How to Build a
Better Blog Than
Your Competitors
2017 BLOGGING REPORT
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
3
HOW BLOGGING HAS CHANGED
4
HOW TO CREATE A MORE SHAREABLE BLOG POST
7
HOW TO CREATE THE BEST TITLE FOR YOUR BLOG POST
10
Length
11
Punctuation
12
Superlatives
13
Pronouns
14
HOW TO CREATE THE BEST CONTENT FOR YOUR BLOG POST
16
Length
17
Sentence and Paragraph Structure
18
Readability
20
Images and Videos
21
Punctuation
23
Numbers
26
Headers
27
Lists
29
APPENDIX
30
METHODOLOGY
32
CREATING A MORE
SHAREABLE BLOG
IS EASIER THAN
YOU THINK.
Our latest research
provides a prescription
of specific best
practices to build
the ultimate
shareable blog.
This report doesn’t just give you vague suggestions — it dives into the
the components of over 65,000 blog posts from September 2015 to
August 2016 to surface specific best practices for successful blogging.
IN THE REPORT, WE ANALYZE:
• Industry-wide trends in blogging output and impact;
• How to optimize your posting schedule;
• Best practices to increase blog shareability.
Use these best practices to craft blog posts that give you an advantage
over your competitors, attract new audiences, and win more customers.
3
HOW BLOGGING
HAS CHANGED
4
FIRST, LET’S LOOK AT THE CONTENT LANDSCAPE YOU’RE UP
AGAINST, AND WHY MARKETERS ARE GETTING LESS OUT OF THEIR
BLOG POSTS.
We examined publication data for blog posts over the last five years to find out how
blogging and blog sharing has changed. The results are staggering.
Over the past five years, the average number of blog posts published per brand
per month increased by 800 percent. Across the same time frame, the average
number of social shares per post (including shares from Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, and Pinterest) decreased by 89 percent.
Marketers are producing more blog posts, but losing the distribution power and
reader interactions provided by social sharing.
70
3500
60
3000
50
2500
40
2000
30
1500
20
1000
10
500
0
Sept. 2011 Aug. 2012
Sept. 2012 Aug. 2013
Sept. 2013 Aug. 2014
Average Number of Posts Per Brand Per Month
Sept. 2014 Aug. 2015
Sept. 2015 Aug. 2016
0
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
Average Number of Posts per Brand Per Month
AVERAGE NUMBER OF BLOG POSTS PER BRAND PER MONTH VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER POST
(SEPTEMBER 2011-AUGUST 2016)
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
5
HOW HAS BLOG LENGTH CHANGED OVER TIME?
Just over the past year, the length of blog posts has changed from an average of
639 words per post in September 2015 to an average of 718 words per post in
September 2016.
Brands aren’t just producing more posts — they are producing longer posts.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF WORDS PER BLOG POST BY MONTH
(SEPTEMBER 2015 - SEPTEMBER 2016)
800
Average Number of Words Per Post
750
700
650
600
550
500
Sept.
2015
Oct.
2015
Nov.
2015
Dec.
2015
Jan.
2016
Feb.
2016
Mar.
2016
Apr.
2016
May
2016
June
2016
Jul.
2016
Aug.
2016
Sept.
2016
6
HOW TO CREATE A MORE
SHAREABLE BLOG POST
The rise in content production and increased competition for readers’
attention means it’s becoming even more important to create shareable
blog posts.
7
THE BEST TIME TO PUBLISH YOUR BLOG POST
Timing matters when it comes to posting on your blog.
You want to avoid busy times, when a lot of brands are posting to their blogs and
there is increased competition for readers’ attention. Instead, focus on the days
and times that have proven to get posts the most attention and shares, so you can
reach an even larger audience.
What’s the most competitive time to publish your blog post?
The most competitive day of the week to publish your blog post is on
Wednesdays and the busiest time of day is 12 noon EST. That’s when the most
blog posts are published. Sunday is the least popular day of the week and 2 a.m.
EST is the least popular time of day to publish blog posts, and therefore the least
competitive.
1500
3,000,000
1000
2,500,000
950
2,000,000
900
1,500,000
850
1,000,000
800
950,000
750
MON.
TUES.
WED.
Number of Blog Posts
THURS.
FRI.
SAT.
SUN.
900,000
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
Number of Blog Posts
NUMBER OF BLOG POSTS AND AVERAGE NUMBER OF
SOCIAL SHARES PER POST BY DAY OF THE WEEK
Average Social Shares Per Post
8
THE BEST TIME TO PUBLISH YOUR BLOG POST
What’s the best time to publish your blog post?
