I keep getting the question about how many words should you write in your blog post. The thing is, this has several answers and depends on how ambitious you are as a blogger. For me, I tend to agree with Yoast that you should try to keep your blog posts at least 300 words.
This is the very minimum, and honestly, I always recommend having at least 300 words alongside an image, video, or audio. This method is to keep Google interested, and get your content to rank.
If you have a simple tutorial, sometimes stretching out 300 words is impossible. That’s okay. Don’t force it! You can always use that content to link in other posts that might talk about that tutorial. Someone out there WILL find it helpful and interesting.
At WordCamp St. Louis 2016, in the blogging panel that I was on, two of my colleagues reminded me of the fact that not everyone is going to be THAT ambitious. They’re absolutely right. New bloggers are always learning, and getting use to writing their blog posts. Some of them haven’t even begun to worry about word count, because creating a well-written and lengthy article takes time and practice.
On the other side of the scale, for the very ambitious, well written longer form content is really important. The more thorough you are over other websites, the better your content is seen. For me, many of my posts over 700 words perform much better than my content that is 300-400 words. My posts over 1000 and 1500 words perform even better. That is because over time, I’m always creating more content, and then going back and adding internal links, so there’s more information for my readers.
Some of my blogging colleagues like Ana Hoffman of Traffic Generation Cafe continuously generate lengthy and very well-written articles that are way more than 1000 words. They are always shared quite a bit. And if you’re looking for data, Neil Patel put together a data driven answer for how long should each blog post be.
Neil Patel says:
Just because long content trends better doesn’t mean that yours automatically will. It helps to have an active social presence, rock-solid copy, and stuff worth talking about.
Honestly, if you’re getting frantic over the fact you’ve written 250 words, and are trying to make it to 300, just stop. Let that post be 250 words. Maybe later on you might have more to add to that blog post? Maybe not.
And if you just want to put a picture with a couple sentences, and let the picture speak for you, then do so.
Furthermore, if you’re worrying about word count in general, stop it! You’re going to give yourself some unnecessary stress. Just write!
How long do you generally like to write your blog posts?
I love Neil Patel! And yes, sometimes, it ‘s frustrating when Yoast notifies me that my post is lesser than 300 words but what can I do when it’s all I can say in the post. I don’t usually have a target, most of the time, I just write what’s important and I’m happy if it ever reaches at least 1000 words. It’s better if the length of your post is natural. You’re right, “Don’t force it”.
🙂
And thanks for the post. I learned that updating your old posts is important 🙂
Hi Nile,
Yes, Sure while writing of blog should be more than 300 hundred words with having good
content, image and video to get better response from post. This will also help to bring rank
onto search engine. Thanks a lot for sharing with us.
Regards
Rama Krishna
i think 400 to 500 words is a decent work count to write a blog post
Hello Neil,
Blog post length depends on the purpose, post type, readers and several facts. I always write 500 to 1500 words blog post for my blog.
Anyway, Thanks for the awesome post.
Hi Nile,
It’s good to have minimum 500-700 words in a blog post, and of ourse quality content is matter to get rank high.
Thanks for this informative post.
The basic minimum should be indeed around 300 words.
But in my opinion you should always keep adding extra info to your posts, this will do your rankings good.
Most of my posts 800-1200 words, that’s usually what it takes for me to create a well-researched post that answers the reader’s query as best as I can. I think images are also important to break up all that text and encourage social sharing.
Hi Nile,
Thanks for the contents regarding the number of words must be in a blog post.
I always use almost 800 words in my blog post still there is less traffic.
So can you suggest the guidelines in writing the content.
Thank you.
Blog post depend on topic on which topic you write Actually 300-400 words are good for blog post. Post are very good more informative for me and coming new person. You guide proper way and if you write relevant to the blog words increase 600,700 They are not blonder you increase you. Any thing you write good way.
Thanks for sharing
Well In my case I write at least 800-1000 word article. Not just for good SEO, I think that it take your 1000 to add more value to SEO as well as your readers.
Hi nile,
Most blogger Problem is frustating about write 300 words, can you give the sugestion about that. I’ts make me depresed
Hi Justo! Are you saying it’s frustrating to write 300 words? If that is the case, then you may need to do some research to gain more knowledge. You should be able to know enough about your niche to write about it.
I though one need more then 1000 words , great to find this article. But main point is quality.
Thank you for giving me an awesome tips.. i am a content writer for the websites and blogs.. in such case your post was very useful for me…
Hi Nile,
As you mentioned in this post, maximum 300 word are enough for blog posts. But content should be very Unique and Genuine . Title of the post should be describes the overall post. As of my opinion Blog post should be short and informative. Thank you for sharing such a nice post about blog post.
