How Long Should a Blog Post Really Be?

For anyone involved in SEO, marketing or content creation, the question of how long a blog post should be is the industry equivalent of “how long is a piece of string?” The answer to both is the same: “as long as it needs to be”.

On the one hand this might not seem particularly helpful, but think about it a little longer and you will realise that this is just the answer you really need. Because no two blog posts are alike, and therefore, “as long as it needs to be” is the best answer to suit all situations.

The great thing about blog posts is that they can be as personal, ranty, helpful, opinionated or downright angry as you want. Whether you are imparting a tale of recent bad service, positioning yourself as an industry leader by commenting on new developments or simply shouting about a great new product, in a blog post you can write what you want, for as long as you want.

If you can get your point across in 300 words, then great; stop writing! If you still have things to say after 600; keep going!

To a certain extent the purpose and tone of your blog post will dictate its length. A piece to complain about something that went wrong will generally be shorter than a blog on how new laws affect businesses. Your writing style, the tone and style of your brand and the topic all come together to influence the word count.

That said, the rules are neither hard nor fast. And word count is not the be-all and end-all when it comes to how well the blog performs. Written well, and promoted in effective ways, blog posts can bring in visitors and conversions and get people interacting with your brand whether they are 200 words long or 2,000.

Furthermore, short blog posts are not necessarily easier to write, so unless absolutely vital try not to limit your word count – it will only put added pressure on you as you write and could be the downfall of your final piece.

Top tips for writing blog posts:

• Don’t worry about length – keep going until it feels like you’re repeating yourself or have run out of things to write.
• Be succinct, but don’t be afraid to elaborate when necessary to get your point across.
• Save your original version, then go back to it later to see if you can edit it in any way. You might be surprised at how much you repeated yourself or waffled about irrelevancies!
• Focus on substance – if you have something worthwhile to say, just say it without worrying about word count.
• See the bigger picture – successful blog posts are more about style, being audience-appropriate and promoted in the write way than how long they are.