Bloggers confusion: How Long A Blog Post Should Be
Blog post length has been a biggest puzzle for every blogger ever seen Blogging become mainstream, there are wide rang opinion about post length, some will tell you to
stick with longer more informative post while there is a group of publisher who favor shorter post.
These both school of thoughts have their own merits, and today we are going to discuss why.
Lets start with a I-Love-Short-Post- School.
if you ask professors of these school why they insist for short post you will get the usual answer.
Its Scannable and Reader Friendly:
study says only 16% of internet user read content word to word. Rest will only scan it for phrase of sentence that interest them, if they don’t find something that catch their fancy, they will probably leve your blog (not sure about you but Tom Volkar would surely do). with that being said keeping your content short and simple so that your users can scan it quickly becomes vital.
Shorter Attention spans:
People don’t usually spend a lot of time on a blog post, My Woopra stats shows my readers usually spend 1 to 1 and half minute. As stated earlier, they’ll first scan the post and if you manage to grab their attention, they’ll go back from the start and read the whole article. so keep your article shorter to grab your readers attention.
Quantity of post:
One point that many Blog Gurus argue is that short post allow you to write more posts, and that more posts are better for generating readership with RSS and in Search Engines. if your are intending to cover more things in one post, split it in a series of short (300 to 500 word) post.
When your should write the short post:
If you’re going to post on topics that are breaking news like Today’s Bomb Blast In new Delhi , it would be batter to keep it short and to the point with all the necessary information,
A short post has the advantage of being quickly and easily read, , if you’re considering writing short posts, make sure you keep a higher publishing rate. There is no point in publishing 2 paragraphs every week.
Those are some valid points that can convince a blogger to fall in love with short newsy type post,
Lets see what Don Lawson have to say about Longer post
Writing long blog posts is suitable for “opinion blogs”. Reviews, tutorials, editorials and guest posts usually require and tend to be longer and more insightful.
Here are 4 good points by Don in defense Longer post
You’ll naturally have more long tail keywords in your long blog post. which help you bring in more targeted traffic to your site.
Since longer posts require more attention and more time to read, it’s indicated that you format your post well by using short paragraphs and subheadings, lists and images to break large blocks of text. Also a good introductory paragraph describing what your post is all about will catching your readers’ attention.
Conclusions:
There’s no golden rule about the perfect blog post length.In the end you need to find your own way on this. Deciding between short and long blog posts is also a matter or personal choice, some people like to publish three four time a day using short post, Blogger like my prefer more resourceful and well documented long post.
So now tell me, what’s your choice when it comes to deciding post length, and which post you prefer to read loooooooooooooooooong or short?
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I think if its at least 350 words or more is good. I’ve sen others where posts are like 1500 word but thats usually a product review or something along those lines.
I think between 350- 650 words makes for a good informative pst.
Brunos last blog post..Affiliate Marketing Online Program
I think it depends on the person, not everyone is a reader. I can send 3 paragraphs of an email to some friends and they will complain that it’s too long. It’s nothing to me.
Now some blog post, that I cut and paste in a word document, turn out to be 5 pages, I had one this week that was 13 pages. That’s too long for a blog post in my opinion.
Like you said “There’s no golden rule about the perfect blog post length”. I try not to make my post too long unless its necessary. I go through everything to see what I can delete and anything that does not contribute to the story.
How long should a comment be. LOL. I could go on, but I’ll shut up now.
When it comes to social media,search engine optimisation or any tutorial, i usually read the content word by word. But if it’s a general article, i search only for the key words. This , i reckon, is the usual mentality of people.
rampanthearts last blog post..The Anthem-a review
I agree there are some benefits of using a short post, which you mentioned above, but I would have 2 or 3 longer posts for SEO reasons. Great post.
Mekas last blog post..Payment Proof Update: Project Payday
Hi Sunil,
I guess I’m more in the order of the opinion blog, and those posts tend to be longer. Maybe. I did a post on this earlier too, and I agree with you that posts should generally be shorter. The only really long things that I like to read are books.
And yes, people do scan. At first this bothered me but I’m getting used to it.
