Are Your Blog Posts Long Enough? The Truth About Content-Length

As content marketers in an SEO company in Miami, we used to wonder what the ideal word count is to make sure that the blog posts we produce for our clients rank well in the search engine results pages (SERPs).  

You’re probably wondering the same thing when blogging for your small business: "Should I be writing long-form content, or is it better to keep my articles short?"

According to Backlinko, the average word count for the search results found on the first page of Google is 1,890 words. But this doesn’t mean that Google ranks long articles higher than short ones.

In fact, word count is not even a ranking factor.

No one wants to read poorly written, lengthy articles. So, your goal is to write well-researched, optimized, and engaging posts for your target audience.  

If Length Doesn’t Determine Rankings, What Does?

According to Hubspot data, they found that 16 out of their top 50 read posts were under 1,500 words. This shows that you don’t need to write super long blog posts all the time; there's an equal opportunity to get your articles ranking even with a lower word count.  

The key here is to follow SEO best practices, including:

• Writing for a featured snippet.
• Proper backlinking.
• Adding alt-text to your images and other visuals.
• Doing keyword research.  
• Adding engaging elements or media-rich content in your posts, like videos, quizzes, animations, etc.  

• Increasing domain and topic authority.

For a more in-depth discussion of everything that goes into writing an awesome blog post that ranks well in the search results, check out this blog.  

Why Do People Think that Long Articles Are Better for SEO?

1. Longer content tends to get more backlinks.

Many studies show a correlation between content length and backlinks. However, correlation doesn’t prove causation. One of the main reasons why people link more to longer posts is because they tend to include more ‘link-worthy’ points.  

But, Ahrefs found that “the average number of backlinks from unique websites starts to decrease after 1,000 words.” This means that the longer your article is the fewer people will read it all the way through.  

People nowadays don’t even read content online. Typically, they skim through to find the information they need.  

So, how can you optimize your content for more backlinks even with a lower word count?

As the top Miami SEO company, we suggest that you keep your blog posts concise and straight to the point while making sure to include all the important ‘link-worthy’ points.  

2. Longer content generates more organic traffic

Google’s John Mueller tweeted in 2020 that word count isn’t a ranking factor.  

What search engines are after is thoroughness. Google can better understand what your content is about if you discuss it more thoroughly. And, naturally, longer content tends to cover more subtopics than shorter articles. Because of this, longer content often ranks higher for long-tail keywords.  

How can you make your blog posts more thorough?

Instead of trying to cover every subtopic a subject has on a single blog, you should first determine your target audience’s search intent. This way, you can optimize your blog’s thoroughness by including what’s important to them, while leaving out what isn’t.  

You can also run a content analysis gap to find out which of your ideal customer’s needs aren’t being met by your competitors’ content.

Ideal Length for Different Blog Post Types

Pillar Pages

Pillar pages are supposed to cover significantly more content than a regular blog post, which is why they typically need to be around 4000 words.  

A pillar page aims to cover a certain subject in depth and links to clusters of related content.  

When writing a pillar page, you want to cite multiple sources and link out to all your related posts on the topic. This helps drive more traffic to your pillar post, while also supporting the cluster content.  

Listicles

Listicles are a crowd favorite! Why? Because they’re so easy to read! They’re direct to the point and concise – exactly what works well with users online.  

Listicles should be around 2,300-2,600 words. We believe that’s enough word count to build a complete and high-quality list for your readers.  

When writing listicles, keep in mind that the more examples, the better. You also want to include images, links to sources, and explanations.  

“How-to” Blog Posts

Since “how-to” blog posts involve explaining the process of doing something, a good word count for it would be between 1,700 to 2,100 words, depending on how difficult the topic is.  

When writing a “how-to” blog post, remember that readers are coming to you for instructions, not inspiration. Make sure that your article is concise, clear, and tells your audience exactly how to perform an action or process.

“What is” Blog Posts

Typically, when users search for what, who, or when, they’re looking for a short answer or a quick explanation. So a good “what is” post should be around 1,300 to 1,700 words. In fact, 30% of Hubspot’s most-read “what is” posts contain less than a thousand words.  

Minimum Blog Post Length

Yoast recommends that the minimum blog post length should be at least 300 words.

Ideal Length for Various Industries

• Financial Technology – 2,000 to 2,150 words. FinTech topics are complex so they require in-depth explanation. Writing a 2,000-word article should be enough for explaining an issue thoroughly.  
• Finance – 2,100 to 2,500 words. If you're in the finance industry, you must try to get your point across without boring your readers. Adding data-driven images helps improve your readers’ experience.  
• Sales – 2,500 to 2,700 words. Sales is a competitive industry. Usually, the blogs that rank well have a high word count. Expect to be competing against a lot of white papers, scholarly articles, and in-depth PDFs that tackle subjects at length.  
• Retail – 1,500 to 1,700 words. When it comes to writing blogs covering topics about retail, you can sufficiently discuss many topics within this range.

• Real Estate – 1,800 to 1,900 words. The real estate industry is also super competitive. If you want to stand out and pull in traffic to your site, the key here is to localize your content and specialize in a few key areas.  
• Home and Garden – 1,100 to 1,200 words. The ideal word count for this industry tends to be lower because video and visuals work better for getting your message across.  
• Tech – 800 to 1,000 words. Top tech blogs are super easy to digest. No need for flowery words. Just straight to the point discussion of information.
• Marketing and Advertising – 2,500 to 3,000 words. In-depth, long-form content is the best approach for writing marketing and advertising blog posts.  
• Healthcare – 2,000 to 2,150 words. When it comes to blogging about health-related topics, you need to realize that you’re up against countless scholarly articles, original research from top universities, and major publications like The New York Times. This means it’s best to opt for long-form content to create top-level health care articles packed with valuable data.  

• Fashion – 800 to 950 words. When it comes to writing fashion articles, you don’t need to write long articles to entertain your readers. Keep it short and filled with visuals.  
• Recruiting – 900 to 1000 words. You want to provide your readers succinct information about the recruiting process and everything there is to know about it.  
• Food – 1,400 to 1,900 words. A lot of people are writing about the food industry, which means that competition is tough. If you're writing in the food industry, aim to produce blog posts with 1400+ word counts. Beautiful imagery is also crucial for this content.
• Travel – 1,500 to 1,850 words. In this industry, long-form, the in-depth content is the way to go.  
• Film – 1,500 to 1,700 words. When it comes to writing articles about the film industry and movies, remember that you’re up against The L.A. Times, The Guardian, and more. To make sure that your pieces stand out, our Miami SEO company suggests that you discuss topics thoroughly and bring something new to the table by giving a fresh perspective about the film.  

Are Your Blog Posts Long Enough?

When it comes to writing content for your business, your primary concern shouldn't be word count. Instead, you should be thinking about how you can deliver high-quality content that addresses the needs and wants of your target audience. Only then will word count matter.  

At Digital Resource, our team of content marketing specialists and SEO experts will work together to create a custom content strategy that will not only put you at the top of the search results but also generate more leads and sales for your business.  

Contact us today to start optimizing your content!

‍