SEO
9 Actionable Tips to Master It
The first step to your content’s success is how much research you put into it.
When I started my career as a writer, I didn’t focus much on content research. My focus was always on completing the first draft as soon as possible.
But with time, I understood the importance of content research and saw a direct impact of it on engagement, traffic, and more. Simply put, researching helped me create great content that readers found immense value from.
Whenever you deep dive into a topic, you discover valuable insights, case studies, and critical information regardless of your expertise. This is crucial to creating a valuable, credible, and actionable article that can achieve its objectives.
Let’s dive into nine actionable content research tips I’ve learned along the way.
You need to choose a topic that helps you achieve a certain goal. For example, your goal with the article might be to:
- Drive organic traffic.
- Increase brand visibility.
- Get social shares.
- Build product awareness.
For this, you need to focus on a topic that your readers will find relevant and gain value from. This is possible when the article focuses on your reader’s current challenges, provides solutions to their problems, and/or shares valuable insights about your niche.
For example, when your goal is to drive organic traffic, the first step should be to find keywords that your audience is searching for. This is known as keyword research.
To begin your keyword research, add a broad term (or terms) characterizing the topic to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. Then click on the Matching terms report to see all keywords containing the terms on the input.
You can filter the keywords based on metrics like Keyword Difficulty, search volume, or Traffic Potential, but that’s for another discussion.
What you want here is to choose your topic from the “Parent topic” column. It shows you the keyword responsible for driving the most traffic to a page ranking at the top for a given keyword. As a rule of thumb, you should choose these as your topic if you want to maximize your organic traffic potential.
Similarly, if you want to achieve buzz on social media, you should analyze currently trending topics or try your best to align with what characterizes viral content.
Regardless of your content goals, you should always understand the search intent behind your topic. It helps you identify:
- How the existing resources cover the topic.
- The gaps and flaws in what’s already published.
- The depth readers are expecting when searching about the topic.
For example, it only makes sense to write a blog post when there’s informational intent for the keyword. Similarly, if it’s transactional, publishing a product page makes more sense.
Here are the three Cs of search intent your content should align with:
- Content type (blog post, landing page, or category page).
- Content format (guide, tutorial, review, or list post).
- Content angle (for beginners, advanced, opinionated post, etc.).
Here, we can see that the right content type for the keyword “how grow a rose from a cutting” is a video:
Then we have the keyword “how to grow hair faster,” where the most relevant content format is a listicle type of post:
Last but not least, going through the first few search results for a given keyword will help you identify the content angle. For example, for the keyword “apple cider vinegar,” the content angles revolve around either covering just the benefits or pretty much all the health information people could be looking for:
Dive deeper with competitor analysis
Clicking through the top-ranking pages and skimming competing content help us create a better picture of what Google considers as information that people want to see. A few things you should keep in mind when researching your competitors’ articles are:
- Article structure.
- Article depth.
- Unique or interesting insights.
- Usage of infographics, charts, graphs, or other visuals.
Look at the People Also Ask (PAA) box and related searches
Google’s PAA box tells you a lot about what questions readers tend to ask. It’s a good idea to reflect this in your writing.
Here’s an example for the keyword “apple cider vinegar”:
Apart from PAA boxes, you should also analyze related searches that show up at the bottom of the search.
If you want your article to stand out, you need to think out of the box. For this, you need to put yourself in the reader’s shoes and brainstorm on how you can add additional value.
There are many reasons why certain pieces of content succeed, including original research/data, how it has been structured, or how effectively it explains the particular topic. Hence, while researching, you should think about how you can:
- Support your statements with original research.
- Add case studies wherever relevant and if possible.
- Challenging the status quo with your own perspectives.
- Share your personal experience/opinion.
- Add checklists, infographics, flowcharts, or quizzes to make the content more impactful and interactive.
You don’t know every topic equally well even if you have experience in a particular niche. If you lack the expertise, I recommend interviewing subject matter experts (SMEs).
These experts can offer key insights and share information that you likely won’t be able to put together yourself.
But who are SMEs and where can you find them?
SMEs can be someone in your organization, your friend at a different organization, or an influencer in your industry. You can easily find them using platforms like SparkToro and Ahrefs’ Content Explorer.
