How Long Should a Blog Post Be?

The average blog post in 2019 was 1,236 words. With more than 40,000 people Googling something per second, blogging is the perfect avenue for reaching people—especially if you run a business.

A well-written blog post will attract attention, drive traffic to your website, and raise your brand awareness. While it’s tempting to dive deep into content marketing strategies or search engine optimization (SEO), you want to get the basics down first.

One of the most important questions to answer is how long a blog post should be. Here, we’ll answer that for you and more.

The Absolute Minimum Blog Post Word Count

Is there a minimum word count for blogs?

If you want your blog post to rank well with major search engines and impress your readers, then yes. There is a minimum word count.

A blog post should be at least 300 words long for two reasons:

1. You need at least 300 words to thoroughly answer a question, explain a procedure, or describe a service. Although it’s best practice to be concise, unless you provide rich and valuable information, readers will click away from your post in favor of longer, more substantial pieces of information.
2. Search engine algorithms need content to work with. Google has an easier time sorting posts that contain more text; if you post less than 300 words, you won’t provide Google with enough information to properly analyze and rank your post.

Often times, you’ll want content that’s longer than 300 words. Here are some tips for choosing a specific word count for your blog post.

3 Tips for Blog Post Length

When choosing the best length for a blog post, you should consider a few things.

1. Think about Your Audience

The ideal length for blog posts depends significantly on your target audience.

• If you’re writing a blog post for a more general audience, then the average blog post length should be relatively short.
• If you write technical content or for a more specialized audience, the average number of words in a blog post should be higher.

2. Consider Your Background and Authority

If you’re just offering anecdotal tips or want to provide bite sized content, keep your blog posts shorter. However, if you’re an expert on a topic and can provide unique points of view or detailed pieces of information, flex that authority with longer pieces.

• Search engine algorithms tend to favor longer content that provides in depth information.
• Although 85% of written content is less than 1,000 words long, longer pieces consistently get more shares and links.
• The more value you provide with reliable, in-depth information, the more your brand authority and trust will grow.

3. Vary Your Style

Average attention spans are shrinking. However, this doesn’t mean you have to settle for shorter pieces.

To keep readers engaged, you need to trick your audience into thinking your piece is shorter than it actually is. Make your content more accessible to readers:

• Use headings and shorter paragraphs instead of formatting your 2,500 word article like a book chapter.
• Include bullet points and numbered lists to help readers scan your articles.
• Include infographics or other helpful visuals.

Neat formatting doesn’t just help readers; search engines peruse headings, for instance, to look for keywords and phrases when ranking a post.

The Ideal Length for Blog Posts

Although we recommend a minimum of 300 words and noted that the most shared blog pieces tend to have over 1,000 words, different pieces serve different purposes. Decide on your blog post word count based on your particular business needs and goals.

We’ve created a short cheat sheet to help you get started:

300 to 600 word blog posts

This is the best length for blog posts that are more casual or provide quick answers to simple questions.

Shorter, bite-sized posts are digestible and get the point across quickly. If needed, you can always provide links to longer or more comprehensive blog posts on your website; using backlinks will help lower your bounce rate, which is great for SEO.

The main drawback for shorter pieces is that it’s harder to incorporate keywords naturally. Do not use this as an excuse to stuff keywords. Today’s search engines easily detect keyword stuffing and lower website rankings accordingly.

1,000 to 2,000 word blog posts

This is the ideal length for blog posts on most platforms.

With this word count range, you have enough space to answer a question, explain a procedure, or describe a service while naturally including your focus keywords or phrases—as well as a few variants—throughout the article.

Posts that hit at least 1,000 words also tend to rank higher on Google than shorter blog posts.

2,500+ word blog posts

Google loves long posts. They’re great for SEO because:

• Long blog posts that thoroughly explain a topic lead to longer session times and happier visitors.
• You have plenty of room to naturally incorporate relevant keywords that attract search engine attention without overwhelming readers.

But be careful with longer form content.

Nobody wants to read a rambling article filled with unnecessary or extraneous content. If you’re going to make someone read over 2,500 words, you need to make sure your post packs a punch with actual substance. Otherwise, it’s always better to write a shorter, more helpful post that gets to the point.

With content over 2,500 words, be sure to use headings, tables, and lists to break your article into more scannable and manageable chunks—this is best practice for most blog posts, but especially for longer form content.

The Takeaway

While there is no magic number to always aim for, there are a few things to keep in mind when choosing how long a blog post should be:

• It’s best practice to write blog posts that are longer than 300 words.
• Aim for an average blog post length of around 1,000 words. However, if you don’t have enough to say, it’s better for you, SEO, and your readers to publish shorter, well-written articles than to write longer ones that ramble.

This article was written by Compose.ly writer Emily Kammerlohr.