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Blog Posting:What Length should your Blog Post be?
By admin | August 10, 2008
This is a thorny issue. There isn’t an easy answer and opinion is divided.
The first thing to bear in mind is that most readers have a short attention span. Think how long you take when you are looking at a site. The average reader doesnt stay around for long and that is something to bear in mind when you are writing a post, it has to be easily scannable (if thats a word). Its best then to keep your content down to something that is readable in short bursts.
That doesnt mean to say that your content should be too short. I have seen a number of bloggers out there who write incredibly long detailed and very interesting posts but whether many people stay around to read them in full, is impossible to say. Certainly one or 2 say that they are very successful in their blogs despite being very lengthy.
The opinions whilst varied do seem to agree that for the purposes of SEO (search engine optimisation), the very short ie less than 250 words and the very long,ie more than 1000 words dont get ranked as highly but its not an exact science and no one really knows.
The type of post you are writing may contribute to its length. If you are writing a detailed “how to” that will probably longer than a post that delivers a bit of news and links to what someone else has written or produced.
The shorter the posts, the more you can do, thats obvious and given that perceived wisdom is that “content is king” the more you produce and the more times your blog is updated, the more times in theory at least, the search engines have a chance of finding you. That doesnt mean to say that you should write rubbish. I know the average reader doesnt stay long but try and entertain them while they are there, they may return!
The topic of the post will often determine its length. Try and avoid writing too long a post or too short a post just for the sake of it. If its a complex area, it will may take more words than something simpler, but avoid the temptation to “pad”. Write enough to cover the topic then stop.
Ultimately, its a personal choice and perhaps the best advice is to mix and match. Write a longer post on some days and a couple of shorter ones on others. Nothing is written in stone,even this post!
Topics: Newbies, blogs | No Comments »