Do you need to publish at the same time to rank higher on search engines?

If you asked me three years ago, I would say that sticking to a schedule is key in SEO. That was what I read.

Eventually, however, I realized that search engines don’t index your blog posts as soon as you publish them.

Sometimes, they index it within 24 hours, especially if you manually submit it. Sometimes, months.

And it is not like people are waiting for your blog posts to appear on search engine results pages at whatever time you publish posts, right?

If people want to read your blog posts, they will go to your blog or your social media pages in case you update your audience via those platforms.

And they will not set an alarm or a calendar reminder so they read it as soon as it is published. They will read it once they feel like it.

In reality, when people use search engines to look for information, the dates will matter only if it matters.

For example, the latest news, the newly released, the trending topics, what happened in the past, etc.

But if it is evergreen, like descriptions, definitions, recipes, guides, and tips and tricks, it will stay relevant now and even in the future.

You don’t need to publish it at the same time as your other blog posts for your blog to rank higher.

In fact, you can’t rank a blog as a whole because not all blog posts perform in the same way. Some will be on the first page, while some will not be in the results at all.

Having a blogging schedule is important only for keeping your audience engaged and your blog active. Search engines don’t care about those.

Should You Publish at the Same Time to Rank High?

I update my blog and other platforms regularly, usually once a week, but I am not doing it for search engines.

I am doing it because being active online is helpful for my career.

I give a link to this website to potential clients, and if they saw that my last post was published in 2021, they might not see me as reliable.

This website has links to my other blogs and profiles, too. Some might check those out, so I need to ensure there is at least one new post a week.

A Lover in Disguise has many blog posts that are on the first page of search engines, but I paused on that for many months several times and the ones that started ranking in 2021 are still ranking today.

That is despite the long breaks.

So, do you need to publish at the same to rank higher? No. Search engines don’t care about your blogging schedule.

Sticking to a schedule is mostly important when building a brand and you want your brand to stay on your audience’s radar.