Content Publishing Volume/Timing

[andrewkissel]

I am working with a company that has a bi-monthly print magazine that has several years' worth of back issues. We're working on building a digital platform, and the majority of articles from the print mag - tips, how-tos, reviews, recipes, interviews, etc - will be published online.

Much of the content is not date-sensitive except for the occasional news article. Some content is semi-date-sensitive, such as articles focusing on seasonality (e.g. winter activities vs. summer activities).

My concern is whether, once we prepare to go live, we should ensure that ALL historical content is published at once, and if so, whether back-dates should be applied to each content piece (even if dating isn't relevant), or whether we should have a strategy in place in terms of creating a publishing schedule and releasing content over time - albeit content that is older but isn't necessarily time-sensitive (e.g. a drink recipe). Going forward, all newly-created content will be published around the print issue release.

Are there pitfalls I should avoid in terms of pushing out so much back content at once?

[dynamyt100]

Personally I would release it over a decided period. This way it would seem that your content is being continuously added rather than a massive once off DUMP.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Andrew,

I would definitely avoid throwing everything at Google all at once. This won't give any article time to gain traction and severely limit your chances to share everything through social channels.

There isn't a magic timescale where you should publish this over, but if there is that much, then you should be looking at months rather than days or weeks.

Leave the season-sensitive articles until those seasons to maximise on the impact they can have.

I would also update any articles that might have out-dated information, so look at these before they go live.

-Andy

[EGOL]

Converting all of those articles will take time.

I would design the site architecture and template and then immediately publish each article as soon as it is ready.  This will get the articles flowing out into the search engines and get the money flowing in.