Are you writing about Brussels sprouts or brain surgery?
Blog posts are supposed to be 2,000 words long! insists a participant in one of my webinars.
Excuse me, her colleague interrupts. Pillar posts should be 2,000 words long. Regular posts should be 1,750 words long.
No wonder people are so confused about blog-post length. Research suggests that the longer the post, the higher it will rank on search engine results pages, the more readership it will get and the more likely it will be to get shared.
And it’s true. The most robust, insightful, thoroughly researched posts do tend to reap the highest rewards.
But does that mean your post should be 2,000 words long? That depends. Are you writing about rocket science? Or radicchio salad?
The right length for a blog post depends on the topic. Fortunately, there’s a cool tool that tells you the best length for a blog post on your topic.
How long should your blog post be?
The tool: SEMRush SEO Writing Assistant in Google Docs. (You’ll need a subscription to SEMRush to use it.)
In addition to suggesting keywords for your topic, SEMRush Writing Assistant lets you know how long your blog post should be, based on an analysis of the top-ranked blog posts on your topic.
The best length for a blog post on “What’s the best length for a blog post?” for instance, is 1,121 words. The tool tracks your word count and reading ease and also gives you helpful tips for improving readability.
Whatever the best length for your blog post, don’t just write longer to reach your word count. You won’t get the results you’re looking for with 2,000 words of filler. So pack your post with great research and insight.
As author Maureen Howard said, “I like density, not volume.”
How long should your content be?
How long should your blog post be? Your mobile headline? Online paragraphs? Sentences and words?
Learn to write readable content-marketing pieces that don't overwhelm readers — even on their smartphones — at Get Clicked, Liked & Shared, our content-writing workshop that starts April 18.
You’ll learn the most effective length for content-marketing pieces, online paragraphs, sentences and words. Then you’ll analyze your message with a free online writing tool and get tips and tools for meeting those targets.
Plus: Entice visitors to read more of your story by hitting one key on your keyboard more often. And learn to avoid using one “unretweetable” punctuation mark.
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.