In SparkToro, you just need to enter a niche keyword to find relevant influencers. You can also filter them on the basis of followers and relevancy. Just be sure to choose the account type as “Individual” to filter out company accounts.
Another way to find SMEs is through Content Explorer. Here are the steps you can follow:
1. To start off, enter a topic in the search box and choose “In title.”
2. After that, you’ll see a list of the popular articles based on the whole historical database. You can further filter the results on the basis of platforms, publish dates, and more.
There’s also an option to sort the content based on page traffic, referring domains, and more.
3. The next step is to go through the author’s tab to find these experts.
Alternatively, you can also go through the articles manually and discover top authors.
Once you’ve created the list, work on completing the contact information to reach out to those experts. During outreach, share how they would benefit from being featured in your article and how they would help improve your content.
It’s also helpful to draft a questionnaire for this type of outreach. Try to keep it short and focus only on questions where the answers can help you fill the gaps in the article. This will help you keep the conversation productive.
Social media is a great place for content research. By following the right people and pages, you can learn so much about your industry. This includes knowing the challenges your audience is facing, the latest industry trends, what tactics are working, and more.
All these posts and conversations help unlock a lot of insights. You can also always connect with relevant folks to dig deeper and understand their perspectives. Let’s look at the different platforms and how you can use them for your content research.
On Twitter, I’d recommend using its advanced search functionality to start your research. You can include some relevant keywords around your topic and hashtags and then filter the results by minimum engagement and date.
But keep in mind that, sometimes, the real valuable gems don’t get a lot of engagement and may be difficult to find.
Additionally, to follow the latest industry trends, you can create a list of influencers and pages in your niche on Twitter. This way, you can follow these folks closely, which may be otherwise hard to track in your regular feed.
Reddit is an amazing platform for content research because it’s hard to not find a subreddit for your niche. Start with a quick search and go through the conversations.
Alternatively, you can start a discussion by putting out a post on a relevant subreddit (like the example below). Just be mindful of the rules of each subreddit when posting.
Partnering with an influencer or with brands you respect for a content piece can be a great way to produce high-quality content. There are multiple benefits of collaborative marketing, including:
- Access to data – You can get access to highly valuable first-party data that you can leverage in your content.
- Additional expertise – Collaborating with a brand/influencer in your niche may help you unlock key insights.
- Co-marketing opportunities – By partnering with a brand/influencer, you can attract a newer audience.
Ultimately, it helps you achieve a greater overall impact with your content piece.
Here’s an example of Ahrefs collaborating with Kontent (a headless CMS) for a webinar:
Ahrefs is the authority in SEO the Kontent team needs for this topic. Kontent’s audience consists of potential enterprise-level leads for Ahrefs, where 45 minutes of brand and product exposure have great value. It’s a win-win.
While access to third-party information is just a few clicks away, getting first-party information can be challenging. One quick way to get it is by running surveys. It can be as simple as putting out a poll on LinkedIn or Twitter. You can post it from your company page or your own profile. This completely depends on where you think you can get maximum responses.
If you follow Ahrefs’ CMO, Tim Soulo, on Twitter, you’ll know how much he leverages polls to ask questions for research:
Domain age is a (relatively significant) ranking factor in Google.
— Tim Soulo 🇺🇦 (@timsoulo) November 28, 2022
Similarly, you can run polls in communities and newsletters. Ahrefs has an active Facebook community, where it often runs polls for content and product research.
Alternatively, if you have the budget, you can leverage paid tools like Pollfish and SurveyMonkey. These tools help you run surveys on their platforms and get you responses. You create a target audience by defining parameters like location, interest, age, gender, etc. Running a paid survey is useful if you’re planning to create a data-backed report, white paper, or article.
No matter what you’re writing, if there’s a way you can support it with some data, then there’ll be nothing like it.
Articles contain limited information. And that’s why if you are looking to do extensive research around a topic, just going through blogs is not enough. You should read white papers and reports in your niche. Going through them will help you discover insights and data that you’ll rarely find outside.
