How Long Should a Blog Post Be?

When it comes to blogging and starting up your own website, there are tons of questions and queries that might cross one’s mind. How to start? What to write and that too effectively? Etc…

Developing our own skills and based on our own experience today we wanted to talk about the age-old question: How long should a blog post be? Although the question is seemingly a simple one, the answer may vary from person to person. That’s right. You can ask any blogger and they all might give you different answers.

So today we thought for a while. While there are tons of factors that may affect the length of a blog post, the seemingly obvious is the purpose of it. And if you do not understand what we mean, let’s break it down and discuss it further.

Major aspects that determine the blog length

1. Purpose of the Blog Post

This is the major aspect that determines the length of a blog post. When you write a specific blog post about any subject matter, it is always defined for a purpose. It can be for marketing purpose, tutorials, sharing pieces of information or simply to generate discussions. The shorter lengths are recommended for generating discussions and for social sharing, while longer lengths are usually meant for a thorough review, informative purpose and for better ranking on the search engines!

2. Social Sharing

Social Media platforms are now one of the major factors that your business marketing depends on. However sharing the blog contents directly to your social platforms doesn’t usually do the trick. So we recommend improvising and modifying a blog post that is ideal to share on your social media platforms!

Normally, for this purpose, we recommend shorter blog posts. According to different researchers, shorter posts are usually the best to get many shares and comments on social media sites. Although it might be bad for the SEO ranking, shorter posts tend to capture attention and get more views from your users. Shorter blog posts also create a more engaging environment for your users. These type of blog lengths are perfect for promotion and marketing purposes.

3. Topic

This is yet another major element to keep in mind when writing a blog post. If your topic is vague and difficult to understand, the users tend to look for more informative and detailed contents. But if it is something in general and can be easily understood; long and laggy contents are more of a waste of time. Focusing on the major point without too much unnecessary information usually is the key point to an effective blog post.

For example, if we are talking about WordPress and all the aspects of it in one post, it might be much longer as there are tons of details to it. However, if our topic is something specific, like a WordPress theme or WordPress plugin, then the content tends to be much shorter.

4. SEO

According to a thorough research on SEO by Backlinko, the highest ranking articles on Google are most often long and detailed posts. Statistically, the highest ranking articles on Google are often 2,450 words.  Thus if you want your posts and websites to rank higher in search engines then longer posts usually are the way out for you.

However, make sure that you write about a topic that people usually find useful. Long and lengthy blog posts about something irrelevant is just a waste if no one searches for it. So make sure you research the keywords and the topic searchability before you start writing.

5. Targeted Audience

Another major element that may vary the blog length is the type of audience you are focusing on. Listening to their needs and queries determines the type of post they are looking for. Whether they are looking for entertaining posts, inspirations, information or facts; the length of the blog post determines their engagement rate.

So make sure that you choose to write about the type of subject matter that may interest your audience. Use intriguing titles and interesting ways to present your content.

Standard WordCount for Blogs

Now that we have summed up the major elements that may affect a blog post, let’s take about the ideal or the standard word count for each niche and category of blog posts in detail. While we all may have varied opinions on the matter, we have researched and enlisted the range that majority of blogging experts agree on.

So take a look below to find out what length should your blog post be to make it more effective.

• 100-300 Words:

As we have mentioned before, shorter posts are effective in getting more shares and comments if you are creating contents for social media platforms. So 100-300 words are usually the ideal word count if you want to promote your business online or simply start a discussion on any subject matter. In this case, less is certainly more.

• 300-600 Words:

This is the ideal length for blog posts usually recommended by most blogging experts. The middle-ground between social sharing and SEO ranks, this is the ideal length for any type of contents.

• 750 Words:

This is the standard word count usually followed by professional journalists. We recommend this blog length for newspaper and magazine articles. Keeping information and fact to the point yet detailed enough to keep users engaged is the key point.

• 1000-2000+ Words:

Just like we have mentioned above the key to successful SEO ranking is surely the length and quality of the post. If you aim to achieve higher ranks on the search engines and reach out to more audiences, then this is the ideal blog post length we recommend. But this does not mean that you stuff up the content with unnecessary detail just to reach the word count. The quality of the post is also of utmost importance!

In conclusion

Longer length are usually ideal for higher SEO ranking while shorter length are usually recommended for social shares. We hope that this article be useful for you!