I’m curious about Woopra. I was thinking of downloading it. My friend Karen Swim said Wassup was a good plugin in terms of analying site visits. How is Woopra working for you?
Ellen Wilsons last blog post..Clean the Toilet and Become a Writer
I think it is totally dependent on the ability of the blogger. Some bloggers try to impress us by making long posts but in the end, it is a plain space.
Seth Godin’s blog posts are short but every word counts and strike his readers. He is a great blogger with a big heart, though.
Steve Pavlina makes very long posts but just like Godin, the attack is the same.
I make my post with around 400~500 words but I try not to bore my readers. I also inject sub-topic titles to let my readers know what they are going to read next.
Angel Cualas last blog post..How to convince Blog Owners that you are a Good Guest Blogger
Hi Sunil,
I like to write short posts based on the format of my blog. However, if a topic needs more words, I don’t mind reading it. I think it comes down to value rather than word count.
Barbara Swaffords last blog post..How To Get Your Blog Blacklisted
@ Bruno review and tutorial type post tend to be longer then 1000 word
(some time a couples of pages). author of these type of post need to
cover every aspect of topic to convey his message, which cant be done
with 350/400 words.
@Natural 13 pages sounds like a mini ebook rather then a blog post
)
proof reading your post to eliminate things that don’t add value to
your post is a good idea, but i am not good at proof reading my own
post, i ask my friend MD to proof read for me (i never notice my own
mistakes
@rampanthearts yeah that what all the blog readers do, thats why i
always insist for short paragraph with lots of headers and sub-header,
in my post, so my readers can scan it easily.
@Meka one long post after 2,3 short one is good strategy, i usually
write long post that deal with many related topics about blogging,
@Ellen Woopra is the best tool to analyze web traffic, but it takes a
little longer then any other service to get your site approved for
their services
@Angel i haven’t read Steve but i find Maki of DoshDosh.com is the
best author who keep his readers rooted, even though all his post are always more then 1000 word long
@Barbara
I love to read short post, but when it comes to writing them i prefer longer one, so i can give my reader full detail about topic in hand
For me, the perfect blog post length is between 350 to 800 words. Shorter than that you’re likely not saying anything of value (unless you post several times a day and are a tidbit site). Longer and you lose my attention – I already have too many blogs to read and comment on. I’m not going to spend lots of time on just one unless that author has written a super-awesome post that draws me in right from the beginning.
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndromes last blog post..Life’s Not Fair – Get Over It
Well Sunil you sneaky devil, this is the first time someone has link-baited me on a comment I made and then didn’t even explain my position. Seriously I’m always grateful for any link and it’s good to see you using your own stuff.
I just went back and looked. I’ve put up 70 posts in my first year of blogging and five are about 1,000 words. The remainder average between 400 and 700.
It’s not that I dislike long posts if necessary and done well. Yet most posts that are long tend to give me more information than I could possible act on. If there are 10 ways to do something I’d rather read the top three or two most effective and then I can actually use the information. I sincerely consider the utilization of what I read. Otherwise why read it at all?
Tom Volkar / Delightful Works last blog post..Finding Your Business Sweet Spot
i tend to prefer shorter posts. longer ones i either skim, or i skip entirely. for me to read a long post, it really has to be written well.
I love short post they are easy to understand and follow
while long post are more informative then short one but they seldom boar me
I think you need to define what a long post is. As long as you over 300 words or so I think Google is good with it.
Hi Sunil
I prefer short post over long one, short post are easy to read and follow through, while long post are with more detail (some times with useless one) which requires lots of concentration and time, which is not possible, when you are busy checking your own blog comments and stats, digging through your inbox, and checking updates on feed reader
Sunil,
I try to write short posts to lighten myself up and not be so serious and I took your suggestion and made my very informative post about PTSD into 5 shorter posts. I got to cover all the material I thought was important and helpful to folks suffering this illness and yet not turn away folks who I hoped would share the information with others and get the word out and about.
I am still getting so few comments that I don’t know if many people are reading what I write or not. I am still getting a few comments only by email as some folks don’t want to be public.
