All blog assignments have a minimum required word length of 500 words.
What’s the verdict on the ideal number of words in a blog post? The short answer is, it depends.
Recently, some writer-influencers have put forward that blogs need to be longer. Just how much longer? They can’t really give a number. Some say 1,000. Some say 1,200. Some say 2,000. And still some say even more. There hasn’t been a consensus yet.
The reason is the length depends on how saturated your market is with content and how difficult it is for your business to improve your SEO related to certain keywords.
When it comes to SEO and content marketing – content above all else
However, all these experts agree on one thing: Your blog’s readership is still primarily dependent on your content.
Speak to the needs and interests of your audience. You’ll see that they’ll stick with you whether you offer them 400 or 4,000 words. If you provide value and actually help your readers, the content will perform better.
Your blog articles need credible insight – context is queen
Another way of looking at this is that length should not be a consideration in the way you write your blog. Expound on a theme until it is crystal clear. Give examples if necessary.
Of course, this shouldn’t be an excuse to insert fluff. Short or long, every word should count. Each word should add value to an article.
All ideas should be fully flushed out.
Sentence and paragraph length
The jury may still be out on the ideal number of words in a blog post. When it comes to sentence length, the Flesch-Kincaid readability test requires it to be 20 words or fewer to be considered “fairly easy to read.”
Meanwhile, industry observers stressed the importance of mixing up paragraph length. Paragraphs consisting of three to six sentences work best for business and technical writing.
Do long winded sentences sound good when they are read out loud? Probably not… long winded sentences can come across as wordy in a blog article as well.
Many factors are involved when determining blog article legnth
- Target audience. A Microsoft study famously revealed that the human attention span had dwindled to 8 seconds thanks to technology updates and current digital lifestyles. This made the case for short-form content until a BBC report dismissed it as a myth. Moreover, a Source Global Research survey found that business people, especially thought leaders, need substantial content pieces (hence a higher word count).
- Industry. Fashion blogs don’t need discussions to be as extensive as business how-tos. Medical blogs – even those that target parents – need more words to explain treatments, complications and contra-indications.
- Goal. Different blog article word lengths can produce different results. Short blogs are conducive to discussions with readers. Medium length blogs usually get the most social media shares. Longer blog articles get noticed by search engines.
- Writers and time. Each writer has a different flair. You also only have a certain amount of time in your day to craft the content.
Blog articles can be long and short
Of course, the easy answer may be not to stick to a particular length for your blog. Make it short when you feel it’s enough but wax on if there’s a need. Between 400 and 1500 words should be a safe bet.
Tempesta Media offers any number of words in a blog post that a partner feels best fits their unique needs.
Varying the length, style, days of the week, and format of blog posts will authenticate your brand and hopefully improve your SEO rankings.
Make content marketing a priority for your business
Discussions on the ideal word count of blog articles will not be concluded any time soon. If Google keeps changing their search algorithms, your approach will continue to change. In the meantime, the best you can do is to strengthen your craft.
Conduct research on best practices. Update your old content. Rewrite articles that you think could use a little polishing. Up the frequency of the new content insights that your offer.
If you feel like you are falling behind or need a partner, Tempesta Media offers monthly content subscriptions to ramp up your content efforts.
