The Best Days And Times To Publish Blog Posts (Based On Data)

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!

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.

The best times and days to publish blog posts based on social media

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

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.

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