Hi thanks for the tips! I only often aim to hit the min 300 then I post it hahaha
Will try to make it better!
Hey Nile i think if 700+ words in blog posts then its high chance to rank higher.
I believe post should be catchy whether it is a small post like you have written or a post with 1000 word….
Hello Nile, I always write my blogs of atleast 500 words but after that i don’t get much traffic as much I should get after writing many blogs everyday. So, what is the reason behind this?
Hi Amit!
You can’t just share your post once over social media. It may take several times. Also, you should be working on internal linking, repurposing your content, and trying to syndicate your content to larger online resource. There’s a lot you can do, even if your article is 500 words.
I always write 600 to 700 words blog post for my blog.
thank you for sharing, hope to read more of your posts that you share in the near future
Good article Nile, thanks for sharing this information, I had this doubt. Minimal of word I can use to write a post, but when I read this information, it became more clear for me. I learned with your post that e number of words is important, but the quality of the information too. Thank for sharing with us Nile, sucess for you.
Hi Nile !!
It’s good to have minimum 400-600 words in a blog post, and of our quality content is matter to get rank high. Thanks for this informative post.
Hi Nile,
Thanks for sharing, blog post depends on a type of blog.I always write around 600 to 700 words.
Nice Posts
Hi Nile…. Thanks for sharing this. Sure while writing of blog should be 300 + words with having good content, image and video to get better response from post. This will also help to bring rank
onto search engine. It will definitely works to rank a website for a particular keyword.
Hi Nile,
you have shared the right post, basically, I have read different websites article, they write article minimum 500 to 1000 and high-quality content, I have wrote an article minimum 500, than my post automatically rank in google without create a backlink on my post. Thanks for shared.
Hi Nile,
your advice is superb and very frank. Quality is more important than quantity. However, minimum 300 words is recommended for any post. One must write for their readers not search engine.
Thanks for sharing this…
Dear Nile
how many words enough for title in blog or web site ?
Any limited ?
thanks
Hi Jessy! Google will cut off the title in the search results after 70 characters.
Hi,
Suppose if we have more than 1000 words then what happens.
Nice post,Thanks for sharing
I write anywhere around 800 to 1200 words but some time 400 words depends upon situation or topic.
This is really helpful. I can see what you mean, I have been opting for longer posts lately and they are the ones I get more traffic from search. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Nile Flores, 400-700 words are enough for a good blog post. But few things are also important that, you blog should have images & videos(If available). They gave your blog post a good impact for readers.
I am agree with you Nile, A wordpress post should be written in minimum 300-400 words but remember, targeted keywords should not use more than 5-7 times. targeted keywords should use in one time h1 tag, two time h2 tag and 3 time h3 tags. It is enough to tell search engine what is your targeted keywords in that page.
Hello Nile,
i was looking for the answer since i not reach this post. thanks for the information and it will help me a lot. seriously there are so many parameters on internet net but i am now clear about my confusion. keep writing. now i should write minimum 500-600 words for my site.
Hello Nile,
I think around 500 or 600 words are suitable. But if you write 1000 or 1500 words write then your articles SERP rank very fast. What you say?
Hello Nile,
Yeah surely a post should be more than 300 words. i usually go for about 500 words and i think that is the decent number for a post. It don’t look so lengthy to read and all the required information is covered properly.
Thanks for the qualitative post.
Hello Nile
Great post ! I personally try to write 500-700 words in my blogs but I definitely try to have great quality content. And I always have 1 image sometimes 2 and of course that on-page SEO has to be correct. Again thanks for sharing this post Nile it was value packed and is definitely going to help me and others.
Hii Nile
This is a fantastic post by the way. Really useful, enlightening and encouraging.
Much appreciated.
Regards Sapna
Hello Nile!
Thanks for sharing your ideas. Most of the time I wrote atleast 500-1,000 words on my articles depending upon the topic to give more information for my audience. And yes, I think minimum of 300 words is also good idea in writing precise article that is not too long but the content is interesting and can caught audience attention. Thanks again!
The Number of “Words” that a Blog post should contain is one of the most asked questions, especially among the Newbie Bloggers.
My Personal experience…. But after being in this business of Blogging for 3 years now I have quite assured that in today’s time the ” number and Detail the Article” it has more chances to get ranked in the SERP.
Thanks for sharing this info … I am sure that it will be very helpful for many of our New Friends..!!
Today I have the opposite problem to most people when it comes to word count. I just can’t stop writing.
There was a time that I would write so much that I’d then spend more time in deliberating about cutting it short than I had spent writing it in the first place.
At that time i was new to blogging and i was seeing lots of advice from so called blogging ‘Gurus’ that refer to avoiding ‘too much fluff’ and ‘get to the point’ or ‘‘just be yourself’.
