The most common question I get when discussing blogging is “How long does it need to be?”. This is a great question, and there are a few varying answers out there to hitting the ideal post length.  Here are some guidelines and suggestions to help you get started.

For SEO purposes – that is, to rank highly in search engine results – the most important factor in publishing online is quality. You want to focus on writing coherently, about topics relevant to your page, product, or service, and from a position of authority. With a focus on this, the ideal post length should come fairly easily to you.

The absolute minimum for a blog post, or any page on a website for that matter, is 300 words. Having content of this quantity indicates to search engines that your site’s intention is to provide genuine, quality information to the public. 300 words is only two or three decent paragraphs, so you could essentially write this amount about any topic without much difficulty.

In 2017, the majority of copywriters, content strategists, and marketers will tell you 2500 words is the new ideal. These are called “long-form” blog posts, and it’s true, insomuch as the longer the post the better, but there are limitations to consider. Firstly, striving to write that amount in one post can be a daunting task. You may find you get writer’s block before you even start, because you can’t imagine what you’re going to write on one topic without it becoming a thoroughly researched essay. Secondly, language. It can prove difficult to keep your writing even, with an accessible and relaxed tone, as such a long piece requires detail and refined commentary on the chosen topic. Thirdly, quality. If you’re just writing for the sake of the word count, you may compromise the quality by repeating yourself excessively. This is absolutely a no-no and pointless, and (as far as Google is concerned) could even be considered “keyword stuffing”. Lastly, attention. We are now living in a highly digitised society, one that prioritises multi-tasking and instant gratification. Think about the last time you were perusing the internet and came across a genuinely interesting article that took 10 minutes to read and you read, without distraction, all the way through… if you’ve ever achieved this, kudos – the same cannot be said for the majority of technophiles out there. This adds another pressure to the hefty word target, and that’s keeping it interesting all the way through. If you’ve genuinely got something important and interesting to discuss, by all means write until your hearts content. My advice is to ensure your first paragraph is impactful, and your conclusion refined – this way even skim-readers will get the benefit of your work.

The good news is, there’s a sweet spot that hits both an ideal for post length, and keeping things interesting. Aim for 750 -1000 words. If you’re really an expert on a particular topic, writing 750 words from a position of authority should be easily achievable. If you start to flow over, but don’t want to expand into the aforementioned “long-form”, this is surprisingly a good thing. You can segment your topic into smaller pieces and start a series of posts on the one topic. This will actually support your reputation as an expert in the area. Take, for example, vitamins. Say you’re researching vitamins and you come across a couple of different websites purporting to be experts on health and nutrition. One page has a really great, long-form article on vitamins. The second page has several shorter, but more defined articles about different vitamins, intake requirements, symptoms of deficiencies, and so on. Who are you going to look to as having more expertise in the field?

There’s also another benefit to spreading your content across a few posts, writing in detail about your chosen topic in a series – ideas! Sometimes it can be difficult to think of new, fresh, an diverse topics every time you want to write, but if you have a lot to write about one topic than can keep your blog going for a while without much effort.

Staying relevant, posting regularly, and keeping a relaxed but authoritative tone are paramount to maintaining traffic, but to gain the rankings necessary to stimulate it, post length is key. Keep it simple with mostly 750 word posts and throw in the occasional long-form for good measure. At the end of the day, quality is what’s most important, but if you can combine that with quantity then you are guaranteed results.