For example, McKinsey & Company publishes some very detailed reports and white papers on different industries and their growth consistently. Similarly, companies like Deloitte, Forrester, and Statista are also active in publishing reports and white papers.
A few things to keep in mind are to:
- Try going through the most recent reports, especially when you want to analyze statistics.
- Trust only credible resources.
- Make a note of statistics and insights as soon as you discover them along with the source.
Google’s quality evaluator guidelines, for example, is a 176-page document that explains exactly how to evaluate a search result. Many SEOs use it to understand how Google works and to help webmasters understand what Google looks for in webpages. You’ll see it referenced in tons of SEO resources.
You’ll be surprised how much your readers can assist you with your content research. By understanding their challenges, aspirations, and goals, you can easily identify what to include in your article and what not to do. Moreover, you can identify new topics to write about.
Here are a few ways. You can:
- Put out a social media post from your business account asking readers what they want to know about a specific topic.
- Run reader surveys.
- Get feedback on your existing published article. For example, Ahrefs asks its readers to vote on how useful the article is by rating it out of 5. So if the rating for a particular content piece is poor, you can take another look and improve it.
Final thoughts
It’s clear that creating valuable and impactful content is impossible without content research. The time investment into content research will pay off in the long run.
Got questions? Ping me on Twitter.
SEO
OpenAI Investigates ‘Lazy’ GPT-4 Complaints On Google Reviews, X
OpenAI, the company that launched ChatGPT a little over a year ago, has recently taken to social media to address concerns regarding the “lazy” performance of GPT-4 on social media and Google Reviews.
This move comes after growing user feedback online, which even includes a one-star review on the company’s Google Reviews.
OpenAI Gives Insight Into Training Chat Models, Performance Evaluations, And A/B Testing
OpenAI, through its @ChatGPTapp Twitter account, detailed the complexities involved in training chat models.
Screenshot from X, December 2023The organization highlighted that the process is not a “clean industrial process” and that variations in training runs can lead to noticeable differences in the AI’s personality, creative style, and political bias.
Thorough AI model testing includes offline evaluation metrics and online A/B tests. The final decision to release a new model is based on a data-driven approach to improve the “real” user experience.
OpenAI’s Google Review Score Affected By GPT-4 Performance, Billing Issues
This explanation comes after weeks of user feedback about GPT-4 becoming worse on social media networks like X.
Idk if anyone else has noticed this, but GPT-4 Turbo performance is significantly worse than GPT-4 standard.
I know it’s in preview right now but it’s significantly worse.
— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) November 8, 2023
There has been discussion if GPT-4 has become “lazy” recently. My anecdotal testing suggests it may be true.
I repeated a sequence of old analyses I did with Code Interpreter. GPT-4 still knows what to do, but keeps telling me to do the work. One step is now many & some are odd. pic.twitter.com/OhGAMtd3Zq
— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) November 28, 2023
Complaints also appeared in OpenAI’s community forums.
Screenshot from OpenAI, December 2023The experience led one user to leave a one-star rating for OpenAI via Google Reviews. Other complaints regarded accounts, billing, and the artificial nature of AI.
Screenshot from Google Reviews, December 2023A recent user on Product Hunt gave OpenAI a rating that also appears to be related to GPT-4 worsening.
Screenshot from Product Hunt, December 2023GPT-4 isn’t the only issue that local reviewers complain about. On Yelp, OpenAI has a one-star rating for ChatGPT 3.5 performance.
OpenAI is now only 3.8 stars on Google Maps and a dismal 1 star on Yelp!
GPT-4’s degradation has really hurt their rating. Hope the business survives.https://t.co/RF8uJH1WQ5 pic.twitter.com/OghAZLCiVu
— Nate Chan (@nathanwchan) December 9, 2023
The complaint:
Screenshot from Yelp, December 2023In related OpenAI news, the review with the most likes aligns with recent rumors about a volatile workplace, alleging that OpenAI is a “Cutthroat environment. Not friendly. Toxic workers.”
Screenshot from Google Reviews, December 2023The reviews voted the most helpful on Glassdoor about OpenAI suggested that employee frustration and product development issues stem from the company’s shift in focus on profits.
