Written on February 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 04:02 am by Darren Rowse
Post Length - How Long Should a Blog Post Be?
We might as well continue exploring the topic of writing good content with a topic that has been debated by bloggers rather hotly over the years, the length of the optimum post. There are a number of ways of looking at it:
- Reader Attention Span - It is pretty well documented that the typical web reader has a short attention span when it comes to reading content online. My own little investigation into length of stay on blogs found that average blog readers stay 96 seconds per blog (I’ve seen other more scientific tests that show similar results). What ever the number - it’s generally not long. As a result many web-masters purposely keep their content length down to a level that is readable in short grabs.
- SEO - There is a fairly strong opinion among those considered experts in Search Engine Optimization that both extremely short and extremely long web pages are not ranked as highly as pages that are of a reasonable length. Of course no one really knows how many words are ideal - but the general opinion seems to be that a page of at least 250 words are probably a reasonable length. Similarly, many advise keeping pages under 1000 words.
- Quantity of Posts - One theory that goes around is that shorter posts allow you to write more posts and that more posts are better for generating readership with RSS and in Search Engines. While I don’t know their strategy personally, some believe this is what sites like Engadget and Gizmodo do with their high number of short posts which make up the majority of their content.
- Topic/Genre - The type of post that you’re writing will often determine it’s length. For example when writing a review of a product you’ll generally write a longer post than when you write a news related post where you link to something someone else has written.
- Comprehensive Coverage of the Topic - Ultimately this has to be the main criteria that bloggers go with. I can’t remember who advised this but at some point in the last year I read someone saying that you should write enough to comprehensively cover your topic and then stop. Long posts for the sake of them are not a wise move - but so are short ones that don’t cover the topic well.
In the end you need to find your own way on this. Here at enternetusers I tend to mix it up a fair bit. I try to write at least one longer post per day that gives readers a bit of meat to chew on (whether it be a tips post, a review post, a rant etc) but I also throw in ‘newsy’ posts throughout the day.
25 Responses to “Post Length - How Long Should a Blog Post Be?”
CapeLinks
February 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.4:24 am
“Reader Attention Spam” — that’s a good one ;-)
Mark Daoust
February 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.5:27 am
Capelinks, you beat me to it!
Veridicus
February 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.6:48 am
“Reader Attention Spam”… freudian slip? ;)
jim
February 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.7:10 am
I think length also has to do with how you break it up. You don’t want long paragraphs without visual breaks like headings or lists, people just aren’t going to have the patience to figure out what you’re doing. This is especially true if you use san serif fonts since the reader has to do more “work” when they read.
Darren Rowse
February 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.8:40 am
doh - fixed.
Sampsa
February 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.8:49 am
Darren,
First of all I wan’t to thank you for your site. You’ve shared some great links and advise that have helped me a lot while starting my blogging addiction.
You mentioned that posts are typically shorter if one is writing about news. I disagree, news agencies already provide such a brief news articles that it would be almost criminal not to “open them up” for readers. With this I mean revealing the biases and covering the backgrounds of the story.
I’m slowly finding my blogging niche with this subject, along with briefly linking my readers to usefull sites and web applications or softwares. So, I agree on your way to mix the length of posts. I also think that if I’d only write about in depth, serious stuff, it would depress both me and my readers.
Thanks again,
Sampsa
Darren Rowse
February 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.8:59 am
Sampsa - I should qualify what I was saying - what I’ve found is that when I write a review of a topic I find that posts can end up being many thousands of words long (if it’s a comprehensive one), where as when I (and most other bloggers that I know) write newsy/link posts that they tend to be shorter, even with my own comments added.
I agree that there is a place fo bloggers to open stories up and go deeper than the agencies do - but in comparison to a comprehensive review they are usually shorter.]
I think your strategy of mixing it up is a good one and will definately keep your readers attention better.
A.H
February 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.9:05 am
Aha, I switched from long informative posts to short compyling ones, the formula works better and i’m even enjoying not having to go into all of the little technical stuff =)
A.H
Blogging for Beginners: enternetusers Blog Tips
February 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.9:11 am
[…] Post Length - How Long Should a Blog Post Be? […]
Nathan Gabrish
February 20th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.2:19 pm
The average visit length is an interesting statistic though I wonder if it could be further dissected. Is this average pretty steady across all users or does is it skewed by a large number of over-caffeinated click-mokeys?
Chrono Tron - 100% » Blog Archive » Blogging - Size of Posts?
February 20th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.4:09 pm
[…] This post here by Darren of enternetusers made me think. There are millions of people who read blogs and in that thousands who actually read blogs. So, does the size of the blog play a major role in it’s popularity? I believe yes. […]
Joshua K
February 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.6:09 am
In my experience, it seems like my more lengthy articles get much more search engine traffic on one blog.
