New research shows that online articles enjoy a very short period of high traffic, followed by a sharp decline.

The research, conducted by Boost the News, analyzes the traffic of 30 articles from different websites. The analysis points at the following phenomena:

In 74% of articles, traffic reaches its peak on the day of publication.

25% of articles reach their traffic peak on the first or second day after publication. Less than 1% of the articles reached their traffic peak more than 2 days after the day of publication.

The peak in traffic is quickly followed by a drastic drop: within one week, traffic of articles drops in average by 90%.

After one month, traffic is down by more than 98%, and the average daily traffic of articles is equivalent to merely 1.7% of the traffic during the peak.

The results of the research are of big importance for online publishers and for online marketers:

For online publishers, the results mean that the competition over readers is harder than ever, and content must be constantly created and promoted in order to maintain high traffic in the long term.

For online marketers, the results put a big question mark on the efficacy of their content marketing efforts. Brands that spend thousands of dollars on creating high-quality branded content should know that the effect of their investment lasts for merely a few days. It also means that the impact of SEO on long-term traffic of online content is minimal: after the initial buzz fades away, organic traffic stands for less than 2% of the initial traffic.

Marketers and publishers must thus develop a sustainable, long-term promotion strategy for their content. Without it, most of the resources they have invested on creating content will be irrelevant already after a week.

Read the full results of the research by Boost the News.