Bloggers often ask “how long should a blog post be?”
I’m sure you’ve heard at least one of these figures before:
- People now have attention spans of less than 8 seconds (which is apparently worse than a goldfish)
- People read on average 25% of your articles.
- People stay on the page within 10-20 seconds unless you offer a clear value proposition within the first 10 seconds.
It’s natural to assume that a shorter blog post is better than long-form content since people want bite-sized information nowadays.
But in reality, long-form content ranks higher on search engines, maintains reader’s attention, and gets more shares on social media.
These conflicting facts will make you wonder, what exactly is the ideal length for a blog post?
I’ll answer that burning question once and for all, using data, proof, and examples of what performs better (and better yet, why).
If you suffer from the goldfish-attention span, just jump straight to the section you want to read:
- How Long Do My Articles Need to be To Get Traffic?
- The Ideal Article Word Count for Search Engine Optimization
- Word Count for Social Shares
- How to Create A Long-Form Content
- But What About the 8-Second Attention Span?
- Why Should I Write Long Content?
- Should I Give Away My Best Content For Free?
- There Are No New Ideas
- The Ideal Blog Post Length to Add Massive Value
- The Ideal Blog Post Length Depends on Your Niche & Specific Blog
- How To Find Out The Perfect Length for YOUR Audience
- 3 Steps to Find Out Your Audience’s Word-Count Sweet Spot
- There’s No One-Size Fits All Answer to Blog Post Length
Ready? Read on to learn about the ideal blog post length and how to make it work for you.
How Long Do My Articles Need to be To Get Traffic?
Way back in 2017, I presented two sessions at SumoCon about content marketing. In my presentation, I went over the commandments of content that converts.
These principles are still relevant today. One of those commandments is that content needs to be comprehensive. The “best content on the internet”, in fact.
And everyone wanted to know how long their articles need to be. “Ballpark”. “Average”. This guide will give you that.
But here’s the rub: You can’t just read a few words, get a “ballpark” number and aim for it. You have to know two things:
- The goal of your content
We create content for different reasons: to educate your target audience, build brand awareness, rank for a specific search term, retain customers, get more search engine traffic, more shares on social media, add people to your email list, or increase sales.
Think about the purpose of your content before you start worrying about the blog post length.
2. Your audience
Who are you writing for and why are you writing for these people?
The answers to these two questions will help you decide how long each piece of content needs to be to stand out.
The Ideal Article Word Count for Search Engine Optimization
Backlinko analyzed 11.8 million search engine results and found that on average, the results on the first page are around 1,447 words.
A short blog post doesn't rank as well and is outperformed by long-form content.
In light of the stats I mentioned above, how is it that long form articles perform better than shorter articles? There are three theories behind this:
- Long form content keeps people on the page for longer. Most SEO authorities acknowledge that “dwell time” matters to Google (and other search engines).
- Long form content is more valuable content. Google wants to show the result their users want.
- Long form content gets far more social shares (which I’ll show you in the next section). This is unconfirmed by Google, but there’s a strong correlation between social shares and ranking.
Not into creating long form content? You probably will be after reading the rest of this guide. Creating 2,000-word blog posts takes time, but it’s the best length if you want to build content that ranks.
TL;DR: Aim for ~2,000 words of value to rank better on Google. A higher word count appears to have a higher chance of ranking better on Google.
Word Count for Social Shares
According to Backlinko’s study in 2019, about content length for social shares, they've found out that 1,000 to 2,000 words is the ideal word mark for social media like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Pinterest.
That’s less than the standard in 2017. For the 100 million articles analyzed by BuzzSumo, they found that articles with more than 2,000 words were shared on social media more than articles with fewer than 2,000 words.
This makes sense considering people share articles they view as valuable. My most shared articles on Unsettle have on average a 2,000 word count.
On Sumo, we were looking at over 4,000 words.
TL;DR: The optimal words for articles to be shared on social media in 2021 are around 1,000 to 2,000 words.
How to Create A Long-Form Content
Okay, so we know long form blog posts perform better on social media, search engines, and to sell your product. Check.
“So what’s the magic word count?”.
I know what you’re thinking. And I can’t answer that right now. But what I will tell you is going to help you get your content backlinks, social shares, traffic, emails, and even sales. Ready?
Your blog and articles need to be long enough to prove your authority on the internet. Nobody wants to link, share, or buy from the second best or third best resource on your topic.
So an article needs to have useful information to become a linkable asset.
But What About the 8-Second Attention Span?
Apparently, humans (read: your readers) have attention spans worse than a goldfish. But think about it for a second.
We have 8 second attention spans for things that aren’t interesting to us. Anybody who has watched a long movie (IT, anyone?) or even a 45 minute episode of Game of Thrones on Netflix knows that their attention spans can actually be quite long if they’re interested.
But nobody (and I mean nobody) wants to read a textbook style block of text like this.
That’s enough to shorten your attention span to a split second and make you bounce.
People don’t read your content, they scan it. To build engaging long-form content, you need to make it navigable and visually appealing. That means:
- No fat paragraphs.
- Narrow content width (between 480 and 600 pixels) for maximum readability
- Use images, gifs, charts, graphs, and quotes to break up the text. Articles with images receive double social media shares than those with fewer images.
- Include a table of contents to help the reader navigate the article:
Key takeaway: Help the reader scan your articles. If you want your content to stand out, add images on long content to break the bulk paragraphs. This way, readers won’t get bored and they can easily see what they need to read.
Why Should I Write Long Content?
Apparently, humans (read: your readers) have attention spans worse than a goldfish. But think about it for a second. We have 8 second attention spans for things that aren’t interesting to us. Anybody who has watched a movie (IT, anyone?) or even a 45 minute episode of Game of Thrones on Netflix knows that their attention spans can actually be quite long if they’re interested. But nobody (and I mean nobody) wants to read a textbook style block of text like this.
That’s enough to shorten your attention span to a split second and make you bounce. What you need to know about your reader’s attention spans is this: People don’t read your content, they scan it. So if you’re engaging in long form content, you need to make it navigable. That means:
- No fat paragraphs.
- Narrow content width (between 480 and 600 pixels), according to Derek Halpern.
- Use images, gifs, charts, graphs, and quotes to break up the text. Eye-tracking studies show that people spend longer looking at images in content than reading the content itself.
- Include a table of contents to help the reader navigate the article:
Key takeaway: Help the reader scan your articles. If you want your content to stand out, add images on long content to break the bulk paragraphs. This way, readers won’t get bored and they can easily see what they need to read.
Why Should I Write Long Content?
Good question. First, get rid of the misconception that people won’t read it. Remember, if you make it readable and engaging, they will read it.
Next, here’s the big reason why: Longer content has a higher perceived value.
Long-form content provides useful information to the reader. If you target writing this type of blog, make sure that it is worth your audience's time.
With valuable long-form content, you can:
- Increase the time spent by the reader on site
- Your content website will have a higher perceived value.
If they see your articles as a high perceived value, they’re more likely to follow through on your calls to action (sign up for your email list, leave a comment, share your article).
Back in 2016, 59% of people shared articles on social media without reading the post first. True story.
Even if visitors don’t finish reading the blog or article, they get a sense of the perceived value based on:
- The headline
- The length/depth
- A quick scan of the content that proves that it’s worth sharing.
Then, they’ll share it if it meets their self identity (if I share this blog post, then I look knowledgeable in front of my friends).
Of course, it’s best to write something with value, especially now that Twitter asks people to read the article before sharing.
So longer articles lead to more social shares, and more social shares lead to more traffic. And what can you do with that traffic? You can grow your email list.
You just need to get your email sign-up rate above the average reading rate of your website’s visitors.
Want proof? Even though this 13,100 word guide that I wrote only has a read rate of about 38%:
It drove over 10,000 new email subscribers:
Because I placed the calls to action above the average read rate. And that’s how you can use long-form content to your advantage.
Should I Give Away My Best Content For Free?
If you didn’t care about monetizing your blog, you wouldn’t be reading this article.
You’re blogging for a reason. Perhaps you already offer a product, or you want to create a product, and maybe that product will be an ebook, online program or course.
You’re probably wondering: How do you know what to give away for free? And how do you create content that’s both long-form and valuable but doesn’t give away all your best stuff?
There Are No New Ideas
Most online courses and digital products are made up of content that can be found for free on the creator’s blogs, podcasts, or YouTube channel. It’s just organized in an actionable way.
You know you’re doing something right if somebody tells you that your article is so good it shouldn’t be free.
Have you ever read the $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau? It was free content before on his blog, and now, you can purchase it as a book because it has valuable content.
Give people a reason to pay you. Information is free almost anywhere so you need to prove that what you can give others is valuable before they give something back to you. And you can start that through content.
Make people think: “Her free stuff is so good that I can’t imagine how good her paid stuff is!”
The Ideal Blog Post Length to Add Massive Value
Writing long articles doesn’t mean cramming all the words into your post.
Don’t be like her. Make each section pull its weight.
