We all like to think that our blog posts will live forever and that they will continue to help us gain traffic. Sadly, even the best blog posts have a limited lifespan. While many people have often wonder what is the lifetime value of a blog post, one study actually found an answer.
According to a new study by Halverson Group, blog posts receive 99-percent of their total traffic by the time they are 700 days old. They also go through three distinct “life phases,” which include an initial traffic spike, an “echo” phase that captures 72-percent of impressions, and a “reverberate” phase that makes up 28-percent of the remaining impressions.
How Lifetime Value Helps You Better Understand Posts
By understanding the different phases of a blog post, you can better estimate your traffic over a lifetime. This is incredibly useful if you are using the post for SEO purposes, but it also helps you better manage your content marketing campaign. You will be able to estimate dips in traffic based on when you posted and find better ways to invest your time.
The Importance of Evergreen
The life of a topical blog post can be shortened if it is only relevant for a small period of time. While you can still expect residual traffic from people who want to know about an event or past issue, you will need to post frequently to keep your search engine rank. This is why many blogs are focusing on creating evergreen content, which maximizes the lifetime value of each post.
Of course, you can keep old posts relevant and the visits trickling in if you update them occasionally and re-promote them to your network from time to time. And if your blog post topic is evergreen and has been optimised for search then you could find that it continues to deliver reasonable traffic for many years.