How Many Words Should a Blog Post Be?
Blank pages are intimidating, especially as a new writer. Staring at one makes you wonder, “How long should this thing be?” Some swear by short, snappy posts. Others insist longer is better. Search engines, readers, and content goals all play a huge role in finding the perfect word count.
Quick Takeaways
- Short posts (300-600 words) work for quick updates but don’t rank well.
- Medium-length posts (800-1,200 words) offer depth without dragging.
- Long-form posts (1,500+ words) dominate when covering bigger topics.
- Audience expectations and content goals should dictate word count.
Short Posts: Quick, But Limited
Sometimes, less is more—except when it isn’t. A 300-600 word blog post works for quick updates, industry news, or answering simple questions. It’s easy to read, easy to write, and easy to forget.
Search engines tend to ignore short posts unless they target hyper-specific, low-competition keywords. Longer content usually outranks it because it provides more depth, context, and opportunities for optimization.
Best Uses for Short Posts:
- Quick updates or announcements
- Trending topics that don’t need much detail
- Social media-driven content meant for sharing
Short posts serve a purpose but don’t always bring long-term traffic.
Medium-Length Posts: More Balance
An 800-1,200 word blog post feels just right. Long enough to add value, short enough to keep attention. It allows for examples, explanations, and structure without overwhelming the reader.
Search engines appreciate posts in this range because they provide more information than shorter content while still being digestible. Readers get enough detail to walk away informed without feeling buried under too much information.
Best Uses for Medium-Length Posts:
- How-to guides with clear steps
- List-based articles that break down concepts
- Thought leadership pieces that spark discussion
If your goal is engagement and ranking well without writing a novel, this is the sweet spot.
Long-Form Posts: Deep and Detailed
When a topic needs serious attention, long-form content takes the lead. Anything over 1,500 words falls into this category, and search engines love it. Longer content attracts backlinks, keeps users engaged longer, and covers topics thoroughly.
Just adding words isn’t enough. Long posts need structure, strong formatting, and engaging writing. Otherwise, readers lose interest fast.
When Long-Form Works Best:
- Comprehensive guides that answer multiple questions
- Case studies with data-driven analysis
- Comparison pieces weighing different options
A 2,000-word article stuffed with fluff won’t beat a 1,000-word post packed with useful details. Depth matters, but so does quality.
SEO and Blog Word Count
Search engines don’t rank content based on word count alone, but longer posts often perform better. Why? More words mean more opportunities to include relevant keywords, address multiple search queries, and provide well-researched information.
Shorter posts can still rank, especially for niche topics. A concise, well-optimized 600-word article answering a specific question may outrank a 2,000-word post that rambles.
Factors That Matter for SEO:
- Relevance to search intent
- Structured headings and subheadings
- Internal and external linking strategies
- Readability and engagement metrics
SEO success isn’t about word count—it’s about writing something worth reading.
What Readers Actually Want
Some people skim. Others read every word. Knowing your audience makes a difference when choosing blog length.
A technical audience expects depth. Casual readers prefer quick takeaways. Analyzing engagement data reveals whether people finish posts, bounce early, or crave more details.
Ways to Keep Readers Engaged:
- Short paragraphs and bullet points
- Images and visuals to break up text
- Conversational, engaging writing
- Clear subheadings for easy navigation
Long or short, a post should be structured in a way that keeps readers scrolling.
The Role of Content Purpose
Word count depends on the goal. A blog meant for quick social media engagement isn’t the same as one designed for long-term search traffic.
Shorter posts serve immediate needs but fade fast. Longer content remains useful over time and attracts steady traffic.
Matching Word Count to Purpose:
- Evergreen content benefits from depth
- News updates stay short and punchy
- Product reviews thrive on detail
A post should be as long as it needs to be—no more, no less.
Formatting Matters More Than Length (Kind Of)
A long post without structure feels like a wall of text. Proper formatting makes content easy to scan and digest. However, you still don’t want to go too far over the word requirement for the specific content you’re writing.
Best Formatting Practices:
- Use subheadings to break up sections
- Keep paragraphs short
- Add images, charts, or infographics
- Use bold text for key points
Readers appreciate content that respects their time.
How to Choose the Right Word Count
There’s no magic number. The right length depends on topic complexity, audience preferences, and SEO goals.
Questions to Ask Before Writing:
- What does the audience expect?
- How much detail does the topic require?
- Is this post designed for quick reading or long-term traffic?
Word count should serve the content, not the other way around.
Content Length by Blog Type
Different types of blogs thrive at different lengths.
| Blog Type | Ideal Word Count |
| News Updates | 300-600 words |
| How-To Guides | 1,000-2,000 words |
| Product Reviews | 1,500+ words |
| Listicles | 800-1,500 words |
| Case Studies | 2,000+ words |
Choosing the right length depends on content goals and audience expectations.
The Verdict: Word Count Matters
But, word count alone doesn’t make a blog post great. Relevance, readability, and engagement matter more than hitting an arbitrary number. A post should be as long as necessary to cover a topic well—no more, no less.
