Post Length – How Long Should a Blog Post Be?

This is a topic that has been debated amongst bloggers for as long as I can remember blogging.

It’s my opinion that each writer should assess their traffic to determine what posts are popular, the length of time a person spends on each visit, what the bounce rate is and with that information, they can determine what the optimal post length is for their readers.

It’s also my opinion, that you should consider the following:

• Reader Attention Span – There’s lots of documentation that support the belief that readers will spend under 100 seconds on a blog. As a result many writers keep their content length down to a level that is readable in short grabs.
• Quantity of Posts – Some believe that shorter posts allow you to write more posts and that more posts generate more readership with RSS and in Search Engines. Could this actually be what sites like Engadget do to make up the majority of their content.
• SEO – Seach Engine Optimization experts believe long and short articles are not ranked as highly as pages that are of a medium length. Of course no one truly knows what the ideal length is, however, the general consensus seems to be that 200 to 250 words is a reasonable length. At the same time, many of the experts I’ve communicated with advise keeping articles under 1000 words.
• Topic/Genre – Of course it goes without saying, the topic you write on will determine the true optimal length of article. As an example, when you are writing a product review your article will be longer whereas hot news topics you mention and link to something written by someone else will be shorter. As well, photo blogs require much less coverage.

I believe if you can answer the key “Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?” in under 250 words, that’s all you need. At the end of the day, you need to monitor your stats, communicate with your readers and determine what works best for you and your blog.