One of the important questions about blogging is regarding post length; what is the right length for a blog post? How many words should there for the blog to reap the maximum SEO benefits? The limit on the low end seems to be in the 250-300 word range, but how high should a blogger go?
Quality or Quantity?
Google's algorithms have recently been revamped to place an emphasis on quality. This means that quality content is more likely to be ranked highly when compared to content that is not as informative; however, Google also likes quantity. SerpIQ is an SEO research firm that has examined the results pages for more than 20,000 pages and found that the highest ranked pages where ones with more than 2,000 words.
The longer the page, the more inbound links it gets and this is one of the reasons that Google tends to award such pages with more authority. Another reason is that longer pages are more likely to be shared on social media. Tests by Neil Patel of Quicksprout have shown that blog posts over 1,500 words get a considerably greater number of tweets and likes when compared to those under 1,500.
Email and Social Media
The rule of thumb for email subject lines is to keep it short enough that you can get the message across without the recipient having to make too much effort to read it. That said, the response to subject line length does appear to differ depending on sector. For example, a study by Email Audience shows that longer email subject lines work better in B2B marketing emails than in B2C emails.
With social media, shorter is better and there is a significant loss of engagement beyond the 140 character limit. The social media user is constantly bombarded with information and therefore shorter messages appear to be more effective for getting their attention.
Beginners who want to learn how to blog should remember that content is meant to be readable by humans. If a blog post or email subject line is poorly written and difficult to read, it does not matter how long or short it is. While length may have some benefits, content should be created to suit the audience and a blog post should be no longer than it needs to be. Longer content may be better suited to an audience that prefers detail, whereas shorter posts may be better for those who want the facts and nothing else.
