As a content marketer, you might often wonder, what is the ideal blog post length to attract and retain audience to your website?
Well, it depends on the topic you are trying to inform your target audience about aligned with their search intent.
Understanding how long should a blog post is one of the primary important requirement to craft a helpful content and get astonishing SEO results.
So, lets dive into the different factors determining the ideal length of a blog and factors that come into play.
How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
Several content marketing experts believe 1500-2000 words will be perfect for a blog. On the other hand, others say that the shorter the blog, the better it will perform. For them, the ideal blog post must be 600-800 words in length.
But the simplest formula to follow is twofold:
i. Do not add irrelevant and filler content to make your blog unnecessarily lengthy.
ii. Do not skip adding information relevant to the search intent and your topic to fit your blog within a fixed length.
However, the ideal blog post length depends on the audience’s search intent, what you want to say to the audience through your blogs, content type and other factors. It all depends on your target audience and how they will engage with the content when they view it for the first time.
So, lets have a quick look at the ideal length of various types of content.
Types of Content Based on the Length
Following is the interconnection between the length of a blog post and the type of content it is generally used for:
1. Listicle Content: A listicle blogs comes in a list format generally containing multiple paragraphs to offer information in an easy-to-read format . Listicles typically have a flexible content length, with a word count of 800 – 1500 words.
2. How-To Blogs: A how-to post provides instructions on how to do something. How-to posts are typically 1000 – 2000 words long, but can be longer depending on the complexity of the topic.
3. Thought Leadership/Authoritative Content: Creating an authoritative content basically means demonstrating your expertise on a particular topic with expertise and detailed analysis. So, the length naturally appears to be longer averaging between 2000 – 2500 words.
4. Review Content: A review post provides your opinion on a product, service, or experience. Review posts are typically 1000 – 1500 words long, but can be shorter or longer depending on the product or service being reviewed.
5. Opinion-Based Blogs: An opinion post shares your thoughts and feelings on a particular topic. Opinion posts are typically 1000 – 1500 words long, but can be shorter or longer depending on the topic.
6. News and Current Events: These posts can contain current events or educational posts that provide information about new developments in your industry. So, they do not require elaborate detailing, but facts related to the topic. Typically news content are 500 – 1000 words long, but may be shorter or longer depending on the event being covered.
7. Pillar Page Content: A pillar page or foundational content is a comprehensive guide on a particular topic. Pillar pages are typically 3000+ words long and provide the most in-depth information possible on a given topic.
How to Determine the Ideal Blog Post Length?
The ideal blog post length for SEO depends on various factors. Now let us see how these factors help in determining the content or blog length:
1. Recognise Your Goal
If you hire professional writers for your content requirements, they will not simply start writing directly. They do research and analysis related to the content and build strategies before writing the content.
There is a unique strategy for every blog post. First, the writers need to understand why they are writing the blog. Business owners often ask content writers to create content for:
- Improve their SEO ranking
- Boost their reach on social media platforms
- Generate sales leads and convert audiences into potential customers
- Bring out new products or services in the market
2. Know Your Target Audience
One of the best practices while writing a right-length blog is knowing whom you are writing for. If the writers know the target audience, they can focus on the reader and create content accordingly.
It will help them understand whether they are writing for professionals, amateurs or just for a buyer. In addition, it also helps them to determine whether they need more information on a topic and how they want to proceed with the blog.
3. Prioritise Search Intent
It refers to the primary intention of users when they type a keyword into the search engine to look for answers related to their queries. In addition, every blog must have a defined goal that contains every piece of information and should be in tune with specific search intent.
The search intent has the following principal categories:
- Navigational: The audience is looking for a particular website or place. For instance, Das Writing Services website.
- Informational: In this case, the audience seeks something to learn. For instance, “ What is Content Writing?”
- Transactional: The audience is looking to buy a particular service or product. For instance, “Hire a professional content writer.”
- Commercial: Under this segment, the user wants to learn in detail before availing a service or purchasing a product. For instance, “Content Writing Agency vs Freelancer.”
What is the Importance of Ideal Blog Post Length for SEO?
Writing a blog with a length of 1000-4000 words covers all the aspects of a topic. It includes more backlinks and offers expertise, authority and trustworthiness.
This entire thing impacts the SEO ranking of the blog and boosts the brand’s credibility. The following are the key importance of the ideal blog post length:
1. Boost Website Traffic
Having an ideal blog post length for SEO, the higher the chances of attaining a rank on the first page of SERP. It will increase discoverability and drive more traffic to your website.
2. Improves On-Site Engagement
If you follow the ideal length for your blog and include valuable information inside, the audience will spend more time on the content. It will lead to better on-site engagement as the audience will find your blog practical.
