How long do you think you can maintain traffic without posting? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

I just talked to another member who isn't able to post much over the last 4-6 months and their traffic is down about 50% as well.  

I would think you'd drop off steadily because you probably would start falling in the search engine rankings, so even if you started posting again, it might take time for you to catch back up.  Probably a lag in both directions.

"Perhaps it's more a function of quality of competitive articles, even more so than time ie if nobody ever writes a better article on red widgets, then your red widget article will rank highly forever."

In theory yes, and rightfully so, and it may have worked in the past. based on anecdotes and personal experiences on some sites, I am guessing that if you stop writing or reduce frequency significantly, you will see all traffic reduce, current and previous posts. being prolific in the now helps your past content.  

that said, it is very interesting (quite shocking) to observe some seriously aged sites (4 yrs+) pick up organic search traffic despite not having touched them for years. this observation is what is just killing all theories and hypotheses out there and leaves us perplex – perhaps what's intended by those higher up.

fortunately or unfortunately this is the direction we are compelled to go in today, which is making me re-question whether someone working full time can build a long term, profitable and sustainable business online. the answer is still yes, but as you can imagine the methodology of acquiring readers/clients/customers has somewhat shifted.

Depends on your traffic sources. If you get most of search traffic, the answer is "a long time." I took almost the entirety of last summer off completely and my traffic was pretty steady. I think it may have even been slightly higher at the end. The more dependent you are on referral traffic and regular readers, the less you can afford to take time off.

Ironically, about a month after I started posting regularly again I was hit by a panda update. C'est la vie.

As you've said Sam, I believe it's a function of quality more so than the quantity of posts. You will probably lose some of the regulars until you start posting again, but the search traffic and referrals will continue. 

I just got married and took 4 weeks off to finalize the wedding details and then enjoy a long honeymoon. I've written my articles to educate people and for the most part, stay relevant. While I was gone, I saw a small decrease in traffic of only 5 – 8%. I'm hoping that now that I've been posting again, the regular readers will return.

Michael Hyatt went from 5x to 3x a week recently. He has a huge community, so this might help. If you have a large article base, why not slow down a bit and focus on quality and marketing? You could also use your 'extra' post for a guest post somewhere and drive your traffic even higher. 

I was offline for 2 weeks just now with no drop.  My e-mail subscribers get antsy, but I have articles that get popular this time of the year. 

When I fell back to 2 posts a week from 5-6 my traffic fell by 50%, but I kept my sanity.

Financial Samurai said:

Sandy,

Are you saying no posting for two weeks was OK for you but once you downshifted to 2 posts a week, traffic dropped massively? Is the two week hiatus after going down to two posts eg you are flat lining down 50%?

When I scaled back to 2x per week my traffic fell 50%.  after that, I was offline for 2 weeks and traffic was steady at the new "reset" amount.  I'm cool with it until I have time to post more.