Blog posts are one of the most effective ways to attract and engage audiences including prospects. Apart from keyword research and creativity, it demands one more thing- “word length.” Talking of word length, one of the most asked questions while preparing blog posts is- “how long should a blog post be?”. If you too are grappling with this question, this post will clear all your doubts.
The ideal length of a blog post is not something that can be answered with a digit just like that. Although long-form blogs have a higher chance to rank, there isn’t any thumb rule for this. In short, how long a blog post should be for SEO depends on several factors including your target audience, search intent, and content relevancy. In this post, we’ll decode what exactly should be the length of your blog post, what factors impact it and how.
How Long Should A Blog Post Be: Decoded
As per HubSpot’s recent publication, the average ideal length of a blog content that ranks on the first page of Google is 2100 words.
However, it depends. On what? On a lot of things that we’re about to discuss in this blog.
In general, writing long-form blogs can fetch higher rankings and traffic. So one must curate around 1500-2000 words of blog content for search engines and readers. However, this figure is not for all the blog topics, keywords, and niches. A plethora of factors are there that are crucial to determining how long a blog post should be.
While writing online content, especially blogs, and articles, people usually follow the “short span attention” myth, according to which, people don’t prefer reading long-form content, and are interested in only short and crisp information pieces. However, this is not always the case. Readers not only spend time reading but also engage with posts that provide them with the information they are looking for.
What Should Be The Length Of An Effective Blog Post?
The workarounds of digital marketing and insights from data collected from past years can help you a lot in determining the exact length of a blog. But wait…..cutting the chase for you, this blog provides you the summary of key findings:
- 300-400 words: Blogs of this length are usually seen on online conversation or discussion platforms. However, this word count is not considered appropriate from the SEO point of view.
- 600-800 words: This is an average standard length for optimized blog posts for sharing information, product descriptions, tips, etc. Rather than being educational or in-depth, these posts are curated to share pintsized content to engage with the audience.
- 1300-2500: This window of word count is primarily used for “what is…..” or “how to…..” blogs. These blog posts allow enough room to target multiple keywords, cover in-depth details on a topic, provide interlinking, engage readers to spend more time on the site and boost other SEO parameters.
- 2700 and above: Such a word count suits blogs with listicles, tables, or data insights on a particular topic. This allows making the content worth the value for readers and interested audiences. In addition, such a length can also improve the rankings of your blog if optimized with the right keywords.
Key Elements Search Engines Look For In A Blog
Search engines like Google have always been keen to deliver users the content pieces that answers to their search queries and is of value to them. In other words, more than the word count, Google is concerned about the following key aspects of content:
- Does your content meet the search intent?
- What value does the content provide to the readers?
- Does your content provide original information, research, or insights?
- Is your content free from any spelling or stylistic issues?
- Does your audience feel like they need to search again for the information after reading your content?
Apart from these, many other questions and aspects are there, but as far as the length of the content is concerned, content relevancy and accuracy are the key factors. Let’s discuss the factors connected with the length of a blog post.
How To Analyze The Ideal Blog Post Length For SEO?
Some blogs are as long as 1000 words, 2000 words, 3000 words, or 4000 words; but how to analyze the exact ideal length? To answer this, you need to know the return you’re getting. This is to say, what are you expecting from your lengthy blog, or for what purpose do you want to use long-form blog content. There can be many possible answers to this:
- Improved Traffic
- More Social Shares
- Increase in user time
- Leads via CTAs
- Organic Rankings
Analyzing your goals can help you a lot in deciding how long should a blog post be for SEO.
Moreover, you can also pick top-ranking competitors, calculate the average blog post length they are using, and decide your blog’s word count accordingly. This will give you an idea about what should be the minimum length of your blog post should be. For instance, here is the word count of top-ranking blogs on the keyword: “how much instagram pay for 1000 followers in india.”
The screenshot above clearly highlights that if you want to rank on the first page of Google, your blog post should at least be (—–) words. Again, content relevancy and quality are a lot more important facets in this regard. This all comes down to 2 key factors that are influence how long should a blog post be:
1) Target Audience
Defining the target audience is a key factor that determines a blog’s word count. For instance, if you’re writing for researchers or experts who already have the idea and understanding of the basic topic but need detailed knowledge of a particular language. In such a case any detailed mention of the introductory topics should be avoided.
But in case your blog is directed towards beginners who need to know everything from details, mentioning baseline topics becomes inevitable. This is how assessing your target audience impacts the length of your blog.
2) Search Intent Keyword
Along with defining the target audience, decoding keyword search intent is also crucial to determining the length of a blog post.
Assessing keyword search intent helps identify opportunities to answer the most searchable queries of the audience.
The writer can decide what to talk about in the blog and keep it to-the-point. For instance, a person searching for “how to fix windshield glass crack” is probably willing to come across some helpful posts mentioning fast or quick methods to fix the issue themselves at home; whereas, someone searching for “best windshield glass crack repair kit” is looking for a listicle blog that speaks of features of certain product/s from different brands.
These two factors directly affect the word count of a blog post. Now that we’ve discussed these, let’s have a look at factors which indirectly impact the length of a blog.
