Fridays with Vicky 127
Are you asking yourself, how long should a blog post be? There are many factors that play into the length of your online content and that’s exactly what we’ll look at in this post.
The first thing to think of is the purpose of your blog post, what do you want to accomplish with it?
What’s the Purpose of Your Blog Post?
I would say there are three main purposes of a post and a lot of times we would like to accomplish all of them. The three main purposes of a post:
- To rank in the Search Engines
- To share on social media
- To create a discussion
The number one thing to think of is to always provide value for your readers. Give your audience what they are looking for. Content can be delivered in many ways, not just the written word. Images and videos can deliver great messages without the word count.
Content can be delivered in many ways, not just the written word. Images and videos can deliver great messages without the word count.
Of course, we want our content to rank well, get a lot of social shares and create discussions for our posts, but lets break it down.
How Long Should a Blog Post Be for Social Media?
If you are writing a post to be shared mainly on social media the word count doesn’t really matter, as long as you connect with the reader and deliver what they are looking for. I would still aim for a medium length blog post around 400 – 500 words.
Sometimes a picture can say more than a thousand words isn’t that the saying… If you want traction in Pinterest a great looking image will be a must to get the attention and get them over to your blog post. When you get them to your blog you’ll have to keep them interested with the content that you deliver.
If you want traction in Pinterest a great looking image will be a must to get the attention and get them over to your blog post. When you get them to your blog you’ll have to keep them interested with the content that you deliver.
This goes for all social media platforms, you’ll have to get the attention on the social media platform with a great image and a catchy headline. When they get to your blog, the depth of the content and your writing style will keep them there. In-depth specific content that connects will be shareable, now if you aim for a medium length post or longer post that’s up to you.
How Long Should a Blog Post Be to Engage Discussion?
If you are trying to start a discussion on something shorter posts, direct to the point you are trying to make will work well. 300+ words might be enough to start a conversation.
300+ words might be enough to start a conversation. Capture the interest of your followers and state your point on something, will your audience agree or disagree? One thing is sure it can sure start a great conversation.
How Long Should a Blog Post Be to Rank Organically in the Search Engines?
If your main purpose is to rank in the search engines, then longer content will rank better. Ranking organically in Google and other search engines will take at least 500+ words for most posts.
The longer more in-depth content, the more keywords you have a chance of ranking for.
Longer content allows you to go in depth into a topic, explain it in detail and that’s what many look for.
Neil Patel did an interesting research a few years ago, on how long your content should be. The result… 2416 words were the average word count for the number 1 position in Google. 2K posts will for sure go into detail about the topic.
Seeing that number and knowing that most my posts are under 2K words, I was curious about the traffic in relation to Google positions and word count.
How Long Are My Case Study Blog Posts?
I do a case study on a website monetized with Amazon. I provide traffic numbers, ranking stats, income numbers and more, you can find the latest monthly updates here.
Looking at my case study site, best performing posts when it comes to traffic in relation to content length and Google position, the numbers makes sense, long content brings in the traffic. (Position is based on the main keyword that pulls in the most traffic.)
Last month result bringing in most traffic to the case study site; type of post – word count – Google position:
- Top 5 post – 1613 words – position 3.3
- 5 best post – 579 words – position 1
- Top 10 post – 1921 words – position 2.1
- 5 ways post – 1154 words – position 3.4
- Top 5 post – 1906 words – position 2.8
Three of the five posts are 1500+ words, only one article is under a thousand words. I think that one exception might be due to finding a great keyword.
I recently published two top 10 posts with 2812 words and 3769 words. It will be interesting to see how they will rank after a while when they get traction.
Right now they are ranked position 7 and 16 in Google for their main keyword, will share my result when the posts get real traction.
Long Content and Readability
When using long content there are a few things to think about. You want your reader to stay and read the content, not leave because they feel overwhelmed.
The main point is to stay relevant and not write just to fill a word count. We want to stay relevant and interesting and definitely NOT bore our readers.
To make long content easier and more interesting to read use the following:
- short paragraphs, easy to read
- a lot of spacing
- relevant images
- clear subtitles
This will help make sure you readers stay engaged through the whole content piece.
I hope you enjoyed this article – How long should a blog post be? Let me know if you found the answer you were looking for and please share your take on this in the comment section below! I love hearing from my readers,
Have a productive day,
Vicky
Leave a Reply