They don’t realise that their advice was hypocritical.
Well I’m afraid that being myself probably involves writing ‘too much fluff’ but it works for me and it works for most real people who are reading what i write and it will work for you too.
There is just too much hand holding going on.
Bloggers are asking permission from anyone who will listen to be themselves and this harks back to them being children and relying on their parents so much.
Then relying on their school teachers too much.
They then get a job and are reliant on their boss too much.
The same applies to the online world.
Everyone seems to be reliant on someone else’s opinion rather than just being themselves.
Given that most of these ‘Gurus’ then go on themselves to write rehashed junk, I tend to ignore their advice and write what I feel like writing.
Who are these ‘Gurus’ anyway?
Most of them are high school dropouts who have never had a job dealing with real people so who are they to be telling me or you what you should and shouldn’t be writing.
Word count is a Google thing and not a human thing.
If you have an audience then your word count doesn’t matter as long as you are getting your message across.
If you are reliant on Google then apparently the current count is no less than 300 but i would hazard a guess that you will have very stiff competition form those trying to game Google even at the 1200 word count.
I have been writing this comment for 3 minutes.
No coffee breaks, no keyword research, no keywords.
I just sat down, came across this post, read this post and felt that I had something to contribute so i started writing.
I am probably close to the 300 word count already so that should give you an idea of how quickly and easily it is to achieve 300.
But 300 isnt enough and if 300 scares you then you seriously need to take a step back and reconsider your blogging career.
I’m not thinking about who I am writing for, nor am I concerned about SEO or keywords as I am writing it.
I am simply getting what I needed to say off my chest and it will forever be a part of the content online.
Some people will like it. Some won’t. I don’t really care either way.
And neither should you.
If you write to please everyone then you end up pleasing no-one because it ain’t you who is writing.
I generally only check for spelling and grammar mistakes once I have written a post and very rarely do I read through it again with a view to changing or omitting anything because if I did that then I would probably cut the posts I do write in half………and that is time consuming and none productive.
Yet isn’t that the advise that is usually dished out…….to re-read and start culling your content just in case you started rambling or talking fluff.
Nonsense.
It is real human content.
We naturally talk in fluff because fluff is daily life.
And that is what you should be aiming at doing.
Writing as you would naturally talk to you friends and family and those who you meet in the street.
Say what you would normally say and in the tone and manner that you would normally say it.
If you get into that writing mindset i guarantee that you will start writing, keep writing and you wont stop until it’s all out.
You will surpass those imaginary 300 words that are currently a brick wall.
Then go and check your spelling and grammar, add those pretty images and your page title for Mr Google and get it published.
And before you know it you will have a post that is 500 words long and you have more than satisfied Mr Yoast.
Now, if you really sat down and did some research into what you intended to write about before you started to write imagine how long and how detailed it could be.
Many years ago I was a tutor and part of our training was to produce lesson plans about obscure topics and subjects and then deliver that lesson to a live class.
One of the favourite lesson plan topics that would be given at that time was ‘The Reproductive Life of a Ping Pong Ball’.
Yes, you read that correctly. ‘The Reproductive Life of a Ping Pong Ball’.
Yet we had to give a 20 minute lesson on that very subject.
If there was ever an exercise to make you really think about what is possible to write then The Reproductive Life of a Ping Pong Ball’ was it.
Try it.
You have a gun to your head and you need to write 2000 words, produce a lesson plan and then stand up in front of 30 people and give that lesson tomorrow morning.
Go.
Hey Nile
A very well-developed post on the length of the blog post.
The way you explained each point with necessary details and maintained a good balance is really commendable.
I highly appreciate your hard work for creating this post, I personally believe that content with the length of max. 2000 perform well on the SERP.
Thanks
Jagdish
300-400 words are great for entertainment posts and posts that get shared a lot but If you want to rank for highly competitive keywords your posts should be at least 1500 words.
I have gone through all comments, few people suggesting to write upto 400+ words content and few people suggesting for long content. As per my experience length of content doesn’t matter. All is need your article need to be highly readable and keyword optimized to get it rank well on serp. That’s all.
Hey Nile
A very well-developed post on the length of the blog post.
The way you explained each point with necessary details and maintained a good balance is really commendable.
I highly appreciate your hard work for creating this post, I personally believe that content with the length of max. 2000 perform well on the SERP.
Thanks
After the useful content update, 800-2000 words articles are doing really well in the SERPs.
Hi NILE
This an wonderful blog . How many words are used in title tag !
In the search results for Google, it’s actually 60 characters. I don’t worry too much on my site about the length of the title, but I try to see how I can improve my meta title so it might fit in the search results. So, if you’re using an SEO plugin, and your title is long, you can try to shorten it, or lean on suggesting a good meta description (160 characters max.)