Although some might say it is debatable and say there is no such thing as having a blog post so long it deters your visitors away, the fact is – it CAN be harmful to your site do produce extensive articles. The reason for this that a lot of times your first time visitors may find it daunting to see the majority of your articles go on and on. Some only have so much time, while others are wanting you to go straight to the point. Then, there are those who are your regular followers – some will just skim your article, comment and might even miss the whole point.
You do not want that to happen. You want to be able to influence your visitors enough that they might learn something, or add their own knowledge to the kettle.
On the other hand, if you produce short articles, you could be failing to deliver vital information or even touching your topic so it delivers your message as you want. I have mentioned this from time to time, but articles should be targeted to reach a word count between 200 and 700 words. Any more, and you may need to decide if the topic truly needs all that information you are jamming in it, or consider writing an essay and placing it as a section within your site for those interested. Of course, if you are passionate about it, you could always make an ebook out of it, since that has been the craze these days (that I noticed.)
However, if there is a topic that you could break into several sections to convey each point – you should consider that option. With something like the Yet Another Related Posts Plugin for WordPress users, it will keep your visitors on your site or they could bookmark the posts and read them when they have time.
How long do you think posts should be? How short?
Blogs are always good as long as readers can learn something from it. They have something to think about after reading them.
Yes, blogs are always good. However after noticing after more than 6 years of blogging and from my colleagues, sometimes longer posts have turned users away. It is sad…yes?
I myself do not mind reading anyone’s blog no matter how long it is, but that is not why I blogged. It is the culmination of visiting, commenting, and analyzing these trends.
Not everyone is as patient as us, right? 😉
This may make me a dork but…what exactly is an ebook? I believe that blog post should be a paragraph at least, and can be as long as you wish just as long as you keep the reader interested and entertained!
An ebook is a book you can read online whether for free or for purchase.
Yes, you could, but you do risk losing some of your readers who just do not have the time. It all falls the same as page loads. They want you to come to the point.
Now, if it were something like fiction, that would most likely be an exception, however a lot of people who professionally web design, and even are webmasters of their own networks, as well as social media gurus would recommend not making your blog posts so long – that is if you are trying to attract a multitude of readers other than just a few personal buddies.
Around 200-300 words is great if the post too long your readers will leave your blog. I don't like long article on a blog and I think others too. Simple and useful. I rather create two post with 300 words than one article with 600-700 words.
Remember blog is not a text book and our readers have so many thing to do, not just read our article 🙂
600-700 words is okay if you cannot break down your post. However, if you can, you can easily break it down into 2. My own minimum word count for a post is 200 words. This is my own rule and one I share with guest bloggers to have a bit of quality control on the article.