November 5, 2012

What is the Best Length for a Blog Post?

What is the best length for a blog post? Besides the necessity to write good content, the length of your posts is also an important factor.

There are several things to take into account when writing blog posts. Here is a list of some of the most important blog post length tips:


1. SEO


There are several ideas on the length of a blog post that is considered a good SEO practice. Most of the experts in the field agree that optimal lenght of a blog post is somewhere in between the two extremes: articles that are too short are not good SEO, and neither are articles that are too long. Even though it is impossible to really determine the best length, it is commonly perceived that it falls somewhere between 300 and 1200 words.

2. Quantity of Posts


An approach that some bloggers take is that if you write shorter posts, you can write more of them. More posts are better for getting new RSS readers and getting ranked in search engines. Even though no one can say for certain, some people believe that sites like Techcrunch.com or Gigaom.com have focused on short articles as their main type of content. How does that translate to your blog? Firstly, it's a proof that some successful sites have adopted this strategy. Secondly, it goes to show that maybe blogging on a regular basis is just what your blog needs.

3. Topic of Your Post


A lot of times, the topic of your post will in itself be a determinant of the post lenght. Let's say you're writing on a piece of breaking news. You will write a couple of paragraphs, and link to the source. But if you're writing a tutorial or a review, your post will be longer.

4. Reader Attention Span


It has been proven that people's attention span is shorter when they read content online. Some tests have shown that the average time on a blog is just one and a half minutes. How does that translate to your blog? Based on the blog's topic, it might be a good idea to keep your content in small bites. On the other hand, that probably wouldn't work on a review site.

5. In-depth Coverage of the Topic


This is probably the #1 criteria that bloggers consider when posting. Some people claim that a good post covers a topic in-depth and then stops. Writing extensively just for the sake of it is not a very good choice. Think of it like this: You are writing a story of sorts. Every story needs to have the three main parts: the beginning, the end, and all the stuff that happens in between. You can't place too much importance on irrelevant stuff, and you can't undermine the important bits. Balance is very important.

Conclusion


Hopefully, this post has given you some ideas on how to choose the optimum post length on your blog. However, when it comes to your blog, you are the best expert. Use the tips here to try things out, mix it up a bit, but ultimately, you have to find something that works for you. Good luck!

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1 comment:

  1. Most of the experts in the field agree that optimal lenght of a blog post is somewhere in between the two extremes.
    Dentist Seo

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