Screenshots from Glassdoor, December 2023This incident provides a unique outlook on how customer and employee experiences can impact any business through local reviews and business ratings platforms.
Screenshot from Google, December 2023Google SGE Highlights Positive Google Reviews
In addition to occasional complaints, Google reviewers acknowledged the revolutionary impact of OpenAI’s technology on various fields.
The most positive review mentions about the company appear in Google SGE (Search Generative Experience).
Screenshot from Google SGE, December 2023Conclusion
OpenAI’s recent insights into training chat models and response to public feedback about GPT-4 performance illustrate AI technology’s dynamic and evolving nature and its impact on those who depend on the AI platform.
Especially the people who just received an invitation to join ChatGPT Plus after being waitlisted while OpenAI paused new subscriptions and upgrades. Or those developing GPTs for the upcoming GPT Store launch.
As AI advances, professionals in these fields must remain agile, informed, and responsive to technological developments and the public’s reception of these advancements.
Featured image: Tada Images/Shutterstock
SEO
ChatGPT Plus Upgrades Paused; Waitlisted Users Receive Invites
ChatGPT Plus subscriptions and upgrades remain paused after a surge in demand for new features created outages.
Some users who signed up for the waitlist have received invites to join ChatGPT Plus.
This has resulted in a few shares of the link that is accessible for everyone. For now.
Found a hack to skip chatGPT plus wait list.
Follow the steps
– login to ChatGPT
– now if you click on upgrade
– Signup for waitlist(may not be necessary)
– now change the URL to https://t.co/4izOdNzarG
– Wallah you are in for payment #ChatGPT4 #hack #GPT4 #GPTPlus pic.twitter.com/J1GizlrOAx— Ashish Mohite is building Notionpack Capture (@_ashishmohite) December 8, 2023
RELATED: GPT Store Set To Launch In 2024 After ‘Unexpected’ Delays
In addition to the invites, signs that more people are getting access to GPTs include an introductory screen popping up on free ChatGPT accounts.
Screenshot from ChatGPT, December 2023Unfortunately, they still aren’t accessible without a Plus subscription.
Screenshot from ChatGPT, December 2023You can sign up for the waitlist by clicking on the option to upgrade in the left sidebar of ChatGPT on a desktop browser.
Screenshot from ChatGPT, December 2023OpenAI also suggests ChatGPT Enterprise for those who need more capabilities, as outlined in the pricing plans below.
Screenshot from OpenAI, December 2023Why Are ChatGPT Plus Subscriptions Paused?
According to a post on X by OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, the recent surge in usage following the DevDay developers conference has led to capacity challenges, resulting in the decision to pause ChatGPT Plus signups.
we are pausing new ChatGPT Plus sign-ups for a bit 🙁
the surge in usage post devday has exceeded our capacity and we want to make sure everyone has a great experience.
you can still sign-up to be notified within the app when subs reopen.
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 15, 2023
The decision to pause new ChatGPT signups follows a week where OpenAI services – including ChatGPT and the API – experienced a series of outages related to high-demand and DDoS attacks.
Demand for ChatGPT Plus resulted in eBay listings supposedly offering one or more months of the premium subscription.
chatgpt plus accounts selling ebay for a premium 🫡🇺🇸 https://t.co/VdN8tuexKM pic.twitter.com/W522NGHsRV
— surya (@sdand) November 15, 2023
When Will ChatGPT Plus Subscriptions Resume?
So far, we don’t have any official word on when ChatGPT Plus subscriptions will resume. We know the GPT Store is set to open early next year after recent boardroom drama led to “unexpected delays.”
Therefore, we hope that OpenAI will onboard waitlisted users in time to try out all of the GPTs created by OpenAI and community builders.
What Are GPTs?
GPTs allow users to create one or more personalized ChatGPT experiences based on a specific set of instructions, knowledge files, and actions.
Search marketers with ChatGPT Plus can try GPTs for helpful content assessment and learning SEO.
