Chances are that you have not once or twice asked yourself how long a blog post should be. In today’s vast digital world, this remains an important and yet ambiguous question. Luckily, there’s an answer, and in this article, we explore how to determine the right length of each of your blog posts. Some would say that a tight 800-word publication is just fine, and others would swear that the majority of your blog posts should be comprised of more than 3000 words, so you get a sweet SEO edge. However, this field is not monochromatic, and the length of the ideal blog post depends on the topic, aims, and needs of readers.
tl; dr: the optimal length varies between 250 and 4500+ words:
- Publications about short news and updates are usually between 150 and 600 words.
- How-to articles are typically complete with about 1200-1800 words.
- Pillars and in-depth articles are, in most cases, comprised of about 2000 words.
- In-depth research and analysis of comprehensive topics can result in articles of up to 4,500 words and even more than 10,000-word blog posts.
However, remember that these are guidelines and not rules. The most important thing is to deliver quality content that your readers can use. Stick to the point, answer the question thoroughly, deliver what is promised in the heading, and you are good to go.
Why Does the Length of Blog Posts Matter
Length of blog posts is important, but only to a certain degree – factors like SEO, search intent, and depth of analysis are far more important than length alone and should be taken into consideration when working on your publications.
As it comes to length by itself, it is important, as it might affect SEO, and also can help you attract and retain just the right audience for your business. Here are some of the reasons why length matters:
Long Blog Posts Can Rank Better (But Not Always)
In most cases, longer articles contribute to an overall better SEO score and better SERP rankings, because they cover a given topic more comprehensively, answering numerous related questions in a single publication. This makes a good impression on search engines and prompts them to rank your publication higher in search results. Furthermore, long blog posts include a larger number of keywords and semantically related terms, which prompts search engines to determine this particular publication (and luckily the entire website) as a more trustworthy and authoritative source on this particular topic. Additionally, longer texts allow you to insert more internal links to more of your other publications and pages, and help crawlers search deeper in your website and find more relevant topics to rank in different search results.
What this means is that long-form content can lead to better SEO results. However, length itself is not the sole factor that determines the popularity of your publications. Always focus on delivering fresh, up-to-date, and to-the-point content that solves your readers’ issues and answers their questions right away. For example, if you can answer a given query within the span of 130 words, always stick to this amount and don’t inflate your article with artificial length only for the sake of making it longer. The opposite is also true – deep and comprehensive topics require long and comprehensive publications that delve deeper into analysis. In most cases, such topics can’t be covered with merely 500 words, and sometimes even 5000 words are not enough.
N.B! A long post doesn’t necessarily mean a comprehensive post! Avoid making the mistake of writing tons of words only for the sake of making your publication longer – you need only the number of words to cover the topic and not many more! If you can explain a concept with 1300 words, don’t use 6000, and if 10,000 suffice, don’t stretch to 30,000!
Short-Form Content is Still Relevant
On the contrary, short publications can be just the thing your target audience and algorithms need. Short articles, in the span of 100 to 600 words, can be really effective for your website and business on many occasions, such as:
- You share quick updates, news, and announcements. In most cases, these quick updates require no more than 400 words to cover the entire event.
- Deliver “fast answers” for your audience. There are many cases in which Internet users need a quick answer to a question and are not in the mood to read a thorough 8900-word article on the topic, but would rather get a 2-sentence answer and be done with it. Should you deliver such answers, you have a great chance to win new returning visitors who can even become customers.
- Short publications are useful if you aim at engagement – punchy posts can help you get more user comments, shares, and reactions from your audience, which, in most cases, is a good thing to have in the digital world.
How Long Should MY Posts Be?
As mentioned, the answer is ambivalent, and the ideal length depends on the aim of your publications. To get a good estimate, let’s turn to data and statistics, shall we?
According to WG Content, if you need to convert and establish topical authority, focus on publishing pieces with over 2000 words. However, if you need to share news and convey data to already subscribed visitors, a 500-word article can be just enough. If you are focusing on an educational post and focus on explaining a single specific topic, a 1500-2000-word piece is just fine.
An Elementor article also claims that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but claims that there’s a sweet spot between length, information delivered, and readability that lies around the 1890-word mark for your in-depth articles and approximately 500-word pieces for simple articles.
In short, there is no hard rule to follow when you are contemplating the length of your articles. However, to get a better idea of how many words are enough for a specific piece, there are a few steps you can undertake:
- Check competing posts from industry competitors. Do research for your target keyword and check the top 10 publications in search results. Have a look at the average length, specific sub-topics that are covered, and the overall tone and aim of the publications.
- Match the depth of analysis to the topic complexity. Depending on how serious your covered topic is, the length would vary. For example, some how-to and what-is articles might perfectly explain the concept in about 100-150 words, whereas other topics, for example, what is SEO, might need way more words to cover everything important in the field.
- Decide on your business goal. Are you focusing on delivering organic traffic? The blog post should be bulkier, ideally above 2000 words. You want shares and comments? About a 1400-word piece would do the trick. Want to create content pillars? Then, focus on delivering an in-depth text that is 4000+ words.
What To Look Out For When Deciding Blog Post Length
If you are not careful, you can publish a piece that is not well-received by both your audience and search engines. To avoid such a scenario, don’t lean towards extremes – if an article is complete and well-structured with about 1300 words, don’t inflate it with additional text, so it becomes a 6000-word piece. Nobody needs that. Also, if an article looks complete, thorough, and not text-inflated within the scope of 1800 words, don’t oversimplify it so it becomes a 300-word short text. Nobody needs this as well.
Conclusion – How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
How Long Should a Blog Post Be? It depends. There are numerous factors you should consider to make your publications just the perfect size. Here are some tips to follow when you work on your blog posts:
- Short-form content is ideal for sharing quick news, changes, and updates.
- Long-form blog posts shine when you need to establish authority and need that sweet organic traffic boost towards your pages.
- Very long blog posts are suitable for creating pillar content and focus thoroughly on a given topic, so you tell everything there is to know about it.
It is important to understand that you do not need to obsess over blog post length, but instead you should focus on delivering high-quality and up-to-date content that satisfies the needs of your target audience and makes them believe you are the one to get back to when they need quick answers, explanatory articles, and in-depth analysis of your area of specialization.