The best day of the week to publish blog posts is Sunday, and the best time to
publish is at 3 p.m. EST. Blogs posted on Friday or at 1 a.m. EST receive the fewest
social shares.
1,600,000
1600
1,400,000
1400
1,200,000
1200
1,000,000
1000
800,000
800
600,000
600
400,000
400
200,000
200
0
12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p
Number of Blog Posts
0
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
Number of Blog Posts
NUMBER OF BLOG POSTS AND AVERAGE NUMBER OF
SOCIAL SHARES PER POST BY TIME OF DAY (EST)
Average Social Shares Per Post
9
HOW TO CREATE
THE BEST TITLE
FOR YOUR
BLOG POST
Creating an effective title, or headline, for your blog post is crucial to its
success. Your blog post’s title appears on your website, is picked up by
search engines, and is shared out on social media.
What makes up an effective title? We found best practices for length,
punctuation, pronouns, and more that you can use to improve your blog
titles.
10
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG TITLES: Length
Although it’s a common best practice to keep blog titles short enough so they
don’t get truncated by Google search results, do you really know what length
performs best?
To find the optimal length of a blog post title, we examined two metrics: number of
non-space characters and number of words.
Takeaways:
• The optimal blog title length is seven words, which averages 412 social shares
per post. In terms of character count, the optimal number of non-space
characters is 41.
• There is a definite peak for the optimal length of a blog title, with only a little
bit of wiggle room. Before and after seven words, the average number of shares
per post decreases.
NUMBER OF WORDS IN BLOG TITLE VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15+
Number of Words in Title
11
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG TITLES: Punctuation
Punctuation is used in blog titles to add information, intrigue, emphasis, and
more. We surfaced the top 10 best-performing punctuation marks in blog titles
based on average social shares. Here’s what we found:
Takeaways:
•• The vertical bar is by far the highest performing punctuation mark in blog
titles, with an average of 5,869 social shares per post. Vertical bars can often
be seen in titles to divide the headline from the name of the company, as can
dashes. If you have a choice, use a vertical bar.
•• Quotation marks — both double and single quotes — are top-performing
punctuation marks in headlines, ranking second and third in our list.
•• Using questions in titles is correlated with more social shares than
exclamation marks, with question marks ranking fourth in terms of average
social shares, followed by the hashtag symbol and exclamation marks.
TOP 10 PUNCTUATION MARKS IN BLOG TITLES
BY AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER POST
|
5,869
“
374
‘
328
?
306
#
281
!
266
,
254
-
250
:
229
;
218
12
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG TITLES: Superlatives
A superlative is an exaggerated or hyperbolic expression. To find out if using
dramatic language helps or hinders blog performance, we examined how the
number of superlatives in a blog titles affects social shares.
Takeaways:
•• Adding exciting or dramatic language boosts the shareability of a blog to a point
— but don’t overdo it. Using two superlatives in a blog title is best, with an
average of 317 social shares per post.
NUMBER OF SUPERLATIVES IN BLOG TITLE VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Blog Post
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0
1
2
3
Number of Superlatives in Title
13
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG TITLES: Pronouns
Our analysis of top performing pronouns in blog titles reveals a few interesting
insights. We looked at all versions of pronouns, treating different capitalizations,
conjunctions, and those with adjacent punctuation as unique pronouns.
Takeaways:
• Blog posts with two pronouns in the blog title get the most shares, with an
average of 446 social shares per blog post. Adding more pronouns is correlated
with a drastic decrease in social shares.
• Use the second person in titles. The best performing pronoun is “Yourselves,”
with an average of 1,253 social shares per blog post. Use of the second person
is consistently correlated with increased blog shareability, with six out of the top
10 pronouns being in the second person.
NUMBER OF PRONOUNS IN BLOG TITLE VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Number of Pronouns in Title
14
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG TITLES: Pronouns
• Use quotes in titles. Three of the top five best performing pronouns have
quotation marks associated with them. This finding is significant because it
suggests that using the second person in blog titles is most effective when
quoting an individual. It is also consistent with our analysis of the best
performing punctuation in titles, which ranks double and single quotes as
second and third in terms of average social shares per blog post.
• Using all caps doesn’t work. As seen in the appendix, where we share the full
results of our pronouns analysis, pronouns in all caps consistently rank low in
terms of average social shares per blog post.
