How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
325-350 words…or not. Actually, there is no such thing as the RIGHT length for a blog post. But here are some things you may want to consider.
Blog Posts Can Be ShortShort or LongLong
Let’s look at two of my favorite blogs: Dosh Dosh and Boing Boing. Now, immediately you may notice that they have something in common…they are both extremely popular blogs. Both have daily readers in the thousands and a dedicated crowd of regular followers (much like Blogging Startup…well, maybe not thousands). But one thing any reader of both blogs will quickly realize: they differ dramatically in post length. Boing Boing is known for short post of two to 20 sentences highlighting a video, oddity, website or product. While Dosh Dosh, on the other hand, typically publishes lengthy articles, often more than 3000 words. Despite taking opposite strategies for post length, both blogs are among the most successful on the Internet.
Write Enough to Get Your Point Across
…but no more. Back to our examples, Dosh Dosh is often sharing indepth strategies for optimizing your use of the Internet. A short article would not allow for the detailed information needed to implement much of what is shared. On the other hand, Boing Boing is just trying to grab your attention long enough to point out something interesting. Extra words and length writing would only distract the reader from the interesting thing.
Length of Posts Will, In Part, Determine How Often You Post
It stands to reason that if you are writing lengthy posts, you will probably be publishing on your blog less frequently than if you wrote short articles. Dosh Dosh publishes a few times each month…although he hasn’t published anything since May 18th. Where are you, Maki? On the other hand, Boing Boing puts out new posts several times each day. Just this Friday, July 17th, Boing Boing published 20 posts on topics ranging from raging toilets to baking cookies on a hot car dashboard. Of course, it helps that Boing Boing has fiddy-seven ninety writers for the blog.
Write With Reader Expectations in Mind
If Boing Boing started publishing 3500 word thesises (or is it thesi…ah, forget it) articles, the readers would quickly lose interest and move on. And Dosh Dosh equally disappoint fans with Five Bulleted Ideas for Ad Placement. Hand-in-hand with writing enough to get your point across is writing in a length that readers expect. Once you’ve set a pattern for your blog, thing seriously before making a change.
Consider Breaking Really Long Posts Into Two or More
If you have a lot of information to share, give
thought to writing a series of posts. At the very least, break up the long article with sub-headings, short paragraphs, bulleted/numbered lists, and possibly publish on multiple pages. The idea is to make your longer articles easy to read.
Don’t Allow SEO Concerns Affect the Length of Posts
Some have written that longer posts do better for SEO, possibly just the result of more frequent occurrence of keywords. Well, don’t you dare write longer just to improve your SEO. What about your readers? If you write too long for your subject, readers will move on. And you certainly won’t merit those all important backlinks if readers find your writing too lengthy. Again, the rule is “write enough to get your point across…and no more”.
Finally, If You Still Are Unsure About Post Length…TEST
Of course, you already track your blog traffic with a fully functional and easy to read analytics program like, say, Google Analytics…right? So you can see exactly what your readers are, um, reading. You can learn how long they hang out on your blog and how many pages they visit. There are amazing facts that you can learn from reviewing your blog stats on a regular basis. SO, if you want to find out if short or long posts bring (and keep) more readers, run a test. For a month, keep your posts short. Everything you right must be under some predetermined word count. Then, a month later, post nothing but longer posts. Now review your analytics to see just what gets read the most. Of course, you could devise a much more detailed and effective test using goals within Google Analytics, but that is an entirely different post.
So, that’s it. I think I’ve said enough so, now it’s time to stop writing.
[PhotoCredit:Emborg & Misocrazy]
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Comments
I think short or long for writing acticle it is about the goal to get traffic from search engine or not, because the longer i think the better.
David
well that’s topic of debate for bloggers,but as far as i know,if you know a lot bout something and you can write in a humorous way or make it interesting then you should write long posts,and if you are writing something that you dont know much about then jist make it brief and link it to the best article on that topic in the web.
I agree, the number one goal is to write enough to get your point across, and to provide a good reader experience. But I also think there is room for a balance. If done the right way I think SEO can be accomplished without comprimising the reader experience.
Sometime with my data entry jobs I write way too much or way too little. It is sometimes really hard to find that middle ground when it comes to all kinds of writing. Great posting!
A blog post needs to be just as long as required to get across the points you want to make and easily understood. If that means a single paragraph then that’s it. Padding out posts with waffle puts readers off completely.
First of all let me tell you that this is a very nice blog. I saw the video and learnt a lot. Thanks.
It should be till the topic goes off. For this alone the blog will sounds good.sound editing software
Hi from Crooze, Thanks for a very nice artcile, really enjoy your work! Be back for the next article! Cheers
I have my own opinion on SEO for blogs…
I write for the reader screw the search engines if you keep the readers happy then traffic will follow.
Every post is the length that it needs to be no more no less
Danny
Hi Mate, really enjoyed your spiffing blog! Really helps to be able to see how other people are making excellent blogs, gives me many ideas for my own blog! Thanks a lot.
Great article, i often struggle with the length of blog too. My site has quite short post on there, but I often look at other sites and think – how can they write so much!!
