How many words should a blog post be?

Lynne Level 1

3

December 4, 2016, 3:08 am

12

How many words should a blog post be?

I've heard so many different things about how many words a blog post should be and I just wanted to hear what everyone here has to say.

When I first started blogging I was using Yoast SEO and if my blog post was 300 words then I would get the green button so I always assumed that was the correct minimum length.

I then started learning more over time and then I heard I should always aim for at least 1000 plus words per blog post.

Then I heard the longer the better, so I now aim for 1500 plus words and if I can write more then that is an awesome bonus.

I also know that writing daily is essential.

I am just wondering how I should approach things if I want to post every day to my blog and what is considered quality here.

Should I rather post 3 times a week and have 1500 word posts or should I post every week day and if I can only manage a 300 word post then just go for it?

So what do you think is better? Posting every day but sometimes only 300 words or posting 3 times a week but posting 1500 words?

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MasterA

This is a good question and I think there is advantages and disadvantages with long blog posts. Firstly, if your blog posts are long, then it is more likely to cover different keywords and there is a higher chance that it will rank well in multiple keywords. While we do not know Google's algorithm for ranking content, I feel like that longer content seems to rank better than shorter content so therefore, generally, longer content does better in terms of ranking. However, since Google are putting more emphasis on user experience, longer posts may drive users away because people who search things wants brief and short answers that are to the point so you may fall into this trap if your blog posts are too long and boring to read. Going back to the questions, I think it is best to make the blog post 1000-3000 words but nothing more than 3000. I always say Quality is better than Quantity and from experience, I get the best results in that word range. For more competitive keywords, I would go nearer 3000 words.

2 7 years ago

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Lynne

Thanks MasterA, I appreciate the feedback I think you are right there. I have found my longer posts do rank nicely. I have also seen that posting daily also really helps with my rankings and traffic. I am going to try and find a good posting schedule and stick to it.

I totally hear what you are saying about forcing out long blog posts. I have seen some people repeating themselves and waffling right off the point and it is obviously just to try and get a good length post out. I can't see how this will benefit my website, I am sure I will lose readers faster than acquiring them and that is pointless isn't it?

0 7 years ago

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Cristian

Whatever you feel is more natural for your niche and overall style of writing. No point if doing 1500 words article if you don't have anything worth telling about in that many words.

I suggest you take a look at your top competitors. What are they doing? How are they writing articles and how big are their posts? Depending on your findings after studying the competition you can go on and figure out what is the best thing to do for you blog and adapt everything so that you end up with NATURAL looking content.

1 7 years ago

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Lynne

Thanks Cristian, I think that is really important making sure that I don't waffle and waste everyone's time. I guess if a post is 500 words then it is 500 words.

There must be some value in posts of 500 words though if so many of the services are 500 words right?

0 7 years ago

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hitmeasap

This was a great question Lynne. I've been asking multiple questions about blogs and similar things recently, and I never asked this question. Not like this at least, so I appreciate it!


However, I've heard many people talking about posts that includes anything from 500 words to 800 words. And that those would be "best" due to the time it takes for them to rank, and some people claims these posts to boost your ranking three times more than posts with less words than that. - If it's true? - I have no idea.

That being said, I've also heard that you should write anything from 2,500 and 5,000 word articles, as those will bring you great rankings for your keywords. Due to the number of times you'll automatically mention your keywords in such long articles.

Yet again, I don't know if it's true or not, but sure, it might sound kind of logical.. But I personally have no idea.

I've also heard that you could write only 1 single article per month, if you publish a superb article that includes more than 25,000 words. And when I heard that, I also heard that such an article will benefit you more than 50(!!!) articles with less than 1,000 words. No matter if you publish them all at once or spread them throughout the whole month. - And that's also something I don't know if it's true or not.

It seems like there's so much lies and crazy stories out there about this, so it's nearly impossible to know what you should really believe. - I'm glad that we have the community discussions, as we'll get accurate answers in here at least.

Best Regards,
hitmeasap

0 7 years ago

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Lynne

Andre you've really hit the nail on the head here with so many things about working online. I have heard so many conflicting things that it gets confusing at times doesn't it?

I've been doing some reading up on this topic now and here's what I have come up with.... the longer posts rank better than the shorter posts, so anything about 1000+ words is great. Then consistency is key here, so choose a posting schedule and stick to it.

Posting every day is awesome if you can manage it, otherwise just go for whatever you can manage.

I think what is really important is saying what needs to be said, be fluent and concise and make your writing engaging.

Another thing I have come across is to not make every post the same length... so having the odd post that is 300 words is actually great. If you can only write 300 words every now and then to stick to your posting schedule then do it.

I think that is what I am going to do. Aim for posting every day during the week and aim for 1000+ words but every now and then when I am busy or just can't write so much I will post what I can write and move on.

0 7 years ago

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Corzhens

One of my favorite blogsites have articles of 500 words or so. I prefer to read short blogs like that because I can easily understand in such a short time. Busy people like me have a short attention span such that long blogs are a turn off to me. I love dogs and even if the blog is about dogs but it is longer than 1,000 words, I would probably pass on it and go to a shorter article to read. However, I am not really discounting long blogs. My short attention span is mainly caused by my hectic work schedule and also the chores at home. Maybe when I retire from my daytime job, I would have the luxury of time when I could savor long articles to read.

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vinaya

For SEO purpose, longer posts are better. Your content needs to be at least 300 words, however, if it is 1000 words, the latter version will be better than the former version. However, it is also true that readers are no longer reading long contents. Online readers have less attention span. When the article is long, they avoid reading it. If the article is short, they might read. Even when I am reading online, I read articles that are less than 500 words and avoid reading anything that is longer than 600-700 words. More than content length, usefulness is important.

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TimothyAlex

The 300-word recommendation by Yoast is their bare minimum. There are multiple studies you can find online that suggest long-form content (900 words or more) both rank higher on search engine results pages and receive more social shares. It is not that a 300-word article can't rank well. It is just statistically more likely if the content is long-form.

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overcast

Hubpages and Squidoo used to recommend 1000 words. But in reality I have found out that 500 word articles were ranking lot better and higher. You have to understand that we can't guess how much google wants in terms of conttent. People who think they know SEO tend to exaggerate a lot. And they say 1000 words is what is needed. That is simply not true. And people have seen different short articles ranking. So people need to be really understanding of what user needs instead of what google needs for the SEO.

0 6 years ago

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