Joshua K
February 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.6:11 am
One of my blogs receives much more traffic on the lengthy posts from search engines.
gathering in light - Blog Archive » How to Blog for Theology and Religion
April 15th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.7:47 am
[…] Say Something New When we write, we don’t need to continue to repeat and rehash old arguments. One thing I think that plagues the Religious community is a lack of creativity - let your blogs be a place where you try to take something old and make it new - or even better yet try to come up with some new perspective on an issue. I remember a professor telling us when I was at Malone, that when we write, write as though you are coming up with something new, something fresh, and write it with passion. Its not always the case that you will say something new, and if you use an idea that has been used before you’d better cite it, but its not hard to come up with a unique perspective on this or that topic. Make your writing interesting and creative, don’t be like the preacher that recycles his or her 52 sermons every year, saying the same thing over and over and over… Keep It Short Enough to Read and Use Clear Titles and Headlines I rarely read long articles, of which this post is one really long article. I don’t have time to read more than 1,500 words from one person in a day, one reason for this is because I try to read about 25-50 blogs on a given day. This is normal for many people these days, so help them out keep your posts at a readable length, and use clear titles and plenty of subtitles that will help the reader skim. See Related: Using Titles Effectively Scannable Content Clues of an Amateur Blogger Writing Headlines that get Results […]
Paul -V-
April 25th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.11:46 pm
Many people forget is that blogging is a style of writing with it’s own flow - in much the same way as haiku poetry.
IMHO, a blog post that is over 500 words is too long and needs to be scaled back. (There are exceptions to this, but that’s my rule-of-thumb.)
» The Ideal Blog Post LengthWebsites, Blogging, and Small Business - Har’s Site » Blog Archive
July 30th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.12:56 pm
[…] Here’s what some others say about post length. To sum-up, shoot for around 250 words and avoid going over 1000. Ultimately, you’ll have to find your own sweet spot and watch your site statistics. (This post is 177 words long.) […]
Thinking Home Business
July 30th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.2:45 pm
Blogs And The Public Intellectual…
Aaron Barlow in his post Let Me Put That In Context, on TPM Cafe, observes:
Perhaps one of the ……
binoculars
October 16th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.12:15 pm
Here’s what I do. Lets say I have 500 words article. Usually, I just take the 100 - 200 words of the article and post it into my blog. Then I ask the reader of my blog to click a link if they like to read the rest of the article.
By doing this, we can avoid the issue of duplicate content.
And it works like a charm.
Pronet Advertising
October 18th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.2:48 am
The first 7 days of blogging…
Thousands of blogs are being created every week and many of them are making critical mistakes within the first week of starting. If you are thinking about starting a blog here are some things that you should think about and do within the first 7 days o…
Elphin del Mundo » Archivo del weblog » Blog privado, ¿un oxímoron?
November 14th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.4:30 pm
[…] Numerosas líneas podrían redactarse acerca del asunto del presente “post”. Tantas, que su profusa extensión sobrepasaría los límites de un post arquetípico, por lo que daré por buena la atracción de lectores derivada del altilocuente título y me centraré en las cuestiones prácticas que nos atañen. […]
Blogging for Beginners - Posting and Commenting Tips at Jonesieblog
December 15th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.8:35 am
[…] Liz asked me how long a blog post should be. enternetusers has an answer of sorts here. […]
Idaho
March 2nd, 2007 10:51 am
This was a great site. I needed to find something for my Homework and This site helped me out so much! Thanx alot!!!!
Mr. Rehab
May 15th, 2007 2:53 am
A post’s length varies according to it’s purpose. If it is an informational post, regarding a detailed theme it’s only normal that it is a long one, as where it it merely a response to a question, such as this one, it shouldn’t be longer than 250 up to a maximum of 400 words. Of course, this is a personal opinion and it may be argued.
Big E
June 17th, 2007 5:51 am
I am definitely in the camp of less is more. I believe you should be able to explain any idea with three to five sentences (no run-ons, please). The real determining factor for length has more to do with subject matter than anything else. Of course you want to be brief and to the point, but if you introduce a side thought in your blog, it needs to be supported. As a rule I try to keep my posts under 1000 words but no shorter than 250. On occasion I will go longer than 1000, but it was necessary to give a clear description or definition.
Asako
July 30th, 2007 3:56 pm
Reading comments, I am probably an exception that I like a blog site with longer posts. What is the average length of posts on enternetusers? I really like this site, because each post has high quality, is very well thought out, and complete. As far as I find the title I am looking for, it is for sure that I will get everything I want to read on that topic within one post. Particularly, on this kind of topic, it is good to have a long high quality article.
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