TOP 10 BEST PERFORMING PRONOUNS IN BLOG TITLES
BY AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER POST
Yourselves
1,253
I’m
1,064
‘You
951
“You
749
‘you
733
They
639
hers
617
You
586
it
571
yourselves
570
‘They
540
15
HOW TO CREATE
THE BEST CONTENT
FOR YOUR
BLOG POST
The title serves as the hook to get readers’ attention. But it’s the meat
of your content that’s going to convince them to continue reading and
ultimately share.
16
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Length
We know the length of blog posts is increasing, but how does this affect
shareability?
As it turns out, longer blog posts tend to perform better. Posts that are 1200 to
1400 words long perform best, with an average of 428 social shares per post.
BLOG POST LENGTH (NUMBER OF WORDS) VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
450
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
1-200
200-400
500-600
600-800
800-1000
1000-1200
1200-1400
1400+
Blog Post Length (Number of Words)
17
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Sentence and
Paragraph Structure
Let’s break down blog post length into structural bites, focusing on the optimal
length for sentences and paragraphs that make up the body content.
Blog posts that average 20 words per sentence perform best, with 145 average
social shares per post. There is a definite bell curve in our results, revealing that
extremely short or long sentences on average should be avoided.
NUMBER OF WORDS PER SENTENCE VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30+
Average Number of Words Per Sentence
18
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Sentence and
Paragraph Structure
In terms of paragraph length, blog posts with short paragraphs get shared more
often. Blog posts with paragraphs that contain two sentences on average
perform best, with an average of 151 social shares per post.
NUMBER OF SENTENCES PER PARAGRAPH VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10+
Average Number of Sentences Per Paragraph
19
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Readability
Two key factors in blog shareability are the language you use and how
consumable your content is for readers. In essence, you need to focus on
readability.
To analyze readability best practices for blog posts, we used the Flesch readability
formula to score blog posts. Flesch scores on a scale from zero to 100 as follows:
very difficult (0 to 29), difficult (30 to 49), fairly difficult (50 to 59), standard (60 to
69), fairly easy (70 to 79), easy (80 to 89), and very easy (90 to 100).
Takeaways:
• Aim for content that is fairly difficult to standard to read. Blog posts with a
fairly difficult readability score perform best, with 144 average social shares per
post. Blog posts with a readability score of standard are a close second, with
142 average social shares per post.
• Avoid publishing content that is difficult to read. Blog posts with a readability
rating of very difficult perform the worst, with an average of 64 social shares per
post.
READABILITY RATING VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0-29
Very Difficult
30-49
Difficult
50-59
Fairly Difficult
60-69
Standard
70-79
Fairly Easy
80-89
Easy
90-100
Very Easy
Blog Readablity Rating
20
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Images and Videos
Using images and videos can make your blog post more interactive and
interesting to readers. Here are some data-backed best practices for using
images and videos in blog posts.
Takeaways:
• Include media content in your blog posts — but exercise moderation. Blog
posts with 11 images perform best, with 200 average social shares per post.
Blogs with eight videos perform best, with 506 average social shares per post.
But blog posts with too few or too many images or videos are shared less often
on average.
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
NUMBER OF IMAGES VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
200
150
100
50
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20+
Number of Images Per Blog Post
21
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Images and Videos
NUMBER OF VIDEOS VS. AVERAGE NUMBER
OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
600
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
• The optimal distribution
of images in content is
different from that of
videos. Blog posts with
800 to 1000 words per
image perform best, with
233 average social shares
per post. On the other
hand, blog posts with 1200
to 1400 words per video
perform best, with 326
average social shares per
post. Put differently, blog
posts are more shareable
with more written content
per video than per image.
500
400
300
200
100
0
0
2
1
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10+
Number of Videos Per Blog Post
NUMBER OF WORDS PER IMAGE/VIDEO VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
1-200
200-400
400-600
600-800
800-1000
1000-1200
1200-1400
1400+
Average Number of Words Per Image/Video
Image
Video
22
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Punctuation
Proper punctuation is an integral part of of any good blog post. Even Victor
Hugo needed to stop his sentences at some point.
How and when you use them, however, is what we looked for in our research,
examining the use of quotes, exclamation marks, commas, and question marks.
Takeaways:
• Blog posts with quotes have the highest social shares. Blog posts with 31 to
40 quotes perform best, with 200 average social shares per post, followed
closely by blog posts with 41 to 50 quotes, with 198 average social shares per
post.
NUMBER OF PUNCUTATION MARKS VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
250
200
150
100
50
0
1-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41-50
51+
Number of Punctuation Marks
Exclamation Marks
Quotes
Commas
Question Marks
23
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Punctuation
• When using question marks and exclamation points, less is more. Blog posts
with one to 10 exclamation marks or questions marks perform best, with 87 and
120 average social shares per post, respectively.