Instead of only considering length, focus on writing something people actually want to read.
Marketing Insider Group can help you create blog content that adapts to emerging trends. With a focus on actionable solutions, we help businesses optimize their online presence for long-term growth. Contact us to stay ahead in the evolving world of content.
15 thoughts on “How Many Words Should a Blog Post Be?”
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“The research is clear: A blog post should be more than 1,000 words. And the longer your post, the more likely it is to rank higher in Google searches.”
Just no. This is a huge over-simplification.
Is this “research” (citation missing?) you reference Buffer’s? According to their own research: “We’ve found that 2,500-word posts tend to do best for us.” But that is only for social shares. It has nothing to do with Google ranking.
Also that’s one company. Meaning that figure is basically meaningless. 1,600 is great for Buffer’s “time on page” (again, this has nothing to do with Google ranking).
As a quick example, a search for the term “SEO”.
#1 result: 989 words
#2 result: 531 words
#3 result: 2890 words
#4 result: 9,679 words
By your logic, the 9K word post should have a higher chance of ranking higher. So why isn’t it? The top result doesn’t even hit 1K words. #2 doesn’t even come close to 1K.
There is much more going on than word count when it comes to Google rankings.
Not everybody needs to create massive 1600-2500+ word posts.
There is no “optimum” length. There is no minimum. These are all imaginary concepts.
Thanks so much for your comment. I truly do appreciate it. It is a complicated concept that I am trying to simplify and you are 100% correct that there are many, many factors that go into search rankings. (You would know better than most for sure.)
And while I do think the random search for “SEO” is not representative of most searches, I did state that some blog posts only need to be as long as they need to be to answer a reader’s question.
Businesses and writers need to start with some idea of word count. What direction and guidance would you provide? 80% of the content on your own site (according to Buzzsumo) is over 1000-words and by far the highest percentage (37%) are 3,000 words or longer.
I’m not sure what concepts you state are imaginary. Length is something that needs to be considered when handing an article project to a writer. Length (of time or words) is something that needs to be considered when a brand budgets for their content strategy over the course of the year.
I spoke to an editor recently who told me they were restricting their articles to under 750 words because that’s what drove engagement for them, By that logic, why not publish articles with just a sentence or 2?
Again, I understand and respect your feedback and hope you would provide some constructive guidance on how to answer the real question on the minds of a content marketer: how long should my blog posts be, in general?
People will always ask this question.
People will always try to give good answers.
I commend the effort.
My best answer is “As long as it necessary to make the best page on the internet for the topic.”
Another response I sometimes give “I try hard to write short words, short sentences and short paragraphs, but I never try to write a short article.”
The goal is quality. Detailed, thorough articles tend to be longer (just look at Wikipedia) but this isn’t always true. I once wrote an article explaining how to share access to Google Analytics. 800 words and it’s done! That’s all it took. There was nothing else to say.
Ideally, the topic drives the length, just like in the book publishing world. Big topic? Big content.
Having said that, there are credible correlation studies that show a relationship between length and rankings, but as with any study that tries to isolate a single ranking factor, they shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Weak content is bad for readers and rankings.
Strong content is good for readers and rankings.
Strong content is often longer than weak content.
That makes sense, right?
Thanks so much Andy. You always have the “best answers” to these tough questions. And yes it makes sense! Very helpful.
I usually sit down and have 1,000 words or so in my head as a a general guide. Some of my articles end up at 750 so I go and find a video to support my points, or some data, or an example or 2. I think I average about 1,300 words on this site but it’s not because I start out to write 1,300 words. I just try to answer the question.
This is a sticky issue, but I’m going to say what I’m going to say without any offense to Danny, Michael, or anyone who’s commented here. Bear with me please.
“The research is clear: In general, blogs post should be more than 1,000 words. And the longer your post, the more likely it is to rank higher in Google searches.”
Can’t say much about the research (or the people doing it), but I certainly know from experience (of writing about 500 posts and editing a lot more) that “in general” (the emphasis lies here) blog posts should be more than 1,000 words. The longer your post, it is certainly “more likely” (the emphasis lies here) to rank higher in Google searches.
It is a simplification, Michael, but not such a huge one after all, Danny!
For the term “SEO” here’s what I see – https://postimg.cc/LhrS0z81
1 – Moz Beginner’s guide (Historically ranking giant piece of content. I’d assume Moz knows their SEO. My friend Britney Muller certainly does!)
2 – Search Engine Land (Same strategy as Moz, with a list of “chapters” that link to other content, so I’ll take it Google counts it as one.)
3 – Google Support (Giant piece again)
4 – WordStream (A looong one)
5 – Neil Patel (As wide as his smile. Michael, you need a special emoji in your comments to represent Neil Patel.)