Just thought I would leave a rather random comment, but just to say you are doing an extremely good job of keeping a nice and informative blog which a rather enjoy reading when I have few moments of peace in the day. Thanks
Writing a blog should all be about fun, love, and expressing yourself! If you find a medium as wonderful as the web to express yourself on, then boo frits to you me laddy. Ta
i really like the photo with a little note. i think the content is more important. I mean it should have like important messages or sense at all.
Super Duper posting, whenever I come across a blog that really has some excellent unique content I always want to say thankyou, there are so many blogs nowadays that are full of copied content.
Well done for all your hard work in providing this high quality blog, I have taken a few tips from your layout and as I am building my own blog I hope you don’t mind me taking some of your ideas as they are brill! Thanks
You really made some good points about deciding whether to write longer posts or shorter posts. It really is a personal decision, I think. So many people try to sell you on one way or another, but, I think you have to work out what works best for you!
Thank you for this post. I know that a lot of people will benefit from this information. And i agree by the way, especially that you have to write with your readers in mind. Invest on quality articles as well. If a lot of people will like/love your posts, chances are you’ll get a greater chance of steady or increased traffic over time.
I agree with you 100%.
A blog post should be long enough to make a good point, without rambling. Sometimes, 2,000 words may be necessary to cover a topic, while other times 100 may be long enough.
I usually tend towards the longer posts, but I do occasionally have a short one too.
This is my first time i visit here. I found so many entertaining stuff in your blog, especially its discussion. From the tons of comments on your articles, I guess I am not the only one having all the enjoyment here! Keep up the good work.
yes you are absolutely right. How can one deliver his knowledge in a specified amount of words. It all depends on the quality of the information and how much information is being supplied. Look at the articles of steve pavlina. Some are over 7000 words long, yet he receives a huge amount of traffic. So the blog post length really depends on the blogger himself.
Excellent site, keep up the good work. I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,
A definite great read…
The length of the blog post does not matter in terms of SEO. I noticed some blogs ranking high with only a 1-2 short paragraphs.
I believe it depends on the plug-ins installed which are SEO-effective.
Really enjoyed this post. You have a good point. I’m now reading on the other post on your blog. Definitely bookmark and come back again. Thank you very much.
I always write for the reader…. whats the point writing for a search engine? If the search engine changes its algorithm you need to change content… write for the reader and give them the best advice possible
COntent length is as long as it needs to be….
Danny
Yeah I have to agree with the comment above… write for the reader and tweek it a little but dont take the desired effect from the reader
James
well that’s topic of debate for bloggers,but as far as i know,if you know a lot bout something and you can write in a humorous way or make it interesting then you should write long posts,and if you are writing something that you dont know much about then jist make it brief and link it to the best article on that topic in the web.
You made some nice points there. I did a search on the topic and found most folks will go along with with your blog.
You made some good points there. I did a search on the subject and found most individuals will agree with your website.
Very efficiently written story. It will be helpful to anybody who utilizes it, as well as myself. Keep doing what you are doing – can’r wait to read more posts.
Hello.This post was really remarkable, particularly because I was investigating for thoughts on this subject last Sunday.
I have been checking out many of your articles and i must say clever stuff. I will definitely bookmark your blog.
i was starting to assume i might possibly be the sole lady who thought about this, at the very least at present i understand i’m not crazy 
i am going to make it a point to find out more about a handful of different articles just after i get a bit of caffeine in me, take care
Nice ideas discussed, I liked the way you shared your ideas so comprehensively. Thanks for sharing such a nice post.
The things I have noticed about them is that the one has a higher page rank than the the other. I prefer to use short post but informative than a lengthy post that only geeks would read. Interesting article we have here anyway. Thanks!
i thinks it has to also do with content, long articles are good as long as the content is all for the same category, but also for SEO purposes it is better to split long articles to create more webpages, providing content is unique the more pages with unique content the better, just be wise about where to split an article, dont just cut it in half but any time the topic changes or a new titled paragraph can be created then that is point for making a new page
How long should my blog post will be? Well I just think that, since you’re targeting online users who are known to have short attention span and who are pressed for time, it’s best if you keep your articles short (around 500 words) and concise I think.
I think it depends a lot on the subject. Sometimes you need long explanations other times just a video and a few lines, it depends.
Also if your users are used to something you can’t just start doing things different, the change must be gradual.
Don’t Allow SEO Concerns Affect the Length of Posts – that is so true!! Should just write your natural game…
Hello,
Just came across your blog today. So happy to note that there is someone out there who cares enough to encourage bloggers to do well. I started blogging a year ago. Even then I often wondered what should be the length of each post. Most people said, “Blog posts are short pieces.” But then I found that the point you said in this post, “Write enough to get your point across” as answering the question so perfectly. Other points your mentioned are very relevant too. I read a few other blog posts as well. It is very informative and easy to read. Great work! Keep blogging!
Bejoy Peter
A blog is an informal writing. Some blogs still looks valid even if they are 250 words or less.. an easy read– which is what a blog is.
What a perfect blog, really nice. It gives me more information. Thank you for that. I also agree that you need to write well and keep going to your point.
Great post- I personally will not read blog post over 400 words. Unless it is something that I am dying to know. A normal post for me is anywhere from 300 – 400 anything over that I probably will lose interest.
Thanks
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