There are many topics in content marketing open for debate, but few have been as elusive to evidentiary proof as the length of the “perfect” blog post.
To some, the longer a blog post the better, and there’s a clear argumentative case for it; more words in an article mean more “guts” for web crawlers and readers, and indicate that an article is thorough and in-depth.
But, let’s look at some high-level stats related to content length that will be applicable:
On the other hand, constantly shooting for super-high word counts can leave you with fluff, or can alienate the vast portions of your audience who are interested in a quick read.
So what’s the answer? The evidence suggests the reality of an “ideal” blog length is much more complicated than a simple answer of “long” or “short.”
More important than word count is this:
Your article should answer the intended query of the visitor. If it does that in 100 words better than another site can do in 10,000 than you win.
Unfortunately, a thorough answer is typically not 100 words long.
Having a popular blog is all about keeping it updated with fresh and informative content. Your visitors are going to like seeing that the blog is kept updated and that the articles they are reading provide them with some information that they happen to be seeking. Whether you make the decision to write your own blog entries or hire someone to do this for you, it is a good idea to carefully consider the word count so that your visitors are kept entertained when reading the content on your site each and every time they happen to visit your blog. For some examples please visit the SEO.co blog to learn more. Keep in mind, many of our blog articles range from 500 words to nearly 20,000.
There’s no simple answer for the “ideal” length of a blog post, but there are some interesting trends when it comes to length. According to this recent analysis, about 85 percent of the articles in this golden 25 percent contained fewer than 1,000 words. About 12 percent of articles shared had between 1,000 and 2,000 words, and less than 2.7 percent contained more than 2,000 words. According to this information, the shorter your article is, the better.
The average content length of the top 10 SERP results in Google is ~2,200 words.
However, when it comes to the number of shares an article gets, the longer an article is, the better. Articles of under 1,000 words tended to get an average of 3.47 shares and links, with 1,000-2,000 word articles getting an average of 6.92, and articles of 3,000 words or more getting a massive 11.07! According to this information, the longer your article is, the better.
This leads to a tricky conundrum, but let me try and simplify it: shorter articles have a higher likelihood of getting shares, but they also tend to attract a fewer number of shares. Longer articles have a lower likelihood of getting shares, but when they do, they attract large numbers of shares.
But, when it comes to the top 5 results in Google, the length tends to shorten, compared to those further down in the rankings:
When you expand out the view for the top 40 results, the results clearly conclude there is a small (but still evident) correlation between length and rank:
There is also a strong correlation between the length of your post and the number of backlinks pointing to it:
The vast majority of content online is never shared or referenced:
If you have a niche that specializes in one type of content over another, the answer is pretty simple. Both long-form and short-form content have advantages and disadvantages, so you might as well keep focusing on the type that works best for your brand. However, if you’re in that position, you’re probably not reading this article since you’ve already made up your mind about what type of content works best.
For the average brand, the best strategy is to capitalize on the advantages of both ends of the spectrum. Write short-form articles to maximize your chances of quickly answering search intent, with the understanding that those shares will be few in number, and write long-form articles to get a chance at a high number of shares, with the understanding that the chance is unless you spend a TON of time promoting. Use both as complementary means of getting more backlinks and shares.
If you want to read between the lines on the data, I might suggest:
If longer content works for a given target phrase, update, but not extensively. If your strategy fails for a particular term or you see rankings drops in your content, revamp and repeat, keeping in mind that:
The ideal length of any content piece is dependent on many factors including the industry, search intent, the search term, your website, the quality of the content, dwell time. etc. etc. etc.
Though this article mostly focuses on length, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention one other feature of this recent survey: an analysis of the types of content that get shared and linked to the most. Out of all the articles the analysis explored, the types that generated the greatest number of shares and links were:
And when it comes to longer form content on more reputable sources, research-backed content and opinion-forming articles tended to get the greatest amount of attention. Varying the length of your content can help your content strategy, but be sure to focus on these sub-types of content as well.
Shooting for shorter content, such as 200-300 word “tidbits,” means you can produce more articles in the same amount of time, catering to the quick-digest crowd. On the other hand, short content is necessarily brief, and has few deep points to attract links or build authority from an SEO perspective.
It also means you may be able to nail search intent more readily and rank more quickly.
The vast majority of articles you write or produce will receive zero shares and zero links. It’s only a fraction of articles—less than 25 percent (according to Moz & BuzzSumo)—that ever get picked up in a meaningful way.
Obviously, you want as many of your articles as possible to fall into that 25 percent category. Blindly producing content en masse is liable to set you up for that 75 percent pit, no matter how long your articles are.
You should spend a ton of time creating great content and then an equal amount of time promoting it, regardless of length.
That’s where we come in! We help to write and promote in a white-hat way and at scale. Contact us today!
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