How long should a blog post be for maximum SEO? What is the optimal blog post length for SEO? How many words should you write in a blog post so that it gets better rankings?
These are questions that I get very often in the comments, and in this post, I will help you understand how many words to make your blog posts.
Before we start, let me clarify from the beginning that blog post length alone is NOT a Google ranking factor. Other more important factors can influence your ranking positions, and the word count is NOT one of them.
How Long Should A Blog Post Be?
Over the last 10 years, various research studies concluded that long-form content ranks higher in search results than short-form content. Although the number of words varies per niche, the ideal blog post length is between 1000 and 2000.
Factors that you need to consider before deciding how long to make your blog posts are:
1. Type of post
The length of a blog post depends on its type. If you are running a news blog, then the length of the post depends on the available information related to the story you are covering.
People reading the news don’t like to read unnecessary information just because you want to make your blog posts longer, but they need to get the ‘facts’; this is what your focus should be.
So, in this case, the length of a post depends on the ‘source’.
If, on the other hand, you are reviewing a new smartphone, then, in this case, you should try to provide as much meaningful information as possible.
Notice here that the word ‘meaningful’ means you shouldn’t sacrifice the blog post's quality for length.
In other words, while you want to have many words in your blog, don’t repeat yourself or provide information that is not relevant to your topic, as this will decrease the overall quality of your content.
In addition to the type, you should not forget the purpose of a post. There are cases where the objective of a blog post is fulfilled with fewer words.
For example, a classified ad presents a product or service in only a few sentences, so in this case, the purpose of a post also defines the length.
2. What Does Google Like?
The first step I take before writing a new blog post is to search Google for my title (or focus SEO keywords) and quickly analyze the type and length of blog posts on the first page of the search results.
This is an easy and quick way to find out what Google likes about a topic.
For example, before writing the blog post you are reading now, I did my research and found out that the number of words for the first 5 results on Google are:
- Position 1: 640 words
- Position 2: 2216 words
- Position 3: 4000 words
- Position 4: 2246 words
- Position 5: 959 words
As you can see, the range is very big, from 640 words to 4000 words! But 3 out of the 5 entries have 2000+ words.
This tells me that Google likes long-form content for this search term, but it all comes down to the quality of the content and domain authority.
Websites ranking in positions 1 and 5 are high authority domains, so they have an advantage over the other three domains.
It’s a fact that high-authority websites can rank higher without too much effort compared to websites with a not-so-high Google trust.
Important Note: To ensure that everybody is on the same line, it does not mean that if I publish a blog post that is 2000+ words, it will rank in the first positions of Google.
Many other SEO factors play a role in rankings. The above test indicates what Google likes regarding word length for the particular topic and nothing else.
You can follow the above technique for all blog posts and get an idea of what your competitors are publishing and what Google prefers to show in their top positions for that topic.
Google Guidelines
A recent document published by Google, known as the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, talks about content length, and although it does not specify a word count, it does mention the phrase, a satisfying amount of high-quality content.
In particular, it states, "High-quality information pages should be factually accurate, clearly written, and comprehensive. The amount of content necessary for the page to be satisfying depends on the topic and purpose of the page. A high-quality page on a broad topic with a lot of available information will have more content than a high-quality page on a narrower topic.”
3. Research Studies
You will find three important sources if you search Google for studies on how many words a blog post should be.
Ahrefs
A study by Ahrefs found a strong relationship between content length and ranking position. Longer content tends to rank higher in the SERPS. The number of words (media) for the 1st position of Google was 750 words.
SEMRUSH
SEMRUSH’s study found similar results and also revealed two more important points:
- Pages that rank higher in the results have more content than lower-ranking pages
- Pages that rank for high-volume / popular keywords have 150% more content than low-volume keywords.
Backlinko’s study found that the average Google first page result contains 1,890 words.
Other studies by Moz, Medium, and HubSpot agree with the above findings.
The resume from all research studies is the following:
- The optimal length of a blog post is between 1000 – 2000 words.
- Longer posts generally perform better in search
- Posts that are more than 2000 words receive more social shares
- The average word length for a blog post found in the first 5 positions of Google was approximately 1800 words.
The bottom line is that research shows that longer posts are more valuable for a blog (in terms of SEO, social shares, and engagement) than shorter posts.
How Many Words Should I Make My Posts?
It should be obvious by now that my preference and recommendation is to go with long articles (above 1500 words), and this is why:
- By publishing long and informative evergreen content, you can steadily increase your organic traffic both in the short and long term.
- It is a fact that long content performs better on Google.
- It is also a fact that long-form articles get more social media attention and comments.
- Providing unique and original content is easier if your articles are long. Short content is more difficult to differentiate from other short content published online.
- Long articles (provided that they are interesting), take more time to read so users spend more time on your site which is good.
- With long articles, you can easily add more internal links to other pages on your website, keep users engaged, and, at the same time, reduce your bounce rate.
- When running contextual ads (for example, AdSense), you can maximize your earnings because the ads will be more relevant and have ‘more space’ to show your ad units without making your website full of ads.
- Long, unique, and valuable content is the real asset of a website, which also increases the selling price of a website or blog. If you plan on selling your website at some point, then having long articles will get you more money because they are not easy to produce.
- It’s a way to differentiate your blog from the rest. If most of the blogs in your niche publish short to medium content and you can publish good, longer content, over time, you will gain an advantage in SEO.
- Last but not least, let’s not forget that blog posts that explain a topic in detail will keep your users happy, and they will come back for more valuable content.
Long content is more challenging to create. What should I do?
I know from experience that it is much more difficult to create long content and at the same time maintain your publishing schedule, so here are some tips to consider:
- Before committing to a publishing schedule, ensure you have some posts ready in advance. If you decide to go with 3 articles per week, then make sure that you prepare at least 6 posts before starting publishing. This will give you enough time to catch up and keep to a schedule.
- Decide on your post titles in advance. When working on a schedule, you should spend most of your time producing the content than researching and thinking of the titles to use. Spend some time in advance and create the article titles you need for the month.
- When creating long posts, it is easier to break them into several parts, each with its heading, rather than having one big post with no sections. It is easier for both the writer and the reader.
- Make long blog posts easier to read by adding lists (where applicable), making short paragraphs, and giving special attention to the formatting of the text.
What is your take on the optimum word length of a blog post? Do you agree with the research findings and my recommendations?
