Does Blog Length Matter For SEO In 2022?

Many factors other than blog length affect search engine ranking. This includes backlinks, target keywords, keywords in subheadings, interesting content, and post layout. Google prefers length but a human being favors short posts. To achieve a balanced  solution for readers and Google, writers can put large paragraphs at the start, use bullet points, scannable headlines, and break text with subheadings. Thus the post will seem short to readers and offer Google the length.  

This post comes from guest contributor, ACG Digital Marketing.

Does blog length matter for SEO?

According to a study in 2022, the perfect length for a blog post is between 1760 to 2400 words. If your post maintains this average then your articles will rank high on Google and gain more backlinks and social media shares. On the minimum side, articles must have more than 300 words. Keeping your posts above 300 words keeps them from being regarded as thin content.  

Correlation between blog post words and content type

These are great numbers to start but it depends on topic requirement and depth.  

1. Less than 300 – Mostly used to generate discussion to get comments. Not viable for social media shares or SEO.
2. 300 to 600 words – An average blog length but the window is very short to display authority for top ranking.
3. 600 to 800 words – Common range in a newspaper article and professional journalism. Even used in encyclopedia and product descriptions. You can get some backlinks and shares with this word count range.
4. 1300 to 1700 words – It is an area that will bring in more backlinks and social media shares because you can offer more informational content. Influencers use this range to write promotional blogs.
5. 1700 to 2100 words – Search engines define this range as golden blog length. The articles provide thorough and educational information, which increases the chance of top ranking. You gain valuable website traffic that converts.  
6. 4000+ words – Writers use more than 4000 words to write guides. It is an all-encompassing post that covers the topic in extreme detail for authority building.  

How to determine an ideal blog length for better SEO?

Before you start writing a blog post, you need to consider the following questions.

What is your blog topic? What is its expected completeness? There are different depths associated with content expectations. The length of a post for why people must go vegan will be different than the stretch of best worldwide universities.

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Who is your target reader?

Focus on your reader to understand their intent. You gain an idea of how many details they hope or expect to get from the post. Consider if the audience is an expert or amateur. Knowledge level even helps to determine the post depth and word count.

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What goal do you desire to achieve?

The goal of starting a blog is to rank top or get social shares or drive sales. Your goal will define the number of words needed to create a post. What is the length of your competitive blog posts ranking currently?

Use relevant keywords associated with your topic and find out currently ranking blogs. You get to know the length of the topic [you plan to cover] search engines preferred for top ranking.

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Blog length and post quality also matter for SEO!

Besides blog length, even the post quality matters. Rather than concentrating on blog quantity you also need to pay attention to post quality. Create a post with substance, which means –

• Introduce new concepts because sharing facts that are already shared is uninteresting. The average reader will remember your blog as an authoritative platform.
• Use different Media that can help readers absorb the concepts you share with ease. It includes videos, diagrams, infographics, quizzes, etc.
• Consider people’s search intent and write about it for a better reading experience.  
• You need website traffic to increase for multiple reasons like creating brand awareness, generating leads, increasing sales, etc. Blogging is the best way to achieve this goal but ensure to write a post with quality and proper length.  

Best practices for blog length in 2022

1. Do your keywords research? Because spending time writing a bunch that no one reads is a waste of time and resources. Bloggers need to write more than 1500 words with confidence that comes with thorough research on the topic. Confidently written articles can be helpful to ideal consumers in the long term.
2. Your distribution strategy can be anything like LinkedIn or Facebook ads or SEO but ensure to determine it before writing epic guest post. Promotional strategy and approach help to create epic posts from the start.
3. Never create short blog posts just for frequency but choose an average length that displays your effort and care for writing articles. Writing fluff without research can be identified because there are no videos or images included. It can make people bounce off your site, which damages your SEO efforts.  

SEO benefits of lengthy blog posts

The closer your post is to 2500 words the better its performance. If you are wondering don’t readers get tired of lengthy posts? Not necessarily because it means comprehensiveness. You can offer more information and fulfill the keyword intent. Some of the surprising SEO benefits of long posts are –

1. People stay long – The longer the post the more time readers will spend. Even if they scan through the headings and subheadings it takes time. More time spent on the post sends optimistic signals to Google bots. It conveys the quality and relevancy of your posts, so is worthy to get top ranking on search queries.  
2. More backlinks and social shares – Long posts carry more details, so people find value in them. They are influenced to share this helpful content among their friends and family or even link it as a valuable source.
3. Enhances SEO – The mission of the search engine is to offer a better user experience. Therefore they choose well-researched, trustworthy, and reliable content in search queries. The longer the post the more details about the topic are covered, so search bots choose it and thus enhance SEO performance.  

Even if you feel that writing more words or lengthy blogs is a hassle, you will experience that it pays off down the road! Remember long blog posts matter because of COMPREHENSIVENESS!