Today I am feeling a bit glum – I love writing and I so enjoying doing my blog, but long or short does not seem to make any difference.
Thank you for sharing your writing, once again I learned something new and that is a pleasure.
Patricias last blog post..PTSD Part 4: The Big Picture For Healing
Hi Sunil:
I personally prefer 400 to 600 word posts. Unless the author can really hold a captivated audience, very long posts tend to strain the attention span. I am surprised that Natural above in a humorous manner referred also to the length of comments. This is something that I would love to read your opinion about, especially a comment on an extremely controversial topic. Thank you.
I usually like to mix it up with a short post every day and a longer one once a week. I find this is a good mix. I also have 5 writers so it makes for an interesting mix of styles. I think t would get overwelming if we all posted every day.
paunchinesss last blog post..Win an Apple® iPod® Shuffle
Hi Sunil -
I vote for short, but will make the post long if the subject requires it.
It is important to cater for the “Scanners” and I do that using bold informative Bullets, so even a long post can be scanned quickly.
The combination of ‘white space’ and ‘bold’ makes for easy speed reading.
Rhyss last blog post..How To Hide Adsense From Social Traffic
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Wow nice post.. I prefer an article with 200 words… But you can also make it better in just 100 words.. It all depends on the area and the topic…
TechnoSamrats last blog post..Copy and Read Documents on iPhone and iPod With FileMagnet
nice post, but for my blog i just keep it shot, because it’s to boring if i write to long for my post(lots of mistakes too). So to I just keep it short and simple
newbiesbloggers last blog post..Google PR Vs Visitor – Why This Hapen?
Everyone will have their own preferences but I think a mix of short and long posts is perfectly fine. Some posts will naturally require more words whereas is some situations a short post may be all that is required. Trying to extend such posts to meet a word count may do nothing to add to the quality of the post, and may in fact make the post worse.
no win no fees last blog post..Making a Personal Injury Claim
I think Post Quantity doesn’t matter if it has a quality !! even if its long then better have some images in between to maintain the interest !
Abhisheks last blog post..Download Torrent without Torrent Client in your System
I think Abhishek above is right, quality is more important than quantity. A well written post can be long but a poorly written long post can be a drag to read.
As Paunchiness said, it’s a good idea to mix it up.
Ned Careys last blog post..The Power of Positive Thinking
Mark me down for short posts. Too long and my eyes glaze over, cursor moves to little “x”, and I’m gone.
bartolomos last blog post..Top Ten List of CBOE Put/Call Ratio 2008
I’m a minister and I’m often asked how long a sermon should be. Some say no more than 20 minutes. Others say 45 minutes is good, and some even say an hour is acceptable. But one wise, older preacher I know says the right answer is, “however long it takes to adequately explain the passage of Scripture.” Now, of course, even he says he wouldn’t go longer than an hour and if he needed more time than that he would deliver the sermon in two parts over two Sundays. But his point is applicable to the question raised by this post. I don’t think there’s one set answer. It depends on what you’re writing about and how much you need to say about it. And just like an hour seems to be the upper limit for a sermon, perhaps an agreed upon upper limit for a general blog post would be about 400-600 words. Beyond that, make it a two part post. But in the end it really all depends on how much you need to say.
I think that the topic really dictates how long the post will end up. Some subjects lend themselves to those short quick posts while others really need to be well written with lots of text to really get the point across.
Karmins last blog post..Hooray for Hairstyling Software
I prefer longer posts. They are better for search engines and you can get a lot more information into each post for your readers too.
I like shorter post. Faster to write and faster to read.
Uttam Pegus last blog post..Playing WAV File in Dialogic Boards
I like long informative posts. My argument is that if the reader get something of value he will come back for more. If it is short posts with little info he have to keep on looking and looking without really finding something.
This is a good question. I have had people tell me that is has to be 300 words while others say it is nothing until you hit 500. But yet I have seen some very effective posts of only a few words before. Maybe bloggers should not worry as much about the word count and focus on the content.
Bookmarked this. Sometimes non-standard due to you looking for sharing. Undoubtedly worth my time.
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