Other Related Factors Determining Length Of A Blog Post
Here are the facets that affect the length of a blog post:
- Industry/Niche
The industry or niche you’re writing for matters a lot in deciding the mainframe length of an article/blog post. For instance, if you’re writing for the healthcare industry or news (journalism), the length of content usually remains short, to the point, and precise. This can highly vary for different industries.
- Keywords- long-tail vs short-tail
The primary bridge between your content and the audience is keyword/keyphrases. Now keywords are long-tail and short-tail, which directly make a difference to the legitimate intent of an article/blog post and hence its length.
If you’re targeting a short-tail keyword like “what is digital marketing,” you’ll be required to create some lengthy content. Otherwise, long-tail keywords like “how is shop pay different from paypal,” will require crisp differentiation discussion in the content. Such keywords are used by an audience that is willing to get a direct answer/process to their query rather than in-depth information. Remember that keyword stuffing would harm your blog rank negatively and thus natural integration should be opted for.
Different Lengths Of Blog Posts
This table will help you access how long should a blog post be based on different type of blog formats:
| Micro Content: If you’re writing content for micro blogging sites the content length should be short. Take Quora for example, a 200 words blog will do for this online discussion platform. Suggested Blog Length: 200-500 words |
| Update Articles: Articles covering an update on any software or search engine algorithm, usually cover about the new upgrades, features and their implications which can be wrapped up in a concise manner. Suggested Blog Length: 500-600 words |
| Press Release: These should be short and concise explaining about the product/service launched. Suggested Blog Length: 400-700 words |
| News Articles: Articles covering news are generally short and cover only the key instances and updates regarding a particular person, place or event, etc. Suggested Blog Length: 500-1000 words |
| “How To” Blogs: When it comes to reading about procedures for a certain mobile function, household chores or applications etc. people usually prefer to-the-point information with value-providing content. Suggested Blog Length: 1000-1200 words |
| Informational/“Guide” Blogs: Content that demands covering a topic in-depth with its every related aspect, usually requires to be long. Suggested Blog Length: 1500-2700 words |
| Cornerstone Content/Pillar Pages: Such posts can be lengthy depending on their keyword search intent. These are usually used to provide an overview of the complete topic and link it to the related pages. Suggested Blog Length: 2700-3000 words |
How Is Long-Form Content Better For SEO?
Long-form blog posts allow marketers to boost SEO and earn extra leverage. Here is how:
(a) Increases Reader Time On Page
One of the key SEO metrics is reader time and engagement on a web page. Lengthy content has the potential to improve this metric as the reader stays on your page for longer. Consequently, this also brings down the bounce rate which improves a website’s overall SEO score.
(b) Enough Room To Discuss About Topic
Certain topics require covering in-depth information, and long-form content is the best for them. They provide enough space to cover each and every related aspect of the topic and discuss them with the audience in detail.
(c) Establish Authority & Trust
Establishing an authoritative and trusted image is quite essential when it comes to search engine optimization. With writers around the globe providing long-form content, top-ranking blogs posts are the ones that aren’t just making a muck of word count, but rather provide quality content with additional value and insights for readers. Long-form contents in the field of expertise like the healthcare industry that comply with E-E-A-T guidelines from Google thus rank better.
(d) Breakdown Of Information
One of the cheesiest ways to present all the essential parts of a blog that can’t be avoided from mentioning is to break them. In long-form content, writers can divide information into main headings and connected subheads conveniently. Readers are more captivated by content that is finely curated with proper research and delivered in an easy-to-understand manner.
(e) Navigation Through Internal Linking
Long-form posts help SEOs and writers to provide better navigation and redirection through internal linking. This keeps the readers engaged with a post, delivers the desired information, and boosts site authority by earnest division of content clusters and/or pillar content pages. In addition, it increases user’s dwell time on the site increasing its SEO score.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How Many Words Should My Blog Post Be?
It depends on the niche you’re covering, your target audience, and keyword search intent. Usually, blogs between 1500-2100 have a higher chance of ranking well on SERPs.
2. Do Long Form Blogs Perform Better?
Although long-form blogs usually have a higher chance of performing, word count isn’t the sole determining factor that decides how well a blog post will perform. Several other determinants affect the performance of a blog post.
3. Is A 500 Word Blog Post Too Short?
It depends on what kind of blog you’re writing, which keyword you’re using, what’s the search intent and who is your target audience. If you’re writing a blog for some news, update, or microblogging site, 500 words are more than enough.
4. What Matters More Content Length Or Quality?
Quality is an all-time winner in this race of length of a blog vs quality. So instead of spending all your time beating the bush around the calculation of word count, focus on content relevancy and provide useful and valuable information for the readers.
Conclusion
Determining the length of a blog post is no guesswork. It requires extensive research and analysis to depict which- longer or shorter posts work better when it comes to ranking, clicks, and conversions.
Nevertheless, there is no thumb rule to define the word count, it depends on several factors ranging from keyword search intent to target audience. The above post has aimed to provide a roadmap to figure out how long should a blog post be.
Although longer blogs provide enough format and space to cover a topic in detail and make it extensively informational, short-form blogs help share information in a more crisp layout and manner. Nevertheless, this is subject to various influencing factors. Above all, the quality of the content matters which has the primary upper hand over the word count. So whatever you’re writing, ensure that your content resonates with your audience, unfolds solutions to their query, and provides them value.
