How long should this blog article be?

TL;DR: as long as it needs to be.

It’s not a new question – and a quick Google search will put you in touch with all kinds of advice. Lots of advice. Pages and pages and pages of advice. Conflicting advice. Woah… okay, too much advice.

Let me break it down for you, then, in one place, and save you the trouble of reading through thousands and thousands of words on the subject.

Some say write long and dig into your topic, while others say keep it short for our goldfish-like attention spans. You’ve probably heard both arguments. The truth is, there is no right answer. If a one-size-fits-all formula existed, we’d all know about it by now.

Rather than “how long,” ask…

• What’s the purpose of my blog? Are you writing news, reviews or personal stories? Are you looking to spark a discussion, get more shares on social media or boost your SEO standing? Your answers here will guide you most of the way.
• Who’s reading it? A distracted reader will spend significantly less time with your articles than someone who is actively searching for an answer or advice. Think about who your audience is, what they need, what they’re doing and what they have time for.
• How deep do I want to go? If you’re providing a high-level overview for a general audience, you probably don’t need to get 2,500 words deep into a statistical discussion on the merits of blog length. This ties back to that purpose!
• What industry am I writing in? Author and web influencer Neil Patel gives some examples of content length by industry, from gadgets (300-500 word average) to finance (2,100-2,500 words). A good guideline for context and reader expectations, but no hard and fast rules here.
• How is my content laid out? Eye-tracking studies show people scan web content in an “F” pattern, lingering only on areas of interest. Use this to your advantage. While your readers may not stick all the way through to the end, you can help them find the information they’re looking for by using headings, subheadings, bullets and keywords in the right spots.
• Am I using multimedia? If your post is chock-full of videos, images, gifs or illustrations, chances are your word count will be lower. But that doesn’t mean it’s lacking content! (Of course, you’ll still want to consider the total time it takes to get through your post, all that great stuff included.)
• How long does it take to get through? Some blog platforms now offer a “time to read” metric. It’s exactly what it sounds like – based on an average reading time, it tells you how long it’ll take you to make it all the way through an article. Their research shows you have up to seven minutes for holding an interested reader’s attention before it starts to drop off. But it really depends on your audience and what you’re trying to accomplish – back to points 1 and 2.
• What’s the quality of my content? Google love-love-loves information. Its rankings are determined and influenced by the value your article provides to users. 1,000 empty words will rank much lower than 1,000 words bursting with fruity flavour about your topic. Lesson: don’t pad out your articles just to reach a certain number.
• Can I tighten anything up? Just because there’s no ideal word limit, it doesn’t mean long-winded posts are the way to go. If you use 50 words to say something you could say in 10, you have a golden opportunity to cut some length from your post. Make every word count – that’s just good writing, planning and editing.

The bottom line is, we aren’t writing essays for school anymore. If it only takes 400 words to get your point across, awesome! If it takes 4,000, still awesome! (You’ll just be writing for a little longer.)

While we’re at it… frequency!

How often should you post? Let’s tackle that now, since I’ll give you the same answer: “it depends.” The most important thing is you establish a posting calendar that involves regular, consistent updates that mesh with your blog goals.

For some extra credit, check out Randy Fishkin from Moz.com explaining why we should question blog length/frequency stats we see.