How long should your blog articles be?
James Pruden
Managing Director at Xigen, Business Investor, Digital Expert & Entrepreneur.
We blog a lot at Xigen – whether on my personal LinkedIn account or the Xigen Insights blog.
These articles can range from a 600-word introduction to a topic to a 3,000-word, all-encompassing guide.
But how long should a blog article be to get the best results? Let’s take a look!
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What the experts say
As you might expect, the industry experts have a lot to say about how long articles should be. Here are some findings from some of the heavy-hitting digital marketers in the industry:
Is there an ideal blog post length?
The general consensus seems to be that longer blog posts are best. And there’s logic to this:
However, a longer blog isn’t always the answer.
You can’t always write a lot about specific topics
Have you read a recipe online, only to find that the first two-thirds is irrelevant fluff?
I don’t want to know about your vegetable patch or what your grandmother’s kitchen smelled like – I just want to find out how to make roast potatoes in my air fryer.
With the best will in the world, it can be tricky to write long-form content about certain industries and topics.
When you’re forced to write lots of words for the sake of high search engine rankings, you risk creating ‘fluffy’ content that goes around in circles and doesn’t get to the point.
These articles can frustrate readers - 39% of people say their pet peeve about blogs is excessive wordiness and bad writing.
Bad content can also negatively affect your search engine results – Google intentionally downgrades low-quality content that doesn’t provide value.
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Your target audience needs to dictate blog article length
Let’s say your target audience is busy working mums.
They’re not going to have the time to pore through a 5,000-word article – they want something short and snackable.
Always think about your ideal customer and how your article can provide the most value to them.
The way we use digital marketing is changing
The rise of voice search and the introduction of AI Overviews show that sometimes people just want quick answers to their questions.
Some digital marketers like Neil Patel advise that in the future, article word count will start to fall as a result.
Shorter can sometimes be sweeter
Sometimes it can pay dividends to get to the point.
Take digital marketer Seth Godin. His longest articles come in at about 800 to 900 words, but most of his articles are under 200 words.
And those articles are still informative, thought-provoking, and connect with you on an emotional level.
Plus, shorter content means you can post more regularly – and nearly a quarter of the highest-performing blogs publish a new post every day.
In conclusion
Every article you publish needs to serve a purpose – whether that’s to show off your expertise, encourage backlinks, or rank for particular keywords in the search engine results.
The ideal blog post length is whatever you need in order to achieve your purpose, show value, and keep your target audience happy.
Is this a cop-out answer? Probably. But there’s no point writing a 10,000-word opus if your customers don’t want to read it.
Still need a bit of a guide? One of the easiest ways to identify how long a blog post is to look at the articles your competitors are writing.
This will give you a rough word count to aim for.