Blog Post Length – does it need to be a certain length or minimum length?
Every so often I get or read about some new advice about blogging. Some blogging guru says that our blog post length needs to be longer, or shorter.
Usually it’s longer, essentially because that seems to be how Google prefers it.
Maybe they’ll say that they should be broken up into 8 pages of bite-sized chunks, or whatever. You often read that blogs or articles need to be 500 words minimum. That’s probably Google talk.
It can drive you crazy if you pay attention to everything you read about. Let’s talk about this because it could be important. Is there an actual length your blog posts really should be?
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a magic number that guaranteed best results for any blog post?
But let’s be realistic here. That’s like asking someone to tell you how long your conversations with other people should be.
Sometimes it’s going to be just a few words or sentences. Other times you have a nice long talk. Sometimes you go into detail while other times you keep it simple.
It all depends on how much you have to say to each other, doesn’t it?
It could also depend on the other person’s knowledge of the subject at hand. If they don’t know much about the subject of the conversation you might keep it simple so as to not overwhelm them.
Or if they are inquisitive or want to know more details you need to talk more and explain more. So it is with writing a blog post.
What about a quick tip or an easy How To?
Sometimes you’re sharing just a quick tip or how to do a simple procedure. In such a case something around 200 to 300 words will do just fine. Add a pretty picture, related to the topic, if possible, and call it a day.
But wait! If you’re using Yoast SEO plugin you won’t normally get the green light if your post is under 300 words. So be it!
Other times you might want to go into more depth on the subject. You may want to cover different aspects of a topic and share some examples. You also could, if appropriate, give your readers as much information as you can.
In such cases you would make it as long as you needed. Long posts are great. Also if you are looking to please Google, they prefer long posts or articles. Long informative posts help establish your authority in the subject matter.
If the content is great, such posts are often shared on social media. That’s a big plus and free content marketing for you. Long posts also give the search engines a lot of text to sift through. That’s more chances for you to rank for long tail keywords.
Good advice would be to mix longer and shorter blog posts. That will make your blog seem more natural and organic. Don’t force yourself to reach a certain magic word count if you don’t have that much to say on a topic.
Keep it short and to the point. Most people don’t have a lot of free time so keeping it short is often a wise move. Your readers will thank you.
You could have a lot to say – what then?
If on the other hand you have a lot to say or share in another post, go for it. Break the longer content up into short paragraphs. It helps your readers stay on track when you use subheadings and bullet points.
Make it easy for your readers to scan longer posts. That helps your readers get an idea of what the content is about. They don’t have to commit to reading it all first to find out what the subtopic is about.
When you find yourself writing a few thousand words, consider breaking it up. You can make it into a series of blog posts instead. It will help you and your readers both from being overwhelmed with a really long post. Link from one part of the series to the next. That makes it easy for your blog readers to follow along.
You should enjoy the process of writing. Pay attention to what your readers prefer. If your short posts tend to do better, consider keeping your posts short and to the point. Say you’re getting a lot more social engagement and shares on longer posts.
You can combine a few of the shorter blog post ideas into a longer post. Whatever you do, know there is no magic in a certain number of words in a blog post. Don’t get hung up on 500 words or any other number of words.
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