What to publish on your website, and how often

Somewhere between launching a website and abandoning it sits the question nobody answers well: what am I supposed to put on this thing, and how often?

Most advice answers with a content calendar. For a business of one to ten people, a calendar is a commitment you will break in March. Here is the version that survives a busy month.

Publishing frequency is the wrong first question

The first question is what the site is missing, not what to add next week.

Nearly every small site has three or four gaps that cost more than any blog post would earn: a service with no page, prices that are not there, an area you cover that is never named, a question every customer asks that is answered nowhere.

Fill those first. They take a week, they never go stale, and they are what people actually search for.

The three things worth publishing after that

Answers. Every question you get twice. These age slowly, they match how people search, and you have already written them in emails.

Proof. What you did, for whom, and what changed — with permission, and without inventing anything. One honest example is worth a year of general advice.

Changes. New service, new area, new hours, a price change. Short, factual, and the only kind of post with a natural date on it.

Notice what is missing: opinions about your industry, trend pieces, and anything beginning "in today's digital landscape". Those are written for colleagues, not customers.

A rhythm that survives

Once a month, not once a week. Thirty minutes, not an afternoon.

• Ten minutes: what did people ask me this month?
• Fifteen minutes: answer the most common one, in the place it belongs — a service page, the FAQ, or a short post if it needs room.
• Five minutes: fix one thing that is now out of date.

A site edited monthly beats a blog updated weekly for two months and then never again. The second pattern is more visible to a visitor than no blog at all, because the date on the last post is public.

The rule about dates

If you publish something with a date on it, you have promised to keep it current. A news section with nothing since 2023 says something you did not intend to say.

Either commit to the rhythm above, or publish undated pages — answers, service descriptions, proof — which do not advertise their own neglect.

Start by writing down three questions

Not a calendar. Three questions customers asked you this month, and where on the site each one belongs.

That is a content plan for a small business. If you do it again next month, you are ahead of almost every competitor, who is either publishing nothing or publishing for their peers.

Related: most of those answers belong on a FAQ page that actually answers, and if you need to know which pages people reach, tag your links.

Frequently asked

How often should a small business publish?

Monthly is enough, and thirty focused minutes is enough time. Consistency matters more than volume because the visible signal to a visitor is the date on your most recent item, not how many items exist.

Do I need a blog at all?

Not necessarily. Most small sites gain more from filling the gaps — a missing service page, absent prices, unanswered questions — than from any blog. A blog is worth starting once those are done and you have answers worth collecting.