How Long Should My Content Be?

June 21, 2018

One of the most common questions we are asked as a content writing agency is “how long should my blog post be?” While the answer varies, there are many guidelines you should think about before committing to a certain number of words in a page.

Here are a few factors you should always consider to help you decide how long to make a blog post:

Who is the Reader?

We talk a lot about “buyer personas,” and this makes a big difference when it comes to the length of the content. Some buyers are looking online for quick answers and easy reading while others prefer long-form articles and well-researched discussion topics. Depending on your unique audience, you should cater the word count appropriately.

For example, a younger or less educated audience would probably appreciate fewer words and easier-to-digest content, so 400-600 words for these readers is probably plenty. 

 

 What is the Topic?

 It’s easy to feel like your topic is important and requires extensive verbiage to get the point across. However, this simply isn’t the case for a lot of more general topics. For example, a simple recipe or how-to blog shouldn’t be more than 600-800 words. A long, overdrawn post like this will most likely bore the reader and cause them to leave the page.

 On the other hand, if you are producing any sort of definitive guide on a subject with a lot of sub-topics and precise information, you should consider a longer word count of 1,000-2,000 words, or else the blog might end up too general and gloss over important details.

What Kind of Content is it?

Before setting a word count, you should also consider what type of content you are writing. Is it a blog post? A website page? A landing page? An e-book? All of these content types require different attention, and the word count is just the first feature you should think about before starting to develop content. Some general word counts for different types of content include:

Blog Post: Should be at least 400-600 words, but should not exceed 2,000 words unless it’s for specific niche topics with a lot of information.

Website Pages: Should also be at least 400-600 words, however, lately Google is favoring longer website pages during indexing – more on that later!

Landing Pages: This depends entirely on the product or service you are promoting. Deeply informational landing pages can reach up to 1,000 words, while other quick and action-based landing pages can reach about 400-600 words.

Press Releases: These are typically meant to be quick, informative, journalistic-style articles, so they typically shouldn’t be more than 1,000 words. With a press release, it’s vital to get as much information out as succinctly as possible.

Whitepapers: Often used as a downloadable reward or a vessel for internal information, whitepapers are often extensively researched and informative. It’s not uncommon to see these types of content reach 1,000-5,000 words in length.

 E-Book: An e-book can be considered a collection of blog “chapters.” These are also often part of a reward for clients to download and should be treated like a long-form blog. E-books can range in word count, but a common choice is between 1,500-3,000 words.

Although these are a few general word counts, your unique needs might change based on your client demands or the level of detail and research you want to go into a piece.

What Does Google Think?

Google’s algorithm was a major deciding factor for many content marketers when it came to deciding on page length. For years, the most accepted length was about 500 words. This count was pretty ideal for getting the message across and appeasing the Google bots. However, today, that seems to be changing. The algorithm seems to be favouring longer blogs in the 800-1,500-word range. So you should also consider this before writing a post.

The Keywords

Keyword stuffing is no longer acceptable. There’s no way around it. So producing a 600-word blog post with 100 keywords in it will no doubt get you in trouble with Google. It’s a good idea to be pickier with your keywords and if you want to include an abundance of them, ensure your blog post is long enough that the content is not overstuffed. A good general strategy is to use a keyword every 100-200 words in the content.

If you’re still not sure how long your content should be, you can always count on the expertise and advice of your third-party blogging company.

Schedule a free consultation with us today and find out how we can help take your content to the next level!




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