• Punctuation density matters. For each punctuation mark, there are definite
correlations between density and shareability. Blog posts with 180 to 200
sentences per quote, 160 to 180 sentences per exclamation mark, and 140 to
160 sentences per question mark perform best.
NUMBER OF SENTENCES PER PUNCUTATION MARKS VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0-20
20-40
40-60
60-80
80-100
100-120
120-140
140-160
160-180
180-200
200+
Number of Sentences Per Punctuation Mark
Quote
Exclamation Mark
Question Mark
24
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Punctuation
• Blog posts with an average of one comma per sentence perform best, with
143 average social shares per post. For commas, we switch around the density
measurement to look at the optimal number of commas per sentence. This
finding is in keeping with the results of our readability analysis (Page 20). Put
differently, simple sentences are correlated with greater shareability.
NUMBER OF COMMAS PER SENTENCE VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1
2
3
4
5+
Number of Commas Per Sentence
25
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Numbers
Using data to back up your argument, particularly quantitative data, can
strengthen your content. Let’s look at how incorporating numbers into your data,
both arabic numerals and written out, impacts the shareability of your blog post.
Takeaways:
• Blogs that have one number perform best, with an average of 395 social
shares per post.
• Don’t go overboard when it comes to including quantitative data in your
post. Overall, the use of more numbers in blog posts is negatively correlated
with social shares.
NUMBER OF NUMBERS VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25+
Number of Numbers Per Blog Post
26
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Headers
Headers make a blog post more scannable and improve your page’s search
ranking by contributing to SEO. But how many headers should you use per post
and how should they be distributed throughout your content?
Takeaways:
• The number of headers used in a blog post doesn’t really matter. Posts with a
wide range of headers all have about the same average number of social shares.
NUMBER OF HEADERS VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25+
Number of Headers Per Blog Post
27
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Headers
• The blog length to header ratio significantly impacts performance. Blog posts
with a higher ratio of words per header get shared more often on average. Blog
posts with 1400 to 1600 words per header perform best, with 522 average social
shares per post.
NUMBER OF WORDS PER HEADER VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
1-200
200-400
400-600
600-800
800-1000
1000-1200 1200-1400 1400-1600
1600+
Number of Words Per Header
28
BEST PRACTICES FOR BLOG CONTENT: Lists
Adding lists to your blog can help with SEO and user experience by making
information more scannable. But just how many lists should you use?
Takeaways:
• Blogs with two lists perform best, with an average of 601 social shares per
post.
• No lists at all can be better than too many lists. For the most part, blogs with
no lists perform better than blogs with four or more lists.
NUMBER OF BULLETED LISTS VS.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF SOCIAL SHARES PER BLOG POST
Average Number of Social Shares Per Post
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Number of Bulleted Lists
29
APPENDIX: Best Performing Pronouns in Blog Titles
Pronoun
Average Social
Shares Per Post
Pronoun
Average Social
Shares Per Post
Yourselves
1253
ourselves
386
I’m
1064
Themselves
381
‘You
951
He
376
“You
749
themselves
375
‘you
733
them
370
They
639
US
367
hers
617
himself
365
You
586
Him
363
it
571
they
349
yourselves
570
yours
341
‘They
540
you
340
Yours
505
His
339
Herself
475
Ours
333
We
474
he
322
Them
472
herself
322
It
459
she
321
Yourself
456
My
319
Their
444
Thee
318
Itself
442
I
315
‘This
437
his
313
Your
436
She
307
Me
426
him
301
Himself
407
her
297
30
APPENDIX: Best Performing Pronouns in Blog Titles
Pronoun
Average Social
Shares Per Post
Pronoun
Average Social
Shares Per Post
your
293
my
191
its
287
that’s
182
Her
284
“She
175
Its
284
THIS
168
we
281
YOU'RE
154
Our
280
YOU
153
yourself
274
IT
145
they’re
274
their
266
“This
143
You’re
262
HE
112
me
257
‘Your
111
itself
247
ME
91
you’re
232
WE
60
our
227
thee
55
“They
217
OUR
53
us
215
thyself
51
Thou
209
ITS
20
Ourselves
204
u
19
myself
197
y'all
18
31
METHODOLOGY
For blogging frequency and sharing, TrackMaven pulled data on more
than 18 million blog posts, covering more than 1.9 trillion social shares
on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. For blog post-specific
metrics, we examined more than 65,000 blog posts from September
2015 to August 2016, covering more than 20 million social shares on
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
32
BEST TIMES TO POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA BY INDUSTRY
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