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How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
How long should a blog post be? What is the ideal word count or length for a blog post? These are common questions that a lot of new bloggers have.
The truth is, there is no “magic number” word count or length for blog posts.
But there are a few guidelines you should follow to ensure that your blog posts reach the largest possible audience, leading to more traffic and income for you.
If you are wondering how long should a blog post be, read on for best practices!
Starting Your Blog
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Ideal Length for a Blog Post
What is the ideal length for a blog post? As I mentioned above, there’s no hard and fast rule of what is the perfect length for a blog post.
However, long-form blog content typically performs better than short content for several reasons, which I will discuss more below.
In general, the absolute MINIMUM word count for your blog posts should be 300 words. Any less than this and your blog post does not have a good chance of ranking in search engines or getting much traffic. Under 300 words is just really short. That’s barely a few paragraphs! How detailed can it really be?
As a good rule of thumb, over 1,000 words is even better. While 300 words should be your bare minimum, shooting for over 1,000 words is more ideal. This length is still pretty short, but you can provide a lot more value.
And according to research from HubSpot, the average length of a blog post that ranks in the top three results of search engines is 2,330 words. So if you want your blog post to have a better chance of ranking, try target over 2,000 words.
Here are some of the reasons to consider writing longer content:
1. Longer time spent on page
Longer blog posts mean the reader will spend more time on your blog.
If you have display ads on your blog, this is especially helpful because more time spent on page can increase your ad earnings. You can also link to other related content from within your blog post, keeping people on your site even longer.
While it’s true that many people have shorter attention spans online (some suggest between 8 to 12 seconds per post), a well-written longer blog post can do a good job of capturing (and keeping!) your reader’s attention for more time.
2. Better for SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the practice of getting your blog posts to rank in the top results of search engines like Google, bringing more traffic to your blog. As mentioned above, longer blog posts tend to rank higher.
Google has a complex algorithm for determining search engine rankings, and part of its criteria is looking for content that is detailed, well-written, and authoritative. For example, if you Google “how to start a blog” many of the top results are massive 10,000+ word guides on the topic!
This is not always guaranteed (for example, I have several short blog posts under 1,000 words ranking in the top results on Google) but as a general rule, longer is better for SEO. I don’t always love this, because then some people just write long posts for the sake of writing long posts, but it is what it is.
3. Get more social shares
According to research from QuickSprout, longer blog posts (over 1,500 words) get between 22% and 68% more social shares than shorter blog posts (under 1,500 words.) That’s a really big difference in social shares!
My theory for why this is the case is that people like sharing longer content to come back to later. And longer content also resonates with readers more, because a long, detailed 2,000+ word blog post leaves an impression and seems more impactful than a short 500-word blog post might.
So if you want more organic social shares, writing longer content can help.
Is There Such Thing as Too Long?
When writing blog posts, I tend to aim for always over 1,000 words, and over 2,000 words if I can. However, I never force myself to write more just for the sake of hitting a higher word count. That’s annoying and to me and as I mentioned above, it’s very obvious when people do that!
If you can get your point across and provide all the relevant details in 1,500 words, that’s fine. Don’t add another 1,000 words of fluff just to pad your word count.
For me personally, I also don’t post massive 10,000+ word guides on my blog. I save my most detailed, long-form content for paid ebooks and online courses.
Related: How I Wrote and Launched My Ebook in 5 Days
How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
I’m not going to keep going on and on about how long a blog post should be.
In fact, this post is barely over 1,000 words. 😉
To sum it up, while there is no definite “rule” for how long a blog post should be, here are the best practices for writing content that ranks in search engines and performs well with readers:
- Absolute minimum of 300 words
- 1,000+ words is even better
- 2,000+ words is best for ranking in search engines
More Tips for Writing Great Content
Hopefully this guide on how long a blog post should be was helpful to you!
Be sure to read these additional tips about writing great blog posts…