What Is the Ideal Length of a Blog Post?
I've stopped counting the number of times I have seen the following question asked:
What is the ideal length of a blog post?
It's a valid question, though. And likely to elicit different answers depending on whom you talk to.
The point is no one can say truly what the length should be because it depends on many factors.
How About 500 Words?
Sure, why not? It's as good a number as any. Or, perhaps some guru can get you to pay big bucks to reveal his arbitrary number, however he derived it.
Readers Don't Read!
That's right, boys and girls. Most people reading stuff on the web are not readers - they are skimmers. What are your reading habits on the web? Do you find yourself reading every word of every paragraph of every web page of every website? I think you know where I'm going with this.
What About Long Form Content (LFC)?
Okay, so there are a bunch of influencers on the web who are praising the merits of long form content. Each influencer will have his or her own opinion as to how long that content should be. They all want you to believe their number so that you can think they are the authority on the subject.
In case you aren't familiar with the concept, several influencers tested the difference in Google ranking between long-form content, i.e., content that is at least 1,000 words or more per post, and short-form content, typically 500-word posts. According to these experts, the tests prove that you will rank better when you write longer posts.
Great!
So let's all write longer posts, right?
Well, not so fast. Let's take a step back and consider what this means for webmasters. Here are some issues:
Let's expand each of these:
Most Webmasters Are Not Good Writers
This is huge! I don't know about you, but if someone doesn't do well writing a 500-word post, what the hell makes anyone think they will be able to write a 1500-word post, or worse, a 3,000-word post?
Yes, people get better at writing the more they practice, just like anything else. But, if you scare the bejesus out of newbie webmasters, they'll end up giving up before they even get started. Imagine advising someone new that they need to create encyclopedic volumes of text. Yikes!
The Law of Diminishing Returns
This is an economic concept that describes production cycles. As more economic inputs increase, at some point the economic outputs will cease to increase. If a company were to add more workers, they can expect more output up to the point where more workers don't matter any more. Each additional worker will not produce more economic benefit. In fact, it starts to decrease because paying idle workers eats into the profits.
While this definition cannot be directly applied to long form content, the concept is similar. In other words, the benefits of LFC are large at this present time. As more people jump on the bandwagon, the benefits start to diminish.
To further this concept, if ten people currently create long form content and get on the first page of Google as a result of this, how will 100 or 1000 people all be able to get on the first page of Google? Just saying...
Short Form Posts Still Rank
Interestingly, I did a search on Google for the phrase "long form content" (without the quotes). Lo and behold, the eighth result was an article from Scripted.com that was about 845 words. Sure, that's longer than 500 words. But, it didn't even come close to what many influencers are advising to write. Yet, it ranked 8th on my search.
Google positions change constantly, so if you try you may get a different position. It could even go away by the time you search for it. That's the way search engines work, I suppose.
Readers Are Skimmers
Are you a skimmer? I am. Most people are. I am going to go out on a limb and say you are too. There's nothing wrong with it. We're all busy folk. We simply don't have the time to read everything that comes our way. We just want the information fast.
Hmmm. So, if we're all skimmers, how exactly is LFC going to appeal to us? I'll describe where LFC is relevant later (I am not completely against it and there are some merits to it, to some degree!)
The Official Word from Google
The official word from Google is there is no official word from Google. To my knowledge - and I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong - there is no stance that Google takes on the subject.
Influencers will point to their data that was used to test this concept. Fine. But, in many cases, their tests cannot account for all the variables and combinations of those variables.
In statistics, there is a concept known as Simpson's Paradox. And, no. This has nothing to do with Bart or Homer Simpson. It goes something like this.
When you have a causal (or strong) relationship between two variables, adding a third or more variables can throw the original relationship out the window.
Just because a few gurus tested out a couple of variables and declared to the world that a relationship exists between them, doesn't mean the relationship will hold with Google's 198 other variables added to the mix (assuming Google has 200 variables to work with!)
The Merit of Long Form Content (For Now...)
At the present time, there is merit to long form content. You will rank better in Google, assuming that you can pull off writing something of great length while keeping the readers' attention. Let's say this assumption is valid going forward.
Here are some merits of LFC:
Some People Want LFC
People who are interested in your topic want in depth coverage of the topic. Therefore, if you write something compelling and long, you will satisfy the hunger of those looking for insight on the subject.
Think about a tutorial. If you were learning a subject via a tutorial online, you probably won't mind a long form document and you may even prefer it. Tutorials, by the way, are great uses of LFC!
Your Fans Have Found You!
Along these same lines, you will separate the true readers from the skimmers. True readers are people who will be into what you are writing. In other words, if someone is willing to sit through a 3,000-word document, you have a fan at your disposal. These people will be more willing to share your content as well. Embrace this!
Google Will Get a Better Feel For Your Message
When you write something long, Google bots will be able to hone in on your message easier than a short-form document. You will expand your concept, which makes your purpose clearer to Google. As long as you are not loading up the document with filler (again, the assumption is well-written LFC), Google will know what you are writing about. It will be authoritative. Nothing sucky about that, now is there?
You'll Rank for a Larger Number of Keywords
You may not do this intentionally. In fact, you probably won't. But, when you start writing your well-written LFC, you will naturally incorporate keywords as part of the process. These keywords will be related and diverse. These are all factors that Google can't help but love. Multiple keyword rankings for the same document increases your chances of people finding your content.
Conclusion
After all that you have read here, perhaps you believe I should be able to advise you on the length of your blog posts. Okay, I'm going to give it a shot. But, you must take it in the spirit of what I wrote previously!
Here are the guidelines for how long blog posts should be:
