What do you think is the perfect length for your blog post to balance your readers' attention and consider SEO with your content?

Many writers are confused about this and they often procrastinate and end up not writing anything because they always overthink that their content isn’t good and long enough for readers, but the truth is, this may vary depending on the type of your blog post.

The real question here is…

Why Does Blog Length Matter?

The blog length will always vary on different factors, some considerations are the attention span of your readers and SEO. But if you are focusing on a long-term game of blogging, which is common in this industry, I will choose to write a longer post because of these two reasons:

1. It has more potential to be shared by the readers.

2. Search engine optimization

If you have been in this industry for a long time, you already know that playing long-term in blogging has more potential for growth and getting traffic. Also, it has more potential for readers to share on their social media and get a backlink from other websites. This cannot only get you more traffic but also increase your domain authority.

Ideal Length Based on Blog Type

• Short blogs – In my definition, short blogs are those blogs that range from 300-500 words per post. If you are writing reflections, personal blogs, and news, your words can range from this one.

• Medium-length blogs – For me, 500-1000 words will fall under medium-length blogs. These blogs can be tutorials and personal experiences. This is where my blog posts are falling. I usually mix tutorial, informative, and storytelling on my blog to connect and engage with my readers.

• Long-form blogs – These are the blogs that are well-researched, informative, and commonly used for building authority for your website. Big businesses and companies online fall into this category and mostly rank on Google as their blogs contain a full guide or information that most readers need.

Data and Statistics

I am not bluffing everything that I am saying, all of this is backed by data and studies from big companies. HubSpot estimates the ideal blog post length is around 2,500 words, while Orbit Media's 2023 survey found the average blog post length was 1,427 words.

Meanwhile, I read an interesting blog from The Side Blogger, Maliha, the author said that her experiment and calculations on her own Medium stories are falling under the 7-min reading time which is about 1,000-1,600 words.

This image is from Medium by Mike Saal.

In addition, Mike Sall, the Head of Data Science at Medium shared an interesting study where the optimal post is also 7 minutes based on the data that he has on Medium. It is important to note that this study was done last 2013 which was 10 years ago.

But does this data matter to you?

Yes and no!

As I said, the blog post length will always vary on its type. You always need to consider the quality of your blog post rather than its quantity. It will be useless if you talk a lot to your readers and yet you are not giving any value to them.

So, How Should You Write a Blog Post?

This is not the standard, but I often follow this format when I write content for my audience. It keeps me organized and has a touch of branding when it comes to writing a blog post.

Keep Your Introduction Short but Engaging

You can always start with a question. This will trigger your readers to read your content and keep reading it until the end. Make sure to use powerful words and statements when writing your introduction – make it short but engaging.

One secret for this is to keep letting the readers ask more about the content. This is a little bit tricky and hard to master but once you read and write a lot, you will get there!

Put Some Headings

One thing that any new writers won’t understand is that they should put headings and subheadings on their blog. This will make your blog post look like short and engaging for readers.

When a reader (even me) saw a blog post that is full of paragraph and doesn’t even have any heading, I stop reading it because it feels like you are reading a novel that will never end.

Using graphics will also work for this one that will serve as a divider for your paragraphs and improve your posts by having visuals. This is a huge help because a blog that has no image looks boring to read.

Make Sure To Have a Call to Action (CTA)

When the post is done and your readers are done reading your content, what’s next? Make sure to put some call-to-actions to let your readers stay on your page or get their trust by putting their emails to your list.

This will not only help you in long term but can also generate sales in the future.

Focus on Storytelling

You don’t have to overcomplicate your blog. Just focus on sharing your personal experience and storytelling. When I was just starting writing on the internet, I always overthink that anyone won’t read my content because I use “I” as a point of view.

Now, I focus on sharing my experience and put some touch of humanized blog post and avoid writing for bots, your readers are more important. Write your opinion and knowledge based on your experience then do some research to back up your statement.

The most important in writing is to give value to your readers, then the result will follow. I always overthink before about my blog and content and later on, I realized that I will not be successful if I will stick into this mindset.

The blog length matters, but you must know your target audience and what type of blog you should write. This way, you can experiment on what is the most suitable and works better for you.

I would say that if you are a new writer, try to experiment with different lengths and start posting on the platforms that you are using (I will recommend Hive and Medium), then share your insights on what’s working the best for you!

All images are made and designed by the author using Canva. The GIF is from the built-in GIF feature of InLeo.