Time, there never seems to be enough of it. That phrase rings especially true in the lightspeed paced world of digital marketing.
Because we never seem to have enough time, it’s always a priority to automate and streamline everything. When it comes to blogging and creating quality content, it’s hard to speed up the active of researching and writing.
That’s why the question, “How long does my blog post need to be?” get asked so much.
It’s true. I’ve talked to hundreds of people starting blogs, or marketers that are just starting out and it’s always the same. How long does a blog need to be?
The simple answer is...as long as it needs to be to convey your point in an effective manner.
But things aren’t always simple. In the world of SEO and trying to get your blog post to rank for your target keywords, simple is not part of the equation.
Five years ago a blog post that was between 400-700 words considered to be a good length. Experts said this was the sweet spot because people could quickly read and share it.
Things have changed for 2017. Today search engines like Google have giving long-form content more ranking juice than shorter posts. Now studies have shown that blog posts that are between 2,250 and 2,500 words are the ones that populate the top spots in the Google rankings.
I told you things change fast in digital marketing!
The key point to remember here is that people want to uncover more answers and insight in content when they write 2,250-2,500 words. This long-form style of blog allows the writer to make multifaceted points with examples that extend beyond the simple 600–700 words of five years ago and the 1,500 hundred word count for blog posts of 2015-2016.
So now writing a blog which was already one of the most time-consuming marketing tasks needs to be even more time-intensive?
Maybe.
Google gets smarter every day. It sees that people who invest the time to create in-depth thought provoking content are clearly passionate and have put in the research or have the authority on that particular topic.
If you don’t have time to write a long-form blog post like this, maybe your competitor does. That just scared you a little, didn’t it?
It’s true though. Location matters on the web just as it does in real estate. If your competitors are creating long-form content that is highly educational and valuable and getting ranked in the top-5 on Google, that’s just like a brick and mortar on main street.
Who’s business is going to win?
So how long does a blog post need to be? The simple answer is still as long as it needs to be to convey your point correctly. But if you want a main street type of business, aim for a 2,500-word post that fully explains the topic, address point points, is researched and cited, and brings real value to the reader.
If the time to do this just isn’t in the cards, then I know some people that can help. Our team at Impulse Creative has been producing high-quality content that drives leads and ranks for clients since 2010. Give us a call and let’s talk about putting your business on digital main street. If you are writing blog posts that don’t bring the same value, you might be showing up on rankings page 3 and lower. That’s equivalent to having your store on a country road.