3. More Backlinks
When you write a blog of more than 1000 words, you can add more backlinks to the content. It will improve your brand authority and improve the trust among your customers.
4. Lead Generation
If you have a blog of more than 1000 words, it will have a better SEO ranking. Therefore, it will have a better chance of converting the audience to your potential customers.
5. Content Repurposing
When you craft a blog of less than 1000 words, it gets tough to repurpose the content. However, if you write a blog of more than 1000 or 1500 words, you can easily repurpose it as the content has enough words.
How to Craft Long-Form Blog Posts in 2023?
Writing a long-form blog post fulfils the audience’s requirements. It helps them to understand a topic in-depth and answers questions they never had. At Das Writing Services, we follow these steps to create long-form and engaging content for our clients:
1. Conduct Research Before Starting
Before you start writing a blog, you should know its purpose. Basically, you need to discern what you want to achieve and how you will achieve it. To do this, you will need to research and understand the topic. You also need to do a competitor’s analysis and understand the target audience.
2. Analyse the Keywords
Once you have set the goal and target audience, your next task will be to select a niche according to your readers’ interest. You will require finding keywords related to your business that will attract the audience to your blog or website.
To do this, you can use keyword planners and blogging tools like Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner and Semrush. It will assist you in analysing the search volume and difficulty of a particular keyword. Furthermore, you can even use Answer the Public to get several subheads related to the same keyword.
3. Create a Framework
After analysing the keyword, you need to lay a framework for your blog. It will help you to understand what should go under each section and what other blogs you can link to the content. Furthermore, it will help with appropriate keyword placement, which will help in easy content creation.
4. Craft Headings and Sub-headings
We are short on time when it comes to reading the whole content. However, if you include proper headings defining each section, it becomes easier for the reader to skip to a particular blog portion. Furthermore, you can even break down the topic into H2 and H3 headings.
Having proper headings and sub-headings in your blog will enhance the readers’ experience and help them in navigating the entire blog effortlessly. Furthermore, you can even add a table of contents at the start of the blog, so the reader can understand what are the points you are covering in such a blog.
5. Include Images and Videos
It is vital to have a profound visual element when you are crafting a minimum blog post length for your business. Blogs without visual components become monotonous and hamper the user experience.
You can include images, videos, graphs, charts, etc., to visually demonstrate the content you are writing for your audience. According to Semrush, if you include more than 10 images in your blog, it has a higher chance of attaining better results in search engines.
6. Incorporate Numbered Lists and Bullet Pointers
Readers love to read organised and easy-to-follow articles and blogs. If you incorporate bullet pointers and number lists in your blog, it becomes easier for the audience to understand the topic clearly.
In addition, it helps in expanding your ideas under each section and provides more information to your target audience. For instance, while writing a product description or steps blog, bullets and numbered lists will help easily explain the order and the vital information.
7. Write Shorter Paragraphs
While writing a blog, try to keep the paragraph short. You must maintain 50-60 words in a paragraph as it makes the content more engaging and enhances the user experience. It is because mobile devices account for 60% of the total search, according to Statista’s study.
Furthermore, you must include transition words in your blog, steering the reader from one point to another. It will guide them to know where they are heading next.
8. Proofread and Edit
After you have written the content, it is time to edit it to maintain its overall quality. You need to check that all the above parameters are followed while crafting the content and conduct a spell and grammatical check.
In addition, you need to check if it is plagiarised content and whether it has a good readability score. After proofreading the blog, you can ask a professional editor to go through the blog once and spot any mistakes.
Hence, you can contact us for content creation, as we have an in-house team of writers who will craft quality blogs for your website. We even have in-house editors who will proofread the content and ensure that overall quality is maintained.
Final Takeaway
Writing a blog includes many elements other than the word count. These elements help you to achieve better SEO results and reach a large audience. You need to focus on the quality and authenticity of the content, apart from the ideal blog post length. Therefore, the blog post length depends on what you want to write and your target audience.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is 1500 words adequate for a blog post?
Writing a 1500 word blog is good for your website. However, there is no fixed rule for the maximum number of words you can write in a blog. If you write a 1500 word blog, you can include more information related to the topic without the audience losing interest.
2. How long does it take to write a 1000 word blog?
If you are hiring professional writers to craft a 1000 word blog, they can write well-optimised content in 3-4 hours. However, for a beginner, it will take more than 6 hours to create well-optimised content for your content.
3. What should be the average blog post length in 2023?
When you are crafting a blog, you must write 1500 – 1700 words to maintain the average blog post length in 2023. It will help you explain the topic in a detailed way to your readers and build authority which will generate more leads.
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