Okay, SEOs have this penchant for long content (heck, I write 1,000-word comments myself: https://twitter.com/searchrook/status/631152035673473024) so let’s take a look at another query “what is marketing” where a definition would suffice for the “reasonable surfer” as Google calls her. However, Google shows:
1 – ama.org – While the title itself says “definition,” the post is much longer than a simple definition, including “green marketing” and “keyword marketing” which are *definitely* not needed.
2 – HubSpot – Stretched copy of the AMA post
3 – Michael himself! – Slightly shorter than a Peter Drucker book on marketing
Yes, while I agree that long posts wouldn’t be a good strategy for every company, it definitely would be for *most* companies.
Let me make myself clear: There is NO “optimum length” for blog posts. “Comprehensive content” is often misread as “word count.”
Read that again.
However, the most significant clue that Google has given as regards its notorious “core updates” lies in this post – https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/08/core-updates.html – under the very first section “content and quality questions.” It encourages you to ask yourself:
– Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
– Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
– If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
So yes, there is much more going on other than word count when it comes to Google rankings, but everything else being equal and given a choice, I would make that word count longer (with quality to boot, needless to say).
Not everybody needs to create massive posts… *IF they have site authority, brand loyalty, or a more profitable source of customers other than Google search. The rest of us need to keep wearing out our keyboards.
Wow, thanks Rohan! I can’t disagree and appreciate your perspective on this. My “what is marketing” post was just me doing my best to answer the question. I told a story, used a few sections to differentiate between confusing topics and provided my perspective. I didn’t start out by writing a long post. Just one that answered the question as completely as I could.
But still, I started out thinking 750 words would not be enough. Maybe length is a starting point guide post. But “completeness” is really the end goal.
Again, just looking to provide some simple guidance to a complex but very real and often-asked question. And you did just that Rohan. So thank you!
Rarely do I get excited to read comments in a post these days, but I appreciate the dialog. First off, Danny appreciate the spark here for conversation. Michael it’s a solid post and I value that you respond constructive and appreciative in the comments. Andy, in my writing my philosophy is similar to your own and posts need to be as long as it takes to be the best. In my experience, this ends up being over 1,000 words. Similar to Rohan, “The longer your post, it is certainly “more likely” (the emphasis lies here) to rank higher in Google searches.” I’d say is my take too, but I have had cases where something can be answered in a clear and concise way for less and it’s ranked well, but I’d say the chances are higher with longer posts. I think the focus of creating the best post compared to what’s out there is great and I do think that at least now many of those posts will be longer. Things could change overtime so just keep testing. Michael, good post to get the industry talking so keep them coming 🙂
Thanks John. Yes it’s been a while since we had a good debate in comments. I really appreciate your thoughts and also from everyone.
First of all, thank you everyone for such an insightful topic of discussion.
This is a bit of a deja vu for me because, back in the days, people used to say 300 words was the sweet spot for blog posts.
Is the total word count a Google ranking factor? Certainly not, but I can’t deny that there is a strong correlation, based on my own experiences and my colleagues in the SEO industry.
Is a well-researched, in-depth content beneficial for the user experience? And can that lead to positive organic search performance? You betcha.
As a refresher, or if you haven’t already, check out Google’s own Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf), a good clue to Google’s guidelines on what constitutes as a good content.
Here’s an interesting bit in it that signals Google ‘may’ value longer-form content over shorter-form.
Section 6.3 (pg 34): Unsatisfying Amount of Main Content. Some Low quality pages are unsatisfying because they have a small amount of MC for the purpose of the page. For example, imagine an encyclopedia article on a very broad topic such as World War II that has just a few paragraphs.
My personal philosophy on blog posts is, to perform well on Google, always put yourself in the minds of your users. Why did they type this query into Google? If you can answer that, and create content to fulfill it, you will do well on Google.
Wow, thanks so much Mike! This is great feedback and really useful tips (and the research to back it up).
‘+1 John Hall!
Miss the old days were blog posts would get 100+ comments and great debates like this going.
Feel Andy C. sums this up beautifully: “My best answer is: As long as it necessary to make the best page on the internet for the topic.”
Also love Rohan’s point: “Let me make myself clear: There is NO “optimum length” for blog posts. “Comprehensive content” is often misread as “word count.””
My ‘length debate’ hypothesis: With Google’s integration of BERT (continuously being fine-tuned), length will have less of an impact, the primary factor will be quality and fulfilling searcher intent.
+Unpopular opinion: The best succinct, short summaries (these can be appended to longer content) will win out over time as Google continues to wage their war on Question & Answering within the SERP.
A quote from Google’s Tensorflow team:
“Existing natural language models have been focused on extracting answers from a short paragraph rather than reading an entire page of content for proper context. As a result, the responses can be complicated or lengthy. A good answer will be both succinct and relevant.” –https://www.kaggle.com/c/tensorflow2-question-answering/overview
Britney, thanks so much for your reply and comment. I also agree with your “unpopular opinion.” I’ve been trying to include top takeaways, main points, conclusions, tweetable bytes into my content for years. I also LOVE list posts which are not necessarily long but convