Blog feed silence on ranking sites, by best Google position
| Best rank of site | Sites | % no post in 12 months | % none in 2 years | % none in 3 years | Median days since last post |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 to #3 | 673 | 16.8% | 11.7% | 8.2% | 18 |
| #4 to #10 | 1,323 | 18.9% | 12.5% | 8.8% | 22 |
| #11 to #20 | 1,473 | 24.6% | 17.6% | 13.5% | 35 |
| All feeds | 3,482 | 20.9% | 14.5% | 10.7% | 26 |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026. Rank differences are a correlation, not evidence that posting improves rankings.
Summary
Plenty of business sites launch a blog, post for a while and then stop. A stale blog tells visitors that nobody is looking after the site. We checked how often that happens on sites that already rank well in Google.
Of 3,482 blog feeds on sites ranking in Google's top 20, 20.9% have no post in the last 12 months. At the other end, the median site last posted 26 days before our crawl, and just over half posted something in the previous 30 days.
What we measured
We took the domains ranking in Google's top 20 for 10,019 US searches on Oct 15 2026. For each site we checked the WordPress-style /feed URL and read the date of the newest item in its RSS or Atom feed, one feed per host, then compared that date with Oct 15 2026.
Each site's best rank and the keyword group it mostly ranks for come from its appearances in those same top 20 results.
Two limits matter. Sites that removed their feed are not counted, so the real share of dormant blogs may differ. And the rank differences below are a correlation: they do not show that posting more often improves rankings.
One in five ranking blogs has gone quiet for a year
20.9% of the 3,482 blog feeds have no post in the last 12 months. 14.5% have none in two years and 10.7% none in three.
The typical site is far more active. The median site last posted 26 days before Oct 15 2026, and 52.7% of the 3,482 sites published something in the 30 days before the crawl.
20.9%
Share of 3,482 blog feeds on sites ranking in Google's top 20 with no post in the last 12 months.
Higher-ranking sites post more recently
Sites whose best rank is #1 to #3 have the freshest blogs. 16.8% of those 673 sites have been silent for a year, against 18.9% of 1,323 sites whose best rank is #4 to #10 and 24.6% of 1,473 sites whose best rank is #11 to #20. The median last post is 18 days old for the top group and 35 days for the bottom group.
This is a correlation. Sites that hold the top spots are likely to be better-resourced operations that keep the whole site up to date, so an active blog is more plausibly a sign of that than a cause of the ranking.
Sites that rank for more keywords keep blogs fresher
Sites that rank for two or more of our study keywords are the most active publishers. Only 13.5% of those 680 sites have gone a year without a post, and their median last post is 9 days old.
Among the 2,789 sites ranking for a single keyword, 22.7% are silent for a year and the median last post is 33 days old. Sites with wider search visibility probably have more content and more people producing it.
Services and finance blogs are the most dormant
The keyword group a site mostly ranks for makes a clear difference. 24.6% of 1,226 services and finance sites have no post in 12 months, with a median of 36 days since the last one. Shopping sites follow at 21.5% of 1,122.
B2B software and marketing sites are more active, at 17.4% of 311. Information and hobby sites keep the freshest blogs: 16.0% of 810 are silent for a year, and the median last post is 16 days old. For many of those sites, publishing is likely the core of the business rather than a side project.
What this means for your site
A blog with no new post in a year is a visible maintenance gap. Visitors notice the dates, and old posts tend to collect broken links and outdated advice.
- Open your feed at /feed and check the date of the newest item. If it is more than a year old, decide whether to restart the blog or retire it.
- If you keep it, set a schedule you can actually hold, even if that is one post a month.
- If you retire it, remove blog links from the main navigation, hide visible dates on evergreen posts that are still accurate, and update or redirect posts that are out of date.
- Review your older posts once a year for broken links, outdated prices and dead products.
Sources
- PageSpeed Matters analysis of Google top 20 results for 10,019 US searches, October 2026
- RSS and Atom feeds at the /feed URLs of those ranking sites, October 2026
Embed this research
Paste this on your site to embed the chart. It links back to the source automatically.
<iframe id="psm-business-blog-activity" src="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/embed/data-studies/business-blog-activity" width="100%" height="600" style="width:100%;border:1px solid #E2E3E1;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="Business Blog Activity 2026: 20.9% Silent for a Year - PageSpeed Matters"></iframe>
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/business-blog-activity">Business Blog Activity 2026: 20.9% Silent for a Year - PageSpeed Matters</a></p>
Frequently asked questions
How many business blogs are inactive?
Of 3,482 blog feeds on sites ranking in Google's top 20, 20.9% have no post in the last 12 months. 14.5% have none in two years and 10.7% none in three.
How often do ranking sites publish blog posts?
The median site in our sample last posted 26 days before the crawl, and 52.7% of the 3,482 sites published something in the previous 30 days.
Do sites that blog more often rank higher?
Top-ranking sites post more recently: 16.8% of sites whose best rank is #1 to #3 are silent for a year, against 24.6% of sites whose best rank is #11 to #20. That is a correlation and does not show that posting improves rankings.
How do I check when my blog last posted?
Open your site's /feed URL in a browser and look at the date on the newest item. If you do not have a feed, check the date of the most recent post on your blog index page.
A dormant blog is easy to spot and easy to fix, either with a schedule you can keep or a clean retirement of the old posts. Need help with this? See our website maintenance services.