pick out your theme and make most of the customizations. This will get it out there live and no worries, it is very unlikely that people will find your blog before posts are up.
Quality beats quantity
Quality should always win over quantity. If you have 100 posts written but the pictures are ugly and there was no keyword research, you probably will not get much traffic to them.
If they show up in search but other bloggers have a more appetizing picture for that layered chocolate cake, the other bloggers will likely get the traffic. If you have an amazing photo but there are a lot of grammar errors because you were in a hurry, you may not rank as well as others for the same keywords.
Now if you have a well researched, well written post with very appetizing pictures you increase your chances for more traffic. Is it guaranteed? No, but it increases your chances.
If most of your content is crappy, it can bring down the reputation of the rest of your site too. Always focus on quality over quantity.
Does it have to be perfect to be posted? No it doesn’t. You will make changes over time, trust me you will. I am constantly updating posts as I take better pictures.
Do I have to learn everything about blogging before starting? No, you do not. You will learn more as you go then if you took a bunch of courses before starting. Hands on is always best! Go ahead and start your content, update posts as you learn more. Just be sure to update it.
How many blog posts before traffic? Now you can see why it varies for each blog and blogger.
Conclusion
There is no set answer to how much content you need to write before you start to see traffic. As much as I would love an exact answer here, it just isn’t possible.
Just remember to always push out the highest quality content you can and keep learning. Remember it doesn’t have to be perfect in the beginning, but as you learn your skills will improve. This will also improve your rankings over time. Yes done (or posted) is better then perfect, but don’t post crappy content just so you have a higher quantity of posts.
Next time you find yourself asking “how many blog posts before traffic?” I want you to instead ask yourself “what value am I adding to my readers?” If your posts are quality, they will provide a benefit to your readers.
