Have you ever wondered how long a blog post should really be? It might seem like a simple question, but the answer isn’t one-size-fits-all. The ideal length depends on what you’re writing about and who your readers are, and one length might fit one idea but not another.
In this article, we’ll explore how, based on our experience, you can determine the correct length for your posts by focusing on your audience’s wants. Get ready to discover that sometimes, it takes as long as it takes to deliver the value your readers deserve!
How long should a blog post really be?
When we assign blog posts for Creator Clinic or our clients, we establish word counts based on two primary factors.
- Providing Value – How long does a blog post need to be to cover the topic in a way that satisfies our readers?
- Studying Search Intent – Analyze your competition to understand how they provide value to their readers.
Write as much as you need to (but how do you find that out?)
Search intent, or overall intent sits at the core of many web-based content guides. Given that it shapes your entire article based on what your target audience intends to learn by reading your article or blog, that shouldn’t be surprising, so making sure that your blog post delivers on your search intent is key to its length.
After doing your search intent analysis, if you find that your competition is ignoring what you feel are important aspects to cover, then you should cover those important aspects, which will lead to a longer blog post.
On the other hand, if you feel like your competition is overwriting, or keyword stuffing in an attempt to rank higher on Google. Then you should ask yourself, “Is this really providing value to my target audience?”.
That additional length is more likely to be a misguided attempt at “gaming SEO“, rather than a mission to provide as much value as possible. In our experience, this is the exact wrong mindset to have. It doesn’t matter if your all of your competition is publishing blogs with 2,500 words each, it matters what the value is within those 2,500 words. If you can accomplish that same value proposition in 1,500 words, why wouldn’t you?
Most of the time, it’s going to take as long as it takes for you to deliver that key idea with enough data and ideas to back it up.
For example, if you are writing a detailed research study on why the NFL has seen a shift towards passing the ball more versus running, you’ll likely need a few thousand words at least to explain that idea. Whereas if you are simply talking about a personal recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies, that amount of words will likely be way more than you need, and people will want you to explain in the shortest terms possible how to achieve the perfect cookie bite.
What factors do you need to understand?
Fulfilling search intent is best done by understanding a couple of things:
- Niche/Industry
- Audience
You have to make sure that you, as the writer, understand the niche and industry that you are writing about. It is typically easy to discern writing from someone who is knowledgeable about the topic that they’re writing about versus someone who is looking up everything and not an expert. People are less likely to stay on your article or blog post if they don’t feel as though you’re qualified to write content on that subject.
Understanding your audience is the other key factor, and it is crucial. Your audience is who you are creating content for at the end of the day, not yourself. You need to be able to understand their perspectives and situations if you are going to be able to help them.
First of all, who do you want to create for? Are they beginners in their craft? Maybe you want to market this content to people who are way more advanced. You can do both, but keep in mind that different content will appeal to different people in different stages of their journey. Remember, even if you’re an elite expert, you wont always be talking to people who share that same experience.
As an expert, being able to break down and distill your knowledge into small digestible chunks allows you to communicate with people at every level of experience.
You should also keep in mind what your audience’s expectations are. What do they want to get out of this by reading your content? Most of the time, you should frame your content around that and ensure that you give them a solution to their problem.
How to fulfill search intent and provide value
As stated above, you must understand your customer to fulfill search intent. Figuring out exactly where they are in their journey in the industry or niche that you are creating content about and how you can provide value for that stage of their journey is crucial to retaining them as a customer, reader or fan.
So how do you do this?
Studying data and search results is a good start. Doing search result (SERP) research is a great way to see what your competitors are doing and what ideas you need to key in on what you need to do to provide value.
Doing topical research is also a good idea. You want to figure out exactly what the searcher of your content is trying to achieve by reading this content, and what level they’re trying to achieve that at. You want to know your consumers so well that you know what problems they’re trying to solve and you can give them the answer that they’re looking for.
You should also make sure that you’re focusing on the quality of your blog posts over arbitrary things like quantity, posting time, or length. Similar to when we looked at the best time to post on TikTok, there are many different ideal times, and truthfully, it matters much less than you think it does.
Data studies on content length
This study by Big Star Copywriting showed that on some level, you don’t need to write a bit more to get the most optimized SEO. Authority Hacker analyzed 1.1 million search results, and it showed that while 2,000 words has been considered the most optimal length of a content piece, and that the average word count for top-ranking articles was lower than that 2,000 number, coming in around 1,350 words at the ceiling.
While the length of your blog is definitely a factor, there are other metrics that matter more to SEO, like your backlinks and topical relevancy. However, don’t wholly discourage writing more; according to Backlinko’s study, they did see a correlation between higher word counts and better SEO, theorizing that longer pieces of content increase the potential amount of shares, but I question if this is causation or correlation.
As stated above, we don’t believe that length on its own, leads to providing value, but in many cases covering the topic in full is what is required to provide the necessary value, and to cover the topic in full, you end up writing more words.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, determining the ideal length for your blog posts hinges on understanding your audience’s needs and the specific intent behind their searches. Our exploration revealed that effective blog writing is not merely about meeting a word count but about delivering value through relevant and well-researched content.
By focusing on search intent, niche expertise, and audience expectations, we found that quality often trumps quantity. While data suggests that longer articles can lead to better SEO performance, it’s essential to prioritize substance over arbitrary length.
