How Long Should a Blog Post Be for SEO in 2022 (Guide)

To answer the question to how long should a blog post be, we must first ask how do blogs rank anyway.

You’ve probably heard the term “E-A-T” used by SEO experts in the past couple of years. E-A-T, or Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness are the three golden standards looked into by Google when it comes to ranking brands and their websites on search. If you want to move up the rankings, your brand should display expertise, a vision of authority, and be trustworthy.

Since Panda’s introduction in 2011, Google has paid strict attention to every website’s content in terms of relevance and value to users. And in 2018, the medic update shone a light back again on Google’s E-A-T and how it should be incorporated in your brand’s content strategy.

In short, Google and other search engines look for quality content that will answer a user’s questions and give them information they need.  Does that mean you have to write a 1500 word essay to answer a simple question? Let’s explore.

If blogging is one of your major traffic drivers, this article will guide you on blogging trends this 2021.

In this Guide:

Should You Write a Long Blog to get Higher Ranking?

Blogging is one of the oldest and most important parts of a business’ content strategy. Through blogging, you can drive relevant traffic to your website and it is the perfect way to keep your content fresh for SEO purposes. Google pays more attention to new content. Blogging is the get new content up on your site regularly.

Also, blogs give people a reason to return to your website over and over again. Mostly, blogs are written in a conversational and informative way with the intent of educating their readers.

Probably the most common question marketers ask is: Does the length of a blog post really matter? Yes and no. What really matters for Google is that your content should be able to present the answer for a search term perfectly. Simple topics don’t really need thousands of words to explain while complicated ones can’t be explained in a couple of hundred words.

There’s no fixed formula on writing the best blog post. A successful blog post is made of various elements including keywords, writing style, design, format, image, catchy subheadings and overall user experience.
The Ideal Length of a Blog Post

Countless studies were made over the last 10 years to crack the code to the perfect blog post. However, it can be safely concluded that Google’s algorithm prefers longer content versus shorter content posts.

Content with over 1,000 words do better on average in terms of ranking in search for highly relevant keywords. A good benchmark is to write content that’s around 1,000 to 1,500 words. At a minimum, blog posts should have at least 300+ words so that they won’t be labelled as having ‘thin content’.

Why Create Long Blog Posts?

Although the length of the content does not directly influence your website ranking, blogging can have numerous benefits to help boost your visibility, engagement with the audience, and brand awareness. Readers will be happy to read the content they find valuable.

Aiming for long-tail keywords can mean creating lengthy content and providing more coverage to the topic at hand; thus, increasing the reach.

Adding more helpful/reference links can also increase the value of the article. Mention a couple of statistics or studies that support your claim. This makes the article look more credible.

Anatomy of the Perfect Blog Post

While we’ve said that there’s no one standard to follow in creating a blog post, these are the factors to consider whenever you’re writing one. Especially, if you’re planning to create a 1500 to 2500 word article.

Know your Target Audience

If you know who your audience is, it would be easier to determine what type of content they respond to. Do they respond well to longer posts, or do they like it short and direct to the point content? Consider your audience’ age, gender, and expectations.

What’s Your Article’s Purpose

Before you start writing, ask yourself: what do you want your audience to get out of this article? Most blogs are written with the intent to educate, inform, and entertain the audience. This helps in increasing and improving engagement between your brand and your customers.

By knowing what you want to achieve with your article, you will know exactly how to write it.

Choose the Right Topic

Do your homework and find topics that are engaging and entertaining for your readers. Tools like Google Keyword Planner can help you find out what are the keywords frequently searched by your target audience and a quick search on Google using these keywords will give you an idea of what kind of content is being written about it.

If you have more time, go the extra mile and also do a quick search on social media. See what type of content has the most shares.

Captivating and Relevant Title

Get a little creative in writing your titles. Avoid using saturated titles like how-tos and tips. Writing a captivating title is important to get your audience interested in clicking your link in search results.

Also, your article’s title should be a description of what your content is. Make sure that when a user finds your link on Google search and clicks on it, it should deliver exactly what it says.

Go with the Flow! Stop Counting the Words.

There’s more to blogs than words and texts. Don’t force yourself to write a thousand words if you feel like you’ve already stated your point. And, at the same time, don’t feel restricted by a certain word count if you think there’s more to discuss.

Focus on factors that would help enhance your audience’s experience interacting with your brand. You want to make all the right impression as they visit your blog whether they’re just a passer-by or doing research which will eventually lead to sales. It’s a win-win process either way.

Key Takeaways

So how long should a blog post be? While there is no one formula to follow in creating a blog post, marketers should look into the value their article offers to their target audience. By creating longer and more substantial posts, you can provide readers with the information they need and offer more value to your target audience during the most impressionable stage of the buying process – research stage.

Always remember: words are empty. What’s important is how you deliver the user experience.