In 2015, I wrote an article called “How to Write Shit People Actually Want to Read”. It was about 1300 words. I realized it’s not the best resource on how to write good blog articlesso I refreshed it. I added actionable strategies, examples, and data.
Now it’s over 6,000 words, has collected hundreds of email subscribers, and I’ve received email after email from readers who love it.
On the flip side, when we refreshed the WordPress plugins article I wrote in 2016 for Sumo, I shaved off over 3,000 words. Yup, you read that right. That made it roughly 100x better.
So it’s not as simple as adding words or taking words away. It’s about making the piece stronger.
Ask yourself these questions when you’re producing content:
- How can I make this article 10x better or stronger?
- What do I need to include to make it the best of the best?
If the content is long and packed with value, how can you make it shorter while still maintaining the same amount of value?
There’s no magic number.
Take a look at the top 10 sales-driving articles on Sumo in 2016. The word counts range from 13,100 words to just under 2,300.
The Ideal Blog Post Length Depends on Your Niche & Specific Blog
I found in my study of the top most popular posts of Sumo’s top customers (we’re talking huge media publications) that the articles could be shorter:
They have social proof on their sides, and people already visited the sites to browse. But you’re probably not the Huffington Post or Entrepreneur.com.
So you can use BuzzSumo or EpicBeat to find out what the average word count is for the most shared articles with your keyword/topic.
First, log into your account (you need a Pro account for this). Then, type in a popular blog in your niche:
Export results to a CSV:
In the Num_Words column, create a formula to calculate the average: Voila! You know the average word count of that blog. (Nomadic Matt’s is 1918 words).
How To Find Out The Perfect Length for YOUR Audience
People in my content marketing sessions asked:
- “What worked for Sumo?”
- “How do you promote your content?”
- “How long is your content on Sumo?”
I saw them frantically taking notes when I mentioned that Sumo’s most popular content was 6,000 words to 13,000 words.
But just because a 13,000 word article worked for Sumo to generate massive sales, that doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. Unless you’re creating Sumo or Unsettle v.2 (please don’t), your blog is your blog.
Proof? Here you go… This is the data for Unsettle:
This is the data for one of my content marketing consulting clients (in the health niche that gets over 450,000 visits/month):
Vs the data for another popular site in the health niche that sees hundreds of thousands of visitors/month:
This is the data for another client (in the parenting niche that gets over 300,000 visitors/month):
And the data for Sumo.
The variation even between popular sites in the same industry (health, for example) is shocking. Here’s why:
- Reader’s expectations for each site are different.
Both Sumo and Hubspot create marketing content. Yet Hubspot’s sweet spot is 1000-2000 words, whereas Sumo’s is 10,000+. What do your readers expect from you?
- Different audiences have different circumstances.
Under what circumstances is your target audience reading your articles?
Mother.ly is so popular probably because people are reading articles on their phones while they’re waiting for their kid to finish karate or nursing their newborns. They prefer shorter, more emotional content.
Physiqonomics has a science-based, research driven audience who need the most comprehensive information on the topic.
“Oh, my target audience is busy. They’re [CEOs/parents/working long hours]. They don’t have time to read long articles, so I’ll just create 800 word posts”.
Stop being lazy. Here’s how to actually find your content length target:
3 Steps to Find Out Your Audience’s Word-Count Sweet Spot
Take a look at your most popular articles on Google Analytics. You can find them under Behaviour > Site Content > All Pages. Filter for the last 2-4 months:
This will usually show you what your highest traffic pages are from SEO been during the timeframe you specified. But you also need to know what’s performed best when it comes to social shares. Pull your most popular content in BuzzSumo over the past year:
Take a look at how long and in depth the most popular content is, and now you’ve found what has worked for your audience.
Shortcut: If you have a BuzzSumo pro account, click on Content Analysis, and scroll down to find average shares by content length: You should still do the manual labor with search engine data via Google Analytics, but this reduces the time spent significantly with BuzzSumo.
If you haven’t published more than 20-30 articles, this won’t give you a good view of what works. Instead, analyze the popular blogs in your industry.
There’s No One-Size Fits All Answer to Blog Post Length
There you have it. There’s no magic number when it comes to writing a blog post or what length it should be.
The good news: One-size fits all rarely fits well, so you can write in varying ways. You don’t have to force a word count on your blog posts if that’s not what works for your niche, goal, or audience.
You don’t want an ill-fitting word-count solution any more than you want an ill-fitting suit.
I’ve just given you exactly what you need to know to figure out how long your articles need to be. Now you just have to get writing.