I have a client that has asked me to set-up blogs for their regular clients, for their clients in a specific vertical they cater to, and in support of an ongoing campaign with two of their partners to nurture a specific vertical. Now they want to set-up blogs to target other verticals. The problem is they are having trouble generating content for one blog much less 4 or 5.

Does anyone have an opinion/thoughts/educated guess on how many blogs one company should try to maintain?

Dani AI

Generated

For and others wrestling with the “how many” question: the number of blogs should be the number you can maintain well, not the number you wish you could. Instead of launching separate sites for every vertical, consider a single content hub with clearly separated vertical sections (category pages, author streams, or subfolders). That keeps brand authority consolidated and makes editorial control and analytics far simpler — a structure similar to the topic-cluster approach used by many content teams (HubSpot).

A practical decision flow:

  1. Audit audience overlap and business goals for each proposed blog. If audiences and conversion goals overlap heavily, merge into a shared hub.
  2. Estimate capacity: calculate how many quality posts your team (or contractors) can produce per month. A useful rule of thumb is to plan around your realistic monthly output and not ideal output.
  3. Design an editorial system: pillar pages per vertical, short derivative pieces, templates for formats (case study, FAQ, checklist), and batching sessions so one writing day creates a month of posts.
  4. Staff and SOPs: create content briefs, an approval checklist, a publishing schedule, and a small freelance pool to cover gaps (this addresses the time/consistency problems @InsightsDigital and @jusvie mentioned).

Measure and prune: track organic sessions, engagement, and goal conversions per blog or vertical for 6–12 months. If a standalone blog shows no growth and consumes resources, consolidate its content into the hub and 301 outdated URLs to preserve SEO value (see general guidance on site structure at Google Search Central). This approach reduces fragmentation, protects SEO, and makes “how many” a business decision rather than a hopeful experiment — advice that complements the maintenance concerns and raised.

Recommended Answers

All 10 Replies

I have also advised clients on blogs with the caveat that blogs are like plants, blogs need constant new content to sustain the attention of the readers/visitor.
In regards to your question, "Does anyone have an opinion/thoughts/educated guess on how many blogs one company should try to maintain? " I refer you to look at Johnson and Johnson's By The Way - blog roll.
Johnson and Johnson's blogs are considered the gold standard of corporate blogs and it is a good example to refer to.

I have also advised clients on blogs with the caveat that blogs are like plants, blogs need constant new content to sustain the attention of the readers/visitor.
In regards to your question, "Does anyone have an opinion/thoughts/educated guess on how many blogs one company should try to maintain? " I refer you to look at Johnson and Johnson's By The Way - blog roll.
Johnson and Johnson's blogs are considered the gold standard of corporate blogs and it is a good example to refer to.

I will take a look at that. Thanks. I will probably also refer my client to read those blogs to get a good idea of what well written blogs are all about. My client seems to think, regardless of my advice, that the blog is a sales opportunity. Some people need to be smacked over the head to get the hint.

It depends on you, as long as you have time on all of your blogs.. You have time to manage and updates all the blogs you have..

I personally have created and then let die of many blogs. Why? Well, let say life gets in the way at times. hehe. Also, it depends on other motivating factors like traffic, engagement of this traffic, positive reinforcement, and time.

I think managing blogs is very important and it doesn't matter how many blogs are there....

I think managing blogs is very important and it doesn't matter how many blogs are there....

For a company that employs a 'blog master', I agree. But in my case it is a client that I will not be working for full time and they do not have the resources to put someone on day to day monitoring of the blogs. So I think that there is a question as to how much is too much.

Depends on how many blogs you can manage, some time it is difficult to maintain the frequency of posts and keep all of them updated.

Thank you all for the input. The discussions I have been having with the client is to talk them into limiting the number of blogs to the verticals they are really strong in. Then for the other verticals, find sites like this that offer vertical-specific boards and answer questions to build their rep as an expert. Also, I suggested that they find group blogs that they can post to as guests.

I also believe in posting on the boards that have the highest or biggest reach and visibility and post away. That is why Linked In has been a popular site for individuals to answer other questions and build up their reputation as an expert.

I also believe in posting on the boards that have the highest or biggest reach and visibility and post away. That is why Linked In has been a popular site for individuals to answer other questions and build up their reputation as an expert.

I am actually pushing them to get more involved in the Linkedin groups as a way of building a reputation and driving visitors to their blogs and websites but they are so slow on adopting these things that it is annoying. Ah, the joy of clients!

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.