Leveraging Weekly Internet Traffic

If you are writing a “top notch” article for your blog, it would be a good idea to publish it on the most trafficked day of the week. This will maximize the number of potential readers, also increasing your chances of receiving backlinks and appearing on social bookmarking sites.

But what is the most trafficked day of the Internet? Getting an accurate answer for this questions is quite difficult, specially if we consider the large variations that might appear from country to country and during different seasons of the year.

That being said there are some studies around the web, and most of them agree that Monday and Tuesday are the most trafficked days of the Internet, followed closely by Wednesday. Below you will find the numbers provided by OneStat in 2004 (apparently that is the most recent report):

A good rule of thumb, therefore, is to publish your popular posts early in the week. Bear in mind that your blog readership might behave differently, so check your statistics and adapt this strategy accordingly.

Daniel Scocco on May 21, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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20 Responses to “Leveraging Weekly Internet Traffic”

Edward Wolf on May 21st, 2007 5:48 am

Thanks. This is very useful information.
Villager on May 21st, 2007 5:53 am

Interesting statistics. Thank you for taking the time to compile the research and share it with us!

peace, Villager
Daniel on May 21st, 2007 5:54 am

Actually I am still looking for something more recent, if you guys happen to know a more recent report just let me know.
Andrew Timberlake on May 21st, 2007 6:26 am

If you’re writing for regular readers - focus on your own peak traffic day.

Look at your blog stats/analytics, find your most popular and post then.
Daniel on May 21st, 2007 7:23 am

Andrew, yeah I agree with that, but only to a certain extent.

Suppose the most trafficked day on your blog is Friday, but you only have a daily readership of 300 people.

Should you publish your “top notch” articles on Friday and make sure those 300 guys will read it, or should you publish it on Monday, hoping to score some backlinks and tap a wider audience?
Andrew Timberlake on May 21st, 2007 7:32 am

Daniel, I was thinking about that when I commented but I stand by my comment.

If you want to get new traffic, then consider submitting your top article to Digg/Netscape/… on the Monday.

The day of the week is not going to attract more visitors to your website - promotion will!
John Wesley on May 21st, 2007 7:50 am

Excellent tip. Something else to consider is the time of day that you publish your posts, as traffic varies throughout the day as well.

Generally, I set my posts to appear first thing in the morning, hoping that I come up at the top of people feed readers as they read them over a cup of coffee.
Community Building Blog on May 21st, 2007 8:35 am

I am glad you put in a concluding paragraph recommending people to refer to their own stats!

Of course, all sites are different - it is well worth checking your traffic stats to familiarise yourself with your own daily traffic trends.

- Martin Reed
Jennifer on May 21st, 2007 10:01 am

I find your numbers interesting. They are almost opposite of mine with Sunday being my most traffic and Monday being my least.

Thanks for the tips.
Alex on May 21st, 2007 10:07 am

“Bear in mind that your blog readership might behave differently, so check your statistics and adapt this strategy accordingly.”

This is what really matters. You won’t have much use from the overall internet stats although it’s a good place to start..
Daniel on May 21st, 2007 11:09 am

Alex, again it depends.

Most blogs have a very small readership. On the other side I am sure you will try to promote your articles through social bookmarking sites and related stuff right?

In that case, personally, I would rather publish my best stuff when there are more people surfing the net.
Lincoln on May 21st, 2007 1:03 pm

If your blog readership is small to begin with, it might make more sense to defer to general traffic statistics rather than your own, at least until you build enough of a satisfactory readership. So if your goal is to create more exposure and bring in NEW readers, you’re probably better off posting your best stuff on a Monday or Tuesday.
Rhys on May 21st, 2007 2:29 pm

My stats are pretty level throughout, what I do try and do is post early in the morning to catch the Australian readers and UK 9am “ooh lets read some blogs before work” crowd.
Carlie on May 21st, 2007 3:43 pm

I have noticed that weekends seems to be the least busiest days - not just on my own blog but activity through the rest of the internet as well. I think people must be depressed to be back at work so they play around (and, check their email etc after the weekend) but near the end of the week they are focused on their work again.
Melt du Plooy on May 21st, 2007 10:23 pm

This is a great tip Daniel. I hear what you are saying (totally agree) but I also agree with Andrew that I should probably post my article when I know my site is the busiest and then market it on the the Monday or Tuesday through Social Media or other means to gain those back links etc.

My site usually has the most hits in the middle of the week (Tuesday-Wednesday)
SEO Genius on June 28th, 2008 12:14 pm

Very interesting, i always seem to have thursday and friday as my peak days so i tend to submit articles then, however i may opt to choose the Monday and try that out.

Thanks