The Science of Social Timing

part 3

Timing & Blogging

Timing is everything, and maintaining a blog is no exception to the rule. Learning when your audience is tuning in, and therefore when to post, is mandatory for any successful blog. In the third and final part of this series were going to explore how timing can affect your blog readership. Data courtesy of Dan Zarrella (@danzarrella) and searchengineland.com (@sengineland). Note: the data below is presented in Eastern Time (EST) unless otherwise noted.

poSTing Time proS and conS

post submissions during high-activity hours (day time)

proS conS
More visitors.

1 2

1 2

Content gets buried by other posts. Loses prominence due to noise.

your post

More comments and engagement.

Higher bounce rate due to noise.

your post

post submissions during low-activity hours (night time)

proS conS
Less noise. More prominence.

1 2

1 2

Fewer visitors.

your post

Easier front page promotion.

Fewer comments and engagement.

your post

when do uSerS read blogS?

80%

key Takeaway
the highest percentage of users read blogs in the

40%

MORNING
Morning AM Hours Afternoon Evening PM Hours Night The chart to the left tells us when users report reading blogs. Most users read blogs throughout the daynot just at one specific time. 70% of users say that they read blogs (among other times) in the morning.

0%

men vS. women: reading blogS aT nighT

60%

key Takeaway

MEN
Men Women Evening Men Night Women

30%

a higher percentage of men read blogs in the evening and night

0%

blog viewS by day

140

key Takeaway
the average blog usually gets the most traffic on

70

MONday
Sunday Wednesday Saturday

blog viewS by hour

200

key Takeaway
the average blog usually gets the most traffic around

100

11 am
12am 6am 12pm 6pm 11pm

commenTS by day
6

key Takeaway
the average blog usually gets the most comments on

satuRday
Sunday Wednesday Saturday

commenTS by hour
9

key Takeaway
the average blog usually gets the most comments around

4.5

9 am
12am 6am 12pm 6pm 11pm

linkS by day
1.4

key Takeaway
the average blog usually gets the most inbound links on

0.7

MONday & thuRsday

key Takeaway
the average blog usually gets the most inbound links around

Sunday

Wednesday

Saturday

linkS by hour
3.5

1.8

7 am
12am 6am 12pm 6pm 11pm

linkS & Traffic by poSTing frequency

300k

key Takeaway
If you post more than once per day, your chances of getting more unique views and inbound links are greater.

150k

Unique views Inbound Links per month Fewer than 1 post per day

Unique views Inbound Links per month More than 1 post per day

unique viewS by poSTS per day

1.8m

key Takeaway
The vertical coordinate represents the number of unique views per month. And the horizontal coordinate represents the number of posts per day. According to the data, as the number of posts-per-day increases, the number of unique views per month also increases.

0.9m

15

23

30

@danzarrella, @sengineland

data co ur tes y o f

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