How Long a Blog Post Should Be
Posted: May 19, 2020
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Blogging continues to be a popular way to reach a broad audience. The number of active blogs can be overwhelming to readers, so more than ever it's important to find ways to ensure yours is relevant and easy to read. One of the key things you should focus on is the length of your blog – if it's too short, you may not give readers enough information, but if it's too long you run the risk of losing their attention. Finding the right length to keep visitors reading to the end and feeling like they've gotten great information can be done, and using these tips will help you find that balance.
Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group, explains how long a blog post should be, and why.
The research is clear: A blog post should be more than 1,000 words. And the longer your post, the more likely it is to rank higher in Google searches.
Of course, blog articles should only be as long as they need to be. Some posts can get their message across in 300 words. And many people argue that no one is reading anything online that takes more than a few minutes to read. But the fact is, when researching online, most readers want more information that a 300-word article can convey.
Most topics need extensive research to provide the kind of in-depth information that a variety of readers might need.
That’s why the most successful blog posts are 1,000 words or more, with an
optimum length of 1,600 words per blog post. This length keeps reading time under six minutes on average. Your readers are 94 percent more likely to read your posts to the end when you keep it within that six-minute margin.
When you dig down into a topic, there are usually lots of angles to cover. For example, in this post, not only do we need to show you how many words your blog post should be, but we also need to cover other factors that go into making a post something readers will devour, such as these:
Quick Takeaways
- A blog post should be well over the minimum of 300 words to cover the topic adequately— at least 1,000 words.
- Longer blog posts need to contain actionable information that will help their readers solve problems.
- To retain readers’ attention, though, you need to split up the text in smaller, scannable chunks— with attention-grabbing subheadings, visuals and bullet points.
- Blog post length, however, isn’t the only factor that helps your blog move up in the search engine ranks.
- To rank well, you must publish posts often — at least two to four times a week.
Read the entire article,
How Many Words Should a Blog Post Be?, on
Marketing Insider Group.