Two SEO GPTs I’ve created for assessment + learning 👀👇
1. Content Helpfulness and Quality SEO Analyzer: Assess a page content helpfulness, relevance, and quality for your targeted query based on Google’s guidelines vs your competitors and get tips: https://t.co/LsoP2UhF4N pic.twitter.com/O77MHiqwOq
— Aleyda Solis 🕊️ (@aleyda) November 12, 2023
2. The https://t.co/IFmKxxVDpW SEO Teacher: A friendly SEO expert teacher who will help you to learn SEO using reliable https://t.co/sCZ03C7fzq resources: https://t.co/UrMPUYwblH
I hope they’re helpful 🙌🤩
PS: Love how GPT opens up to SO much opportunity 🤯 pic.twitter.com/yqKozcZTDc
— Aleyda Solis 🕊️ (@aleyda) November 12, 2023
There are also GPTs for analyzing Google Search Console data.
oh wow. I think this GPT works.
Export data from GSC comparing keyword rankings before and after an update and upload it to ChatGPT and it will spit out this scatter plot for you.
It’s an easy way to see if most of your keyword declined or improved.
This site was impacted by… pic.twitter.com/wFGSnonqoZ
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) November 9, 2023
And GPTs that will let you chat with analytics data from 20 platforms, including Google Ads, GA4, and Facebook.
Google search has indexed hundreds of public GPTs. According to an alleged list of GPT statistics in a GitHub repository, DALL-E, the top GPT from OpenAI, has received 5,620,981 visits since its launch last month. Included in the top 20 GPTs is Canva, with 291,349 views.
Weighing The Benefits Of The Pause
Ideally, this means that developers working on building GPTs and using the API should encounter fewer issues (like being unable to save GPT drafts).
But it could also mean a temporary decrease in new users of GPTs since they are only available to Plus subscribers – including the ones I tested for learning about ranking factors and gaining insights on E-E-A-T from Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines.
Screenshot from ChatGPT, November 2023Featured image: Robert Way/Shutterstock
SEO
The Best Times To Post On Social Media In 2024
Marketers worldwide know the importance of having a solid social media marketing strategy – and a key part of this is finding the best times to post on social media.
The old adage ‘timing is everything’ holds especially true in the world of social media, where the difference between a post that fades into obscurity and one that goes viral can often be just a matter of when it was shared.
With an always-growing array of social platforms hosting billions of users worldwide, it has never been more challenging to stand above the noise and make your voice heard on social.
To determine the best times to post on social media in 2024, we reviewed original data from leading social media management tools.
It’s important to note that the data from these sources present a variety of findings and suggestions, which underscore the fact that social media is an ever-evolving landscape. The most crucial thing is understanding the behavior of your own target audience.
Let’s dive in.
The Best Times To Post On Social Media
| Source | Day Of Week | Time To Post |
| Sprout Social | Tuesday and Wednesday | 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Local |
| Hootsuite | Monday | 12 p.m. EST |
| CoSchedule | Friday, Wednesday, and Monday (in that order) | 7 p.m. Local |
- Best times to post on social media: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Best days to post on social media: Monday and Wednesday.
- Worst days to post on social media: Saturday and Sunday.
Determining an ideal time for posting on social media in general is complicated, as each platform is different, with unique users, features, and communities.
When deciding which social media platforms to focus on, you should think carefully about your brand’s target audience and overarching goals.
If you’re looking to reach a network of professionals, LinkedIn might be a good fit; if your brand is hoping to speak to Gen Z consumers, you might consider TikTok or Snapchat.
This explains why – when analyzing data from Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and CoSchedule on the best overall times to post on social media – we can draw some similarities but also see a variety of recommendations.
Weekdays emerge as a clear winner. CoSchedule and Sprout Social both highlight Wednesday as a good day, with Hootsuite and CoSchedule also highlighting Mondays as a strong day for engagement.
The most common time range among the sources is in the morning to mid-afternoon, with CoSchedule providing some very specific suggestions for post-timing.
Both CoSchedule and Sprout Social agree on avoiding Saturdays and Sundays.
The Best Times To Post On Facebook
| Source | Day Of Week | Time To Post |
| Sprout Social | Monday to Thursday | 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Local |
| Hootsuite | Monday and Tuesday | 1 p.m. EST |
| CoSchedule | Friday, Wednesday, and Monday (in that order) | 9 a.m. Local |
- Best times to post on Facebook: 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.
