For anyone involved in professional content writing services, the question of how long a blog post should be is a familiar one. Debate has raged over the magic blog post length – and whether a perfect word count really exists at all. The truth is, the length of your blog posts will influence readability, search engine visibility and of course, visitor engagement. So, before you start your next post, what do you need to know about the ideal blog post length?
How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
While it might be easier if there was a word count target to aim for, the reality is more complex. In practice, there is no magic blog post length that works for every subject and every niche. Instead, the topic and the question that a person wants you to answer will influence how long the post should be.
Broadly speaking you should aim for a minimum of 300 words. This length ensures the content addresses the topic adequately and is not too thin. At the high end, 1,200 words will be enough to answer most search queries – and note that lengthier posts risk losing reader interest. Of course, there will be occasional posts (such as comprehensive how-to’s and guides) that simply cannot be covered briefly and will benefit from a higher word count.
Our Approach to Determining an Ideal Blog Post Length
When creating content for clients we want to optimize a blog post to rank in search results, maintain reader interest and successfully promote their brand. At Rocks Digital, we typically aim for a length of 500–1,000 words, using the following process to identify what will work best.
Perform Keyword Research
Keyword research will uncover the types of questions and subjects that searchers are interested in. This process identifies search volume for your blog post topic and also allows you to separate search terms into foundational pillars and supporting posts. The foundational content is often more broad and requires a higher word count, while supporting content is tightly focused and less in-depth.
Know Your Ranking
In addition to knowing the search volume and the type of topics that relate to the subject matter you want to write about, it’s important to know your keyword rankings for the focus of the blog.
You can export your Google Search Console data and look at how many impressions you get in search results for a specific keyword phrase, the number of clicks to your website for the phrase, the click-through to your website, even your average position and search results for it.
Assess the Competition
For each keyword, look at the top search results and analyze the word count in those posts along with keyword density within the post. Google has likely given these pages prominent placement, as they are closely aligned with the searcher’s intent. Google tracks engagement metrics like time on page and bounce rate, so they are trying to give the searcher exactly what they want.
Integrate EEAT
EEAT, or Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, is Google’s way of assessing the quality of content. The best SEO services assess how extensive a post must be to deliver the information while also demonstrating first-hand experience, related knowledge, credibility in the industry and reliability as a source.
Try Our Content Writing and SEO Services for Businesses
Rocks Digital provides a comprehensive range of digital marketing solutions for businesses in industries of all types. Speak with our team today for access to our content marketing, SEO and web development services. Call (214) 989-7549 or request a website evaluation.
