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How Long Should A Blog Post Be? The answer is...

by Article by Remington Begg Remington Begg | April 29, 2015 at 11:30 AM

shutterstock_208076926When it comes to blogging and creating content, there are always questions. How often should I post? Do certain days perform better than others? What should I write about? These are all great questions with equally important answers. As a long time blogger, I get asked these questions a lot, but one question seems to get asked more than the rest. How long should a blog post be?

In short, it should be as long as it needs to be. You can give value to people in short 200-300 word posts and you can bring value in a 2000 word post. It all depends on the depth of the topic and the information you're trying to relay. Let's take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of both Long-form and Short-form content.

You would assume that with today's short attention span society that bite-size short-form content would be the most shareable and readable copy format. Research shows that this might not be the case. You know what they say when you assume!

When looking at how Google ranks long-form as opposed to the more instant gratification short-form, it's clear that there are advantages and disadvantages to both. You should identify who your target buyer personas are, and take into consideration what they would like to read. To do this, you must test both formats and see how your audience reacts to it.

Long-form Content

Google did research into long-form and short-form content and found that people are looking for both quick easily digestible answers and more in-depth resources about topics that interest them.

More SEO benefits come into play with long-form content though. Posts that keep people on a web page longer are seen by Google and Facebook's algorithms as more beneficial content. When they see people quickly bounce back from a site they take that as a sign that the content might not have fulfilled the needs of that searcher or that the content shouldn't be as popular in the news feed.

On the other hand, Garrett Moon from CoSchedule tested keywords and found that 500-word posts rarely ranked at all. His conclusion states that Google doesn't prefer long-form content simply because it was longer, but that length was only one indicator of quality. The goal should still be to create remarkable content that brings value to readers, which is something that Google is getting really good at recognizing. In another experiment, Neil Patel wanted to know the viral factor of long-form content. His research showed that his posts that were longer than 1500 words showed more social shares then posts with less words. Social media tool BuzzSumo conducted the same research and found the same thing. Longer content tends to get more social shares.

Short-form Content

I've tested both long-form and short-form on my personal blog, RumShopRyan.com, and have found that short-form works better for that particular audience. That content is designed to be more entertaining and light-hearted than long in-depth content. So if you run a more casual, entertaining website short-form might be your best bet. But don't take my word for itβ€”test, test, test!

What's Best For You?

As I mentioned earlier, your content should be as long as it needs to be. If it takes you longer to get your point across, that's fine. If you can convey all the information you need to in 300 words, then great. Give your target audience the information they need and make it valuable.

Here is a breakdown of the pros and cons to both long-form and short-form content.

Pros of Long-form Content

  • Keeps readers on your site longer
  • Gets more shares
  • Is typically ranked higher in Google search results
  • Gives you authority on a topic
  • Provides in-depth information on a topic
  • Contains more keywords throughout the content
  • Linked to more often

Cons

  • Not ideal for busy readers
  • Takes more time and effort to create

Pros of Short-form Content

  • Easily created
  • Readers can consume the content quickly
  • Allows you to post more consistently
  • Easy to share

Cons

  • Could lack in providing enough value
  • Easy to forget
  • No powerful enough to attract external links

As a content creator, it's your job to decide which type of content works best for you. Weigh the pros and cons and figure out what works, for you and your readers. Do you have time to produce long-form content? Do your readers have the attention span to read it? Can you convey a topic quickly and make it valuable to your readers? If you write a sailing blog and want to talk about how to position your sails when sailing into the wind, that will take a few more words than a new rum cocktail recipe from Mount Gay. It all depends on the topic and how long it takes to effectively convey it to your audience.