Blog posting is not just writing but continuous writing for years! It is brainstorming great informative ideas and posting them. In another post, we explained how to plan your blog schedule for a year at a time. One way to ensure that you have new content is to create a schedule for your blogs. By using some technology, you can set your posts to post in the future. That way you can post at the perfect time even if you are out of the office. So if you have a packed week; you can write ahead of time and set a date for posting. In this article, we explain how to schedule blog posts.
So, if you want to see how to do it or you’re struggling with your blog scheduling, this article is for you!
Why would you want to schedule blog posts for a certain day?
You might not know, but posting time plays a role in the growth of your blog site. So align your schedule on a specific date or time that gets you the most views. In posting your blogs, determine your aim or goal. If you want to make your posts go viral or increase your blog traffic, finding the perfect time to post will help you.
So if you want views, comments, or social media engagements, read on.
Why would you want to schedule blog posts for a certain time?
The timing of posting is one important factor you can set. First, you will need to determine the best time to post your blog post. Consider your readers or viewers. When do you think your ideal reader is reading your blog? This should be your starting question. This will give you ideas about the best time to do your scheduling. You might also want to review your website statistics and filter on pages that your blog. That might be in a folder like “/blog/”. Then review the data by day of the week and time. You will probably see some patterns. Maybe your best hours and days are weekdays from 10 am to noon. If your audience is in multiple time zones, it will be more complicated. What about social interaction? When does that usually happen? You want to have blog posts to happen when you have time to share it on social media on the same day. Maybe look at the past retweets and social shares that happened.
What is the best time and day of the week to post?
Many have tried to test the best day of posting blog posts, and the majority came up on Mondays. This may depend on your goal. For more traffic or views, post it on a Monday. While for most social shares, the best day would be Sunday or Tuesday. You can try this suggested schedule and test it for yourself. Your audience will be different. You will see much different behavior if your ideal reader is a business person versus if it is consumer.
For most businesses, the best time of posting is in the mornings at 9 AM. Well, it is expected that most people check their phones, laptops, or computers in the mornings. Again, this is only a suggestion. You can try it or venture on a different time and test it yourself. Do not fret; there are various ways of monitoring your engagements. You could try one post at 9am, then 10am, then 11am for the third blog post. When do you get the most traction?
How to schedule blog posts on WordPress.com?
The good thing about blog sites is their built-in features such as Posts and Pages scheduling. Certainly, WordPress.com has it! To make the most of this feature, the following are the steps in scheduling posts on WordPress.com:
- After creating your post or page, you can choose to schedule when to publish it by clicking on the sidebar of the post or page editor, the Post/Page settings.
- You will see Status and Visibility section, click “Immediately” which is next to Publish.
- Then select your preferred date and time for publishing your post or page.
- Finally, confirm the schedule of your post or page by clicking “Schedule”.
To make sure that you have already scheduled a post or page, you should be able to see a dot beneath the date on the calendar. The Publish button will change into Schedule.
How to schedule blog posts on WordPress.org blogs?
Scheduling in WordPress.org is similar and as easy as WordPress.com. Still, to walk you through the steps, these are what you will have to do:
- If you want to publish or republish a post or page, navigate to the Publish box right next to the Post Editor, you will clickable Edit links.
- Click the Edit link after Publish Immediately.
- Then select your preferred date and time for publishing your post or page.
- Finally, click the OK button to confirm the schedule.
Take note that when you are setting a schedule in the PM, you will use the 24-hour clock where 1:00 PM will read as 13:00. The time will be based on your location, as stated in the Settings, which can be found on the General Page. You will notice too that the button Publish immediately will now show Schedule for (date and time scheduled).
How to schedule blog posts on Blogger.com?
Surely, blogs can also be scheduled on Blogger.com. Here’s how:
- If you want to schedule the publishing of a draft blog or a newly created blog, go to Posts under the blog name or the title of the post.
. - Navigate to the right sidebar which is next to Published on, and click the drop arrow.
- Then select set date and time.
- Now choose your preferred date and time for publishing your post or page.
- Finally, click Publish.
You can check the scheduled posts in the Scheduled tab since this is where these posts will automatically appear.
How to schedule blog posts on Squarespace.com?
Scheduling of posts and automatically publishing it on such a schedule is possible in Squarespace.com in two ways. This is how you do it:
On the edit page,
a. Navigate to the “Done” button, and select Schedule.
b. Use the slider and choose your preferred date and time for publishing your post or page.
c. Finally, click Schedule.
On the settings:
a. On the top-right corner, click Settings.
b. Find Content and click Status.
c. Then click Scheduled,
d. On the slider, choose your preferred date and time of publishing your post or page.
e. Click Back then Save.
f. Finally, navigate to Done and select Schedule.
No worries as to the scheduled post, it will automatically be published on the specified date and time.
Can you change blog posting dates after it has been posted?
Yes! Worry no more because you can definitely change the posting date even after you have posted it. This will, however, differ as to the platform you are using. This is how you can redo it corresponding to the blog platform:
WordPress.com
A published post or page can still be changed on a different posting date. You will just have to edit the date and time it was published, then click Schedule. The post or page will jump from its current position to its new posting date when the schedule arrived. It will also reflect the new publication date. What’s nice is that there will be no duplication, since the post will not be redistributed to the email subscribers.
WordPress.org blog
Changing blog dates on this platform is the same as the WordPress.com setting. Basically, just click the publish date and change it to what you want. It can be in the future, but it will not be visible until that date happens. The step is like the scheduling post or page.
Blogger.com
To change the posting date, go to Posts tab and click edit under the name of the blog that you wish to change. It will lead you to the Edit Page. On the bottom left of the screen, click Post Settings. Next find Published On and select Post Date and Time. Then change your preferred date and time. Lastly, click the Update button.
Wix.com
Changing the blog posting date on Wix.com involves the changing of the order of the blog posts. To do this, edit the post and navigate, on the left side, the Settings icon. Click the Publish Now then select the date and click your preferred date from the calendar. Finally, click the Save and Publish button.
Squarespace.com
The blog post date in Squarespace.com can be changed even after posting it. You can change it by following these steps: First, navigate to the Home Menu and select Pages; second, click the blog that you wish to change and proceed to the Blog Page panel, posting, then click Settings; third, find the Options tab, and click Status; fourth, select your preferred new date from the calendar and time on the slider; and fifth, confirm the modification by clicking Save.
Why would you want to change blog post dates after posting?
It sounds strange to change the posting date of a post already published. The following are some reasons that you might do that:
Updating of your old blog posts to maintain its relevance
Introducing corrections to ensure accuracy of contents
Abiding to the platform new policies or google algorithms
Maybe you want to change the order of your posts.
When content changes so much, you consider it new
You should be cautioned as to changing blog dates as it will naturally affect the order of your blogs and its organization. However, if the above scenarios are present, clearly, changing the blog date is material to the growth of your blog. The best thing to do is to think about the schedule of your posting.
Conclusion to How to Schedule Blog Posts
Blogging pertains not only to content creation. A huge part of it is management, which entails organizing and scheduling of posts or pages. When scheduling a post or page, you consider the strategies that you will use and stick to. The major considerations are the day and time of posting, as it affects the number of viewers, traffic, and overall engagement of your blog posts. If you want to do well in these aspects, consider the suggested timing for your post or page publishing. We hope this article was helpful to you and now you know how to schedule blog posts.
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