When it comes to blogging, you don’t know when you will get people visiting your site.

I didn’t care about how many blog posts to get traffic.

All I did was blog to death until I had traffic.

But, when did I start to see a consistent flow of users browsing my website?

How many blog posts before traffic

Some SEO says that a new website is put in a sandbox for at least a month.

But John Mueller denies that Google has any sort of ranking limit for fresh websites.

Ivan Tobon asks John Mueller on Twitter:

hi @JohnMu , does Goolgle limits the way a page can rank? i mean, if a new page passes form #40  to #1 in less than a week, can google limits the way that page ranks because of prevention purposes?

John Mueller replies:

Feb 3, 2019

Replying to 

@IvanTobon06

We use a ton of factors for crawling, indexing, and ranking, it’s possible that in certain situations, some pages show up well quickly, while others take longer. There’s no fixed rule or timeline there.

[source: John Mueller conversation about sandbox]

So, should we believe what John Mueller says?

Whether he tells the truth or not, we have no other choice as we are at the mercy of Google. 

Google has the most significant piece of the pie in the search market. And, me, you, want some pie.

Unless, of course, you are content with Bing and Duckduckgo.

How long before blog gets traffic

July is when I started my health blog. After months of pushing quality content, I hit 214 users in November 2019. 

In my case, I wrote eight blog posts in the first month, seven in August, five in September, and six in October. 

That’s 26 articles in 4 months—an average of 6.5 blog posts a month, 1.6 posts per week.

So, how long before your blog gets traffic?

It does vary from site to site. But, from experience, publishing 1 to 2 good quality articles a week in four months got me a good amount of traffic from Google search. 

However, with this blog, Blogzn.com, I’m still not getting a considerable amount of traffic even after four months.

Perhaps I wasn’t consistent with my publishing schedule as I was all over the place. 

Some weeks I wouldn’t publish, and I missed a whole month. Running two websites without help is very hard, especially if you’re the content producer, social media manager, SEO, SEM, and the coffee boy. 

What factors determine traffic?

Here are the following reasons I think I received traffic after four months of blogging on my health site.

• Consistency
• Frequency
• Quality
• EAT
• Competition

Consistency

I was consistent with my blogging efforts. I made sure that I would publish a post once every week. 

There were days when it was hard to open the laptop and only stare at the blank screen all day.

Once you’ve been writing so much about a topic, sometimes you just run out of what to say. That’s why keyword research is fundamental when you’re looking for new topics to write about. 

A good keyword research tool I use is Ubersuggest. Ubersuggest used to be free for a long time. But Neil decided to start charging as soon as there are enough users. That’s what I think anyway.

You don’t have to use Neil’s keyword tool. I do recommend that when you have the funds, Ubersuggest should be on your list of tools. 

There are great keyword tools if you search enough. You can use Google Ads to research keywords, which should be a little more accurate than all the keyword tools.

The problem with the Google Ads keyword tool is that it won’t show the exact volume but only estimates.

For Google to show the actual numbers, you have to run an ad. Once you run an ad, you’ll see the exact numbers for each keyword. 

If you do a little more digging using Google search, you’ll be able to find free ones.

Frequency

The frequency of your posts probably matters as well, as I was publishing an average of two posts per week. 

I think Google can see that the website is pretty active every week, and maybe it put some importance into crawling the site.

I recommend publishing at least once a week. Better yet, post twice a week. 

Quality

Quality is subjective.

The quality of a blog post is determined by how you answer the searcher’s query. 

I made sure that every possible question is answered in the blog post. By doing so, I always ended with long-form content averaging 1500 words per article. 

And long-form content seems to correlate with better rankings. 

In 2012, serpIQ made a study about 20,000 keywords. 

The average content length of the top-ranking blog posts was more than 2000. 

That was in 2012. As you can imagine, it was a long time ago. And Google keeps updating its algorithm all the time. 

What do I think?

Don’t focus on word count. Focus on covering every detail of your topic.

If you can answer the question in 200 words, then that should be good.

Don’t listen to me. Here’s what the Google trends analysts have to say:

Having the same word-count as a top-ranking article isn’t going to make your pages rank first, just like having a bunch of USB chargers isn’t going to get you to the moon. But, I’m still tempted to buy some of those USB chargers…

[source: John Mueller Twitter word count]

EAT

EAT or expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness. 

I focused on EAT on my website. I was 100% transparent. My about page displays my credential; I’m the sole content creator, didn’t have ads, and cited my research. 

EAT is a new update from Google which affected thousands, if not millions, of sites in the financial and health sector.

The credible sites didn’t suffer; only sites that deceived users lost business.

When creating a brand new blog, consider if EAT is something you should look into before starting.

Click on the following link to see Google’s guideline on E-A-T: Google Core Update E-A-T

Competition

Nowadays, there will always be a competition. 

However, I think it’s healthy. 

I would rather compete in a market that is huge than in a category with little interest.

Then again, the weight loss industry is a very, very competitive niche indeed.

How competitive? We’re talking about massive publishing companies with big budgets and credibility.

Such as Healthline, Health Harvard, WebMD. What was I thinking!?

Although they outrank me in many many keywords, I do have some wins that put me above the rest. 

Conclusion

How many blog posts to get traffic?

I receive good traction after about 26 blog posts in 4 months.

I’m ‘not saying that will happen to you. 

There are too many variables, such as the competition, EAT, quality, frequency, and consistency. 

No one knows how Google will handle your brand new website. 

And from experience, it varies. 

When you start with a fresh new blog, just put your head down and get to work.

Start your blog the right way. Don’t waste valuable time, and you will have those times that will have you going, WTF!?

You don’t want that with a website, as one mistake could break or lose a year’s worth of work. 

Read this guide on starting a blog, so you have some basic understanding and might finally put you into action.