This article will answer how should your blog post be, and it depends!
What are your blogging goals?
- Rank on Google
- Receive more shares
- Get more comments
- Gain more subscribers
- Get more sales
Blog Post Types
What is the nature of your blog post? Are you posting an outfit, a recipe, or a guide? Not all blog posts require a long post.
For example, if you are posting a blog post about an outfit of the day, it might be a lot shorter than a full tutorial on how-to do something. Also, your audience might prefer shorter articles (500-1000 words) instead of longer articles (2,000-4,000 words).
You can look at your favorite blogs, copy and paste the text into a Word Counter tool, to see how many words they use.
Rachel Parcell is an example of a shorter blog post type of blog, with minimal text and a lot of photos. Sally’s Baking Addiction is an example of a blog with longer blog posts.
Google Traffic
Typically, blog posts that are longer (2,000-5,000 words) tend to rank on the first page of Google. So, if you type in a phrase such as: “how to start a website,” the results that will rank on the first page of Google will usually be longer articles that are detailed and in depth.
Google wants to show the most thorough and helpful results first. They are trying to give you the best answer to your search, so you don’t have to search through multiple pages to find what you are looking for.
So, one way get traffic from Google is to write articles that Google wants to rank. Of course use long tail keywords that you can realistically rank for (a competitive search term with 20,000 searches per month will be a lot more difficult to rank for than a low competition search term with 1,000 searches per month). One way to get an idea of what Google likes is to search for something, look at the top ten results for a given search, and aim to make an article as good or better than those articles.
Why does Google like longer blog posts?
- The more you write, the more it communicates to Google what you are writing about.
- The more detailed a post is, the more thorough you are answering a question for the reader.
- The longer the blog post, the higher the chance that someone will stay on your blog longer.
More Shares
If your are trying to get more people to share your blog post, it should be either really interesting (something different and worth sharing), really useful, or something that they want to save and bookmark for later.
Invoke emotion. Typically the posts that get shared the most spark some type of an emotion.
Think about what types of posts you share. You can also include a call to action and ask people to share your blog post if they thought it was helpful, or pin it to Pinterest.
More Comments
- One way is including a call to action (CTA) such as a question or tell them what you want them to do (“Have you tried this?,” “What do you want to see more of?,” or “Comment below”).
- You could post something that is controversial (controversy tends to receive comments).
- Blog about something emotional. Invoking emotion out of the reader often brings out their own personal opinions.
- Respond to comments, this lets the reader know that they can expect an interaction.
More Subscribers
If you want more subscribers, deliver a ton of value to your target audience! Think about which blogs you subscribe to. Which blogs can you not wait to see publish more posts? I can think of a handful of blogs that I can not wait to see their newest content.
More Sales
Some blog post types that do really well to generate more affiliate link sales are: How-To tutorials, Comparison posts (compare a few products side by side and contrast their pros and cons), and Lists posts (such as “My favorite tools that I use for my blog,” or “My favorite go to classic outfits.”
A Resources page (list your favorite or most used products) also typically does really well, because it says the reader time from going though each blog post. This page can act as a summary of the most helpful products that you like. As you can see at the top of this blog, there is a Resources page in the navigation.
Tips
- Always aim for quality blog posts. Make every word count, don’t write longer just to hit a certain word count. Try to keep your audiences viewership. Make sure your blog posts are clearly laid out and easy to read, using Headers (H2, H3, etc.) paragraph’s, lists, photos, etc.
- When you write longer blog posts, write in detail so your blog post reads like an expert opinion.
- Write the best articles you can. Add value to your readers!
I hope this helped you to know how long to write a blog post!
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