- Best days to post on Facebook: Weekdays.
- Worst day to post on Facebook: Sunday.
Facebook remains the most used social media platform in the world, with the largest advertising market share (16%).
While it’s experienced a shift in user demographics over recent years – now catering to older users – its popularity continues to climb, and its potential as a brand marketing tool cannot be disputed.
Regarding the best times to post on Facebook, all of our sources agree that weekdays are best. Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and CoSchdule all name Monday as a great day to engage on Facebook, along with calling out various other days of the week.
There is a general consensus that Sundays should be avoided.
The sources vary in their suggestions for optimal time slots, but generally speaking, early to mid-morning seems to be the most popular selection.
The Best Times To Post On YouTube
| Source | Day Of Week | Time To Post |
| SocialPilot | Sunday | 2-4 p.m. EST |
| HubSpot | Friday and Saturday | 6-9 p.m. Local |
- Best times to post on YouTube: 2-4 p.m. on weekdays and 9-11 a.m. on weekends.
- Best days to post on YouTube: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
- Worst day to post on YouTube: Tuesday.
As the second most visited site in the world and the second most used social platform globally, YouTube offers an unparalleled opportunity for brands and individuals to connect with audiences through video.
And with its continued expansion – by introducing features like YouTube Shorts, initiatives like expanding the ways creators can get paid on the platform, and its increasing popularity as a search engine – the platform shows no signs of slowing.
YouTube is no longer just a video-sharing site; it’s a robust marketing tool that empowers businesses to raise brand awareness and drive meaningful engagement.
Finding recent data on the best times to post on YouTube proved harder than for some other channels, so these recommendations should be taken with a grain of salt.
While HubSpot suggests Friday and Saturday are the strongest days to publish on YouTube, SocialPilot specifically calls out Sunday as the most engaging day – so it’s worth experimenting with all three.
SocialPilot doesn’t specifically name the worst day, but according to HubSpot, you’d be wise to steer clear of Tuesday.
Both sources suggest the afternoon as an effective time for posting during the week. SocialPilot specifies that publishing in the mornings on weekends (9-11 a.m.) is effective, so this is important to bear in mind.
The Best Times To Post On Instagram
| Source | Day Of Week | Time To Post |
| Sprout Social | Tuesday and Wednesday | 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Local |
| Hootsuite | Wednesday | 2 p.m. EST |
| HubSpot | Saturday | 6-9 p.m. Local |
| CoSchedule | Wednesday, Friday, and Tuesday (in that order) |
9 a.m. Local |
| Later | Monday | 4 a.m. Local |
- Best times to post on Instagram: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Best day to post on Instagram: Wednesday.
- Worst day to post on Instagram: Sunday.
From its origins as a photo-sharing platform, Instagram has evolved into one of the most popular social media networks in the world – and an indispensable marketing tool.
With billions of users – 90% of whom are following at least one business – Instagram has become a powerful engine for ecommerce, brand awareness, and community-building.
As a leader in the social media space, Instagram constantly provides new formats and features for users to try out – from Reels to Stories, user quizzes and polls, and more.
We consulted a handful of sources to determine the top posting times for Instagram and came away with a mixed bag of answers.
Wednesday appears to take the cake as the most consistently recommended day, with CoSchedule, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite all suggesting it.
Generally, our sources seem to lean towards weekdays as being strongest for Instagram engagement – with the exception of HubSpot, which recommends Saturday.
In terms of timing, the morning to midday hours seem to be your best bet, especially around 8 a.m. through 1 p.m. HubSpot and Later provide times that significantly differ from other sources, which suggests that effectiveness can vary based on audience and content type.
The Best Times To Post On TikTok
| Source | Day Of Week | Time To Post |
| Sprout Social | Tuesday and Wednesday | 2-6 p.m. Local |
| Hootsuite | Thursday | 10 p.m. EST |
| SocialPilot | Tuesday and Thursday | 2 a.m. and 9 a.m. EST |
| HubSpot | Friday | 6-9 p.m. Local |
- Best time to post on TikTok: Inconclusive.
- Best day to post on TikTok: Tuesday.
- Worst day to post on TikTok: Inconclusive.
While it’s a relative newcomer to the fold, TikTok has quickly become one of the most beloved social platforms worldwide – and is drawing brands in increasing numbers.
With the average user spending nearly 54 minutes on the app daily, it’s hard to beat the hold that TikTok has among audiences. By optimizing your presence there, you can stand to generate some impressive returns on your marketing efforts.
So, what’s the best time to post on TikTok? The jury is out on this one – and it may take extra experimentation on your part to find the sweet spot that engages your audience.
Tuesday seems to rise to the top among the sources we consulted, with Wednesdays and Thursdays also getting recommendations. Generally speaking, it looks like midweek is a good time to test out your TikTok content, but there are plenty of discrepancies in the data.
While HubSpot named Friday as the best day, it also highlighted that Saturdays and Thursdays are strong for B2B brands, and Saturdays and Sundays work well for B2C brands.
Sprout Social found Sunday to be the worst performing day, while Monday and Tuesday are the worst days, according to HubSpot.
We also find a mix of recommended time slots, from early morning to mid-afternoon and also evening being suggested.
The Best Times To Post On Snapchat
Snapchat, the pioneer of ephemeral social media content (and the inspiration behind Instagram Stories), provides unique opportunities to reach younger demographics.
It differs from other platforms in how it works and the type of content that engages there. Snapchat typically centers around showcasing real-time experiences and authentic behind-the-scenes content versus polished marketing content.
This makes Snapchat an advantageous yet often underutilized tool in digital marketing. But it should not be overlooked, especially given that the platform continues to innovate.
While we have seen 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. cited as the best times to post on Snapchat in various secondary sources around the internet, we have found no recent original data to either confirm or refute this.
Given this, we would recommend testing out different times and days based on the behaviors and lifestyles of your target audience and then iterating based on your results (which is what you should be doing across the board, regardless!)
The Best Times To Post On Pinterest
| Source | Day Of Week | Time To Post |
| Sprout Social | Wednesday to Friday | 1-3 p.m. Local |
| HubSpot | Friday | 3-6 p.m. Local |
| CoSchedule | Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday (in that order) |
8 p.m. Local |
- Best times to post on Pinterest: 3-6 p.m.
- Best day to post on Pinterest: Friday.
- Worst day to post on Pinterest: Sunday.
Pinterest, once thought of as a simple inspiration board-style site, has today become a crucial player in the world of ecommerce.
Businesses can leverage Pinterest to showcase their products and drive conversions, but also to grow and expand brand awareness and sentiment.
Success on Pinterest can be found through sharing brand-specific imagery, optimizing for mobile, and appealing to your audience’s sense of aspiration and inspiration.
Friday, alongside other weekdays, is consistently mentioned as a strong day among our sources. On the other end, Sunday is commonly named as the least effective day for posting on Pinterest.
When it comes to the most fruitful posting time on the platform, it appears that the late afternoon to early evening, specifically around 3-6 p.m., is optimal for best engagement.
The Best Times To Post On X (Twitter)
| Source | Day Of Week | Time To Post |
| Sprout Social | Tuesday to Thursday | 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Local |
| Hootsuite | Monday and Wednesday | 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. EST |
| CoSchedule | Wednesday, Tuesday, and Friday (in that order) | 9 a.m. Local |
| HubSpot | Friday and Wednesday (in that order) | 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Local |
- Best times to post on X (Twitter): 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
- Best days to post on X (Twitter): Wednesday and Friday.
- Worst day to post on X (Twitter): Sunday.
X (formerly known as Twitter) has long been a place for marketers to connect and engage with their audience, join trending conversations, and build community.
The real-time nature of X (Twitter) differentiates it from other social platforms and allows for spur-of-the-moment and reactionary marketing moves. And with CEO Elon Musk’s big plans for the app, it’s undoubtedly a space to watch.
When looking for the top days to post among the sources we consulted, Wednesday and Friday are most often mentioned – with Sprout Social specifying Tuesday through Thursday.
Hootsuite nominates Monday and Wednesday as the top days, proving that weekdays reign supreme on X (Twitter).
Like many other platforms, Sunday seems to be the least effective day for post-engagement.
Looking for the best times to post on X (Twitter)?
Late morning, from around 9 a.m. to noon, seems to be the most recommended time – though, as always, this will differ based on your specific audience and the type of content you are sharing.
We always recommend testing and experimenting to see what works for you.
The Best Times To Post On LinkedIn
| Source | Day Of Week | Time To Post |
| Sprout Social | Tuesday to Thursday | 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Local |
| Hootsuite | Monday | 4 p.m. EST |
| CoSchedule | Thursday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (in that order) | 10 a.m. Local |
| HubSpot | Monday, Wednesday, and Tuesday (in that order) | 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. Local |
- Best times to post on LinkedIn: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- Best days to post on LinkedIn: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
- Worst days to post on LinkedIn: Weekends.
Though first and foremost a platform for professionals, LinkedIn has picked up steam in recent years, becoming a hub of engagement and a frontrunner among social media networks.
It’s also an essential tool for businesses that want to reach business executives and decision-makers, as well as potential candidates.
Done right, LinkedIn content can go a long way in building a public perception of your brand and providing deep value to your target audience.
Digging into the data, we can see that weekdays provide the biggest opportunities for engagement on LinkedIn, which is hardly surprising. Tuesdays through Thursdays are often mentioned as the top days, with Mondays also highlighted by Hootsuite and HubSpot.
All of our sources agree that weekends are less effective for LinkedIn posts.
If you’re searching for the right time, you might try your hand at posting from late morning to mid-afternoon, based on what these sources discovered.
But (and not to sound like a broken record) your results may differ based on your brand, niche, target audience, and content.
What Is The Best Time For You To Post On Social Media?
Finding the best times to post on social media requires a delicate blend of testing, experimentation, and personal analytics.
And it never hurts to start your journey with industry insights like the ones we’ve covered in this article.
By aligning your content strategy with your target audience and trying out different posting strategies – taking into account these recommended time slots – you will be able to determine what works best for you and significantly enhance your social media presence and engagement.
Sources of data, November 2023.
All data above was taken from the sources below.
Each platform conducted its own extensive research, analyzing millions of posts across various social networks to find the times when users are most engaged.
Sources:
- Sprout Social analyzed nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles.
- Hootsuite analyzed thousands of social media posts using an audience of 8 million followers. For its Instagram updates, it analyzed over 30,000 posts.
- CoSchedule analyzed more than 35 million posts from more than 30,000 organizations.
- SocialPilot studied over 50,000 YouTube accounts and over 50,000 TikTok accounts to compile its data.
- Later analyzed over 11 million Instagram posts.
- HubSpot surveyed over 1,000 global marketers to discern the best times to post on social media. For its Instagram-specific data, it partnered with Mention to analyze over 37 million posts.
More resources:
Featured Image: Kaspars Grinvalds/Shutterstock
8 Best Zapier Alternatives to Automate Your Website
How Does Success of Your Business Depend on Choosing Type of Native Advertising?
Intro to Amazon Non-endemic Advertising: Benefits & Examples
YouTube Highlights its Top Trends, Topics and Creators of 2023
Paris mayor to stop using ‘global sewer’ X
Mastering The Laws of Marketing in Madness
8 Super-Helpful AI Features in Google Ads
Watch Live on December 11 – WordPress.com News
With the end of the Hollywood writers and actors strikes, the creator economy is the next frontier for organized labor
The 17 Best Ad Networks For Content Creators In 2024
-
WORDPRESS4 days ago8 Best Zapier Alternatives to Automate Your Website
-
MARKETING7 days agoHow Does Success of Your Business Depend on Choosing Type of Native Advertising?
-
MARKETING6 days agoIntro to Amazon Non-endemic Advertising: Benefits & Examples
-
SOCIAL3 days agoYouTube Highlights its Top Trends, Topics and Creators of 2023
-
SOCIAL6 days agoParis mayor to stop using ‘global sewer’ X
-
MARKETING5 days agoMastering The Laws of Marketing in Madness
-
PPC6 days ago8 Super-Helpful AI Features in Google Ads
-
WORDPRESS5 days agoWatch Live on December 11 – WordPress.com News
You must be logged in to post a comment Login