Just as you must determine the best posting frequency, it is also important to decide what the very best length for your blog postings will be. Of course the length can change, according to your subject matter, but in general your readers will expect you to maintain the approximate length of your blog posts. Most blog posts tend to fall between 250 and 1000 words with the “average” coming in at 500 words.
Experts in the field advise bloggers to split posts which are longer than 1000 words into Part One and Part Two in order to better keep the reader’s attention. While taking the opinions of “experts” into consideration, only you and your readers can actually determine the very best length for your blog posts. Many bloggers have found that offering one long post weekly mixed up with shorter ones on a daily basis works well for their topic.
Consider the following factors when deciding what the average length of your blog posts will be:
Search Engine Optimization
For SEO purposes, your blog should be at least 250 words; both extremely long and extremely short web pages are not ranked as highly as those of a more reasonable length. Of course in the end, the content of your blog is much more important than the length, but as an overall SEO strategy, try to keep your blog posts between the prescribed 250 and 1000 words. Your subject matter will also dictate the length in that if you are highlighting a specific product or service, a longer post may be appropriate. If you are responding to a reader’s comment or commenting on a newsworthy trend in your industry, a shorter post could work better for your readers and for your SEO.
How Often Will You Post?
If you post very frequently due to your particular subject matter, then you will likely be posting short blogs rather than very long ones. If, on the other hand, you post much less frequently, a longer blog post will likely keep your readers satisfied. A posting frequency of once a week or less lends itself to a longer post while more than two times per week will generally warrant shorter blog posts.
Consider Your Readers’ Needs
The average attention span of a web reader is relatively short; the average length of time a reader will remain on any one blog post is 96 seconds. A mere minute and a half is not much time, so keep this number in mind when determining the best length for your blog post. You will need to communicate the subject matter in that length of time, using short chunks of information with paragraph titles which clearly detail the forthcoming information. If you have been posting for a significant length of time, consider which posts were the most popular. Take a look at your reader feedback in relation to the length and topic of the post. Then take a look at other blogs in your own industry, checking out the average length. These tasks will give you a fairly good idea of what length you need to shoot for when writing your blog.
Cover Your Subject Well—Then Stop!
Ultimately, the length of your blog post will be determined by your ability to comprehensively cover the topic within the word count you are shooting for, so don’t get bogged down with a very specific word count. You want to write enough to give your topic a thorough coverage—then stop. Writing a long post simply for the sake of reaching a 1000 word goal is never a good idea if your topic doesn’t warrant that many words. Writing a 250 word blog which does not fully answer your readers’ questions will not work either, so always consider your subject matter.
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