How Long Should a Blog Post Be in 2020?
The question of how long a blog post should be hangs over every blogger’s head, especially as they’re starting out. Well, your blog should be 300 words at least, and can go up to 4000 words, provided that the topic deserves it.
There are a number of variables at play that dictate the ideal length of an article, which I’ll get to in a moment.
My team at CDP has written and published a ton of blog posts for our clients. From experience I can tell you that long form posts generally do better in SERPs. However, if your traffic is more dependent on social media, then short form posts are the way to go. So there really is no winner insofar as the long form vs short form debate goes.
How Many Words Should a Blog Post Be?
Here are some rough guidelines on how long a blog post should be.
| For SEO | 2,000-3500 |
| For engagement (short-form/micro blogs) | 300-500 |
| Informative | 1000-3000 |
| All-purpose | 1500-2500 |
| For shares and likes | 500-1000 |
Before you put your head down and start whipping up a 2,500 word article, let me break down the five categories of blog posts I mentioned above to better explain what I mean.
For SEO
Blog posts may not be your ticket to direct sales but they do form the backbone of your site’s search engine rankings. Through these pieces, you can establish your authority, build credibility, enhance brand recognition, and rank for your target keywords.
Search engines absolutely love long form content. However, there is a fine line you don’t want to cross. Your article has to be absolutely stellar in quality, which means no repetition, no scrapped content and no fluff. So not every subject you want to write about merits a 2000+ word blog post.
And that’s completely alright. Short form blogs will rank better in certain cases, especially if it’s a problem-solution or question-answer type post.
If the content you write isn’t optimized properly, doesn’t offer enough value to the readers, or simply doesn’t follow Google’s E.A.T principle (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), it’s impossible to rank anyway.
Another factor to keep in mind before deciding on the ideal blog post length for your piece is what your competitors have done.
