Are you puzzled by this question: “What is the ideal blog post length?” You’ve heard various numbers, and they swirl around in your head.
As part of your work writing blogs, you read other blogs (I highly recommend this).
Are you confused about the ideal blog post length? A lot of people ask me how many words they should strive for.
Who Needs to See Your Blog Post?
Did you know when you blog you are writing for humans and spiders (bots)? Yes, spiders can read. It is really only worth blogging if both “bods” (human readers) and “bots” like what they see. Ensuring bods read and bots index your posts means readers will return and bots will index and rank your site higher on the Search Results pages. That is your goal – to rank high enough so that a prospect looking for someone with your expertise will find you.
The Ideal Blog Post Length
One decision all bloggers need to make, and many struggle with, is how long their blog posts should be. This depends on the author, your blog style, topic, and your audience. There are many different approaches but it’s about discovering the one that works best for you.
A Few Basic Guidelines
Experts agree that Big G (Google) and the other search engine algorithms reward posts that are at least 1500-2000 words. These posts get higher ranking.
However, you can always write shorter content to link to in social media posts, such as responding to a simple question posed to your audience or culled from an email in your inbox.
Longer content performs better in today’s internet landscape and there is no upper limit (from a search engine perspective) on how long a blog post can be. However, there may be upper limits imposed by how much time it takes you to write a blog post.
Put together quality material but don’t get so caught up in perfectionism that you make it another business. Blogging needs to be balanced with other aspects of your life and business.
I assume you are a small business owner, concerned with many aspects of running your business: marketing, sales, operations, finance. If you judge your ability to devote time to blog by looking at the blogs produced in larger companies, you may feel lacking. Teams of writers with no other responsibilities can turn out blogs designed to capture search engine traffic, educate readers, and contain links to keep the reader on the site.
That’s great. The best blog post length for you, I assert, is one that does not feel overwhelming. It fits into your life; it encourages you to continue the activity, and provides you with visibility. One blog read by the right client can lead repay you many times over.
Let’s say you are shooting for a longer post. Let’s say you are shooting for a longer post. Blogtyrant asserts that most bloggers are striving for more than 1000 words.
There are several ways to maximize the impact and improve the readability of longer posts. Break up text with links and images, and use headers to divide the content into chunks.
Remember there are 2 factors to consider in order to determine your ideal post length.
1. How much you’re willing or able to write.
If you don’t have a lot of experience writing, you may find it challenging or even difficult to plan and write long content. However, you can create long content by connecting a few related pieces of short content together.
2. What your target audience prefers.
The best and fastest way to discover this, is to write content at different lengths and see which posts perform best. Even though long content generally performs better with search engines, you also want your readers to consume your content fully and have them engage with it.
Once you start publishing your blogs, pay attention to which blog posts get the most engagement and this will give you a specific guideline suited to your audience. Your ideal blog post length may vary with the topic and the amount of time you must write. It is fun to vary it.
Your ideal blog post length is the one that results in you repeating the behavior – so you continue to blog, share your knowledge, and connect with your readers.
Pat Iyer is an editor, author, book coach and ghostwriter who helps individuals create books that encourages their expertise to shine and advances their businesses. She has written or edited 59 of her own books.
Pat began blogging in 2009. Since then, she has written over a thousand blog posts for entrepreneurs, attorneys, legal nurse consultants and patients.
