I attended a webinar in which the presenter suggested aiming at 300 to 500 words per post. I do follow a few bloggers who post more and I do read the entire post, but I only follow a small number of bloggers. How long are you making your posts, Dea?

@deairby I think the minimum for SEO used to be 300 words per post, but with Google’s new focus on quality content (thanks to the big Panda update), that number may be higher.  I notice that most sites I write for require a minimum of 600 words now, but the most popular sites I write for are 900+.

@joancrocker @kristi-hines @charlottewood This is really helpful. If you do short sections but a lot of them you can attain both quick to read and high SEO,. right?Would it look somewhat like a newsletter/email with photos and table of content?

@kristi-hines with longer posts, do you post less often?

In general, I let the subject of my posts dictate their length. Since mine are about giving people nutshell information about the subject, some are 300+ and some longer. Try to keep them shorter though. “Write tight” as the pros say. Great discussion, guys.

Thanks @deairby. Not my original phrase of course, but I have it posted on the back of my eyeballs. Works. Best,

@dyanebradley thanks for the input, Dyane

@dcoville001 great stuff, Diane. How often do you post if yours are that long?

@deairby You’re welcome.:-)

@butchbryant This post from 2010 explains it well.

http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2010/05/05/word-count-for-seo

There’s also a whole discussion about it on this Google+ post.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/118320665823821681206/posts/MMqEYSWCjAT

And some SEO analysts weigh in on the topic on this post.

http://www.seomoz.org/q/onsite-content-word-count-kw-density (first & second response)

When hearing a presentation on blog content in regards to SEO, the presenter, I believe it was Rich Brooks, mentions to break up long articles into “Series” of posts.  However, full length articles are great too on occasion. But if you plan on blogging frequently, and depending on what you are blogging about, you want to stay away from a post being too long that your readers will loose interest.

If it is to be long, by nature of the subject you are blogging about…then I would suggest using images/pictures throughout, as well as bulleted lists/number lists, headings and such to break it up.

Hope that helps Heather

@blogsbyheather Heather, thanks for your input. Great stuff on here, everyone. Lots and lots to think over. (Brain freeze.)

@moinshaikh Thanks, Moin.

@deairby I often wonder about this myself when I’m writing my blog posts. I don’t want to be so long winded that after that first few paragraphs the reader closes out the window. However, I don’t want the post to be so short that it leaves my reader wondering where the rest for the post went.

@mattnowak1 that’s a great point Matt and one that I am definitely going to take into consideration, especially with regards to the blog for my business.

Great discussion.  And some really great advice here.

I often wonder myself what the right length is.  I think it will differ from blog to blog, topic to topic and reader to reader.

I have always felt my blog posts should be no longer or shorter than they need to be.   Every word should have a good reason for being there. 

So I don’t really follow a word count rule.  I let the topic dictate it.  I believe that if someone is interested enough in the content, and the writing is strong, people will read any length.

I also, right or wrong, try to write for myself.  I figure if I enjoy what I am writing, a couple folks might enjoy reading it.  My blog is pretty new so I have no metrics yet.  I do have blog comment spammers though!

I also always use a second readership path to break it up.  Every post has sub headlines through out that hopefully make the reader want to read that section and also get the idea if they only scan.

You can also always test and measure.  Maybe the only time you get comments is on posts that are shorter than 600 words.  Maybe more people like and share posts of a certain length.

I don’t use them, but I know you can have pretty sophisticated tools like heat maps installed for metrics.  They will actually show in video form what the user does on the page.  Pretty creepy.

Hi all!  My blog model is Seth Godin.  The wisdom that he can impart in 150 words is astonishing.  One word sentences, one sentence paragraphs and  lotsa white space.  Other folks have mentioned that if the blog is long they don’t read it…me too.

Great comments, everyone.  New to the club and I’m picking up several valuable tidbits on the first read of these posts.  Thanks!

@mutunga Dewane great input, wow, a survey, good going

@deairby As others have already stated here, I think length will vary depending on the venue where the post is. And also as stated, formatting really helps, too. Bold headers, short readable paragraphs.

But bottomline is to be engaging and offer enough information that makes the readers time worth the effort. There’s so much information vying for our attention that to get a few uninterrupted moments of a person’s time–you really need to deliver!

@kristi-hines
Kristi, hat Google+ thread was fascinating, especially because of the diverse mix of deep-thinking-long-word-count writers talking about “the perfect length blog article” along with the short-stop-bloggers and seo writers.  I think the wife of the Google employee in the discussion got it right. Google’s looking for excellent content standards and would love a way to oust seo-thinking experts who try to game their system and bludgeon the Queen’s English in the process. That said, I’m glad I choose to weave a good narrative or some other flow-through device into all my seo articles. Keeps Google happy, keeps readers happy and wanting to read more, hopefully to the end. And keeps clients happy, knowing that my articles keep readers engaged and on their pages longer. Thanks for the good link find, Kristi. I’m always big ears for Google survival tips.

Hi everyone,

I only joined yesterday & this is my first chance to have my say!

Having read through the posts a couple of questions have come to mind:

1) if you`re blogging about a subject you don`t know anything about, does that influence the length of the post?

2) Who thinks that in 2012 we will see more use of video, rather than text, blog posts?

@nickmessenger Thanks for the heads up.  I fixed the link.  Here it is again too.

It depends on the article. Sometimes sponsors will have specific requests for the amount of words and sometimes a meme will require only one question. 

And for personal posts, sometimes things are best said as they come to you in passion. 

great article, Phillipa, thanks for sharing. @phillipakiripatea

I like where this discussion has been.  I generally recommend posts in the ballpark of 300-1000 words; when longer, split to series.  That said…
I agree with the line of thinking that the subject matter and intended reader tends to dictate the length of the post (lawyers will read longer posts).  I.e. there is no magic number or formula.
Tip: Write for humans, not Google (but understand how SEO works).
A note on subheaders: used well, they are fantastic because they allow a reader to scan the page for the part they want most (if they are that type of reader), however, when using them, specifically in wordpress, make sure you use the preformatted dropdown for Header 2 or Header 3, and put your keywords in your subheaders.  This is important for SEO, and it makes sense because chances are, those were the search terms used if people got there via an engine, so the reader may be looking for them anyway.  Also, use H1 only once per article.

@deairby what is your next post going to be about, and who will you be writing for?

The answer of your question is one word “Depends”

It depends on your thought how you can mold it, how long you can make it. if your thoughts are not big enough then don’t think that they are useless…

Just take a look saying and quotes they are short but each and every quote carries a very long message that i think no writers can write in 300 words.

And i think there is no such rule that your content is not long enough so google will put u behind bars, readers will not like it and others.

so dont waste your time behind thinking that my post is not long enough to make a huge impact. all you should think about what and how your post is delivering your message. 

Sometime it can be longer then 1000 words and sometime it can be shorted then 300 words. so nothing to worry about post length. worry about your post story and quality.

remember some time a small rock can make bigger damage. so it all just about how powerfully you throw it out…

same goes for small content. length not counts but your each written words gets counted for sure.

And usually readers are also not big fans of reading whole book in your single blog post. one page in one post is good enough.