Our digital marketing agency has published thousands of blog posts, analyzed the top-performing ones, and saw how length impacts success in these areas. Let’s see how long your post should be.
It is a topic that is very highlighted nowadays. Content marketers and bloggers are wondering about what’s the ideal word count.
Should you form a long piece of content or opt for a shorter piece?
Google algorithm does not have a specific word count for content, as quality outweighs quantity. If your content is optimized for keyword and user-related questions, your chances of ranking increase.
Instead of worrying about blog length, you should invest your energy in developing the content structure, information, and resources your users need. But your blog length needs to belong as it should be.
The ideal blog post length for SEO
According to our Houston SEO data, the ideal blog post length for SEO is 2100-2400 words. We average the length of our blog post that yielded an average word count of 2200. Individual blog post lengths ranged from 500 to 3000 words with a median length of 1600 words.
Before you start writing your 2300 word blog post, keep in mind that not all the blog content needs to be super long. There are posts under 1500 words also ranks, so there are ample opportunities to get your post rank even with a lower word count.
You can accomplish it with best SEO practices:
- Proper backlinking.
- Adding alt-text.
- Choose the right keywords.
- Attempting to capture Google’s featured snippet.
- Achieve topic and domain authority.
The ideal blog length for Lead Generation
There is a disconnect between the post that generates traffic and the post that generates leads or new contacts for your business. The post that gets more traffic to do so is because they have searched wider by the audience. It sometimes means that the topic you have written about is more generic. It does not align closely with your business.
Our Houston SEO company has looked at the posts that generate new leads to see if there was a difference in average length. Or if writers need to adjust blog length for posts written to generate leads.
The length of a blog post to generate leads is 2500 words. The post that generates the most leads is 2550 words that are approximately longer than the average blog post.
A blog post that is aimed to build your contact database, writing long content works in your favor. Longer content strengthens your knowledge and authority on a subject, particularly if a keyword or topic is for a specific audience. When your coverage is more in-depth, your chances of ranking get better. While your audience might be smaller, it can be content marketing game-changers, and your chances of converting visitors into customers are far better.
The ideal blog post length for different blog types
There are several types of blog posts, and formats are there. So let’s see how blog post length impacts the different post structures.
How long should listicles be?
List blog posts should be 2300-2600 words. List blogs are probably the most approachable posts. Anyone can make it just by listing off and explaining a few example resource tools for a given topic. When it comes to these blog posts, the more examples, the better it works.
The range of these blogs is around 1000 to 2500 words, and these numbers are higher than the average length. It is seen that listicles blog posts perform way better when they are longer. It makes total sense. When you search for ideas, would you see a list of five or fifty? This blog post demands plenty of list entries. It prefers images, explanations, and links to its sources, so you can put the effort to build an authoritative list for your readers.
Read More Here for more technical blogs
How long should “how-to” blog posts be?
The range of how-to blogs should be between 1700 to 2000 words. This post describes how to do something. The ideal length of the blog depends on how difficult it is to explain. For example, how to type the shrug emoji can be 300 words, while how to do a startup business contains more than 8000 words.
Houston SEO service provides a blog length of 2000 words. This is a large length, but you should not be surprised as readers don’t need too much or too little to complete their desired task.
Are you writing a post for the first time? Keep in mind to stay concise and clear. It should contain a clear header section and leave nothing to the imagination. Readers are coming to read for instruction, not for inspiration; ensure that it clearly explains and covers your chosen topic.
Minimum blog post length
Technically, there is no particular statement for any blog post length, though Yoast recommends at least 300 words. Our digital marketing agency Houston suggests writing long posts should be a rule rather than an exception. This regular practice builds authority in the eyes of search engines that help shorter blog posts to rank better.
It’s easy for long content to rank, but you won’t get dinged for content unless you publish hundreds of blogs with less than 100 words. A long post tends to perform the best; it doesn’t mean your all posts should be more than 2000 words. If you feel you have explained well in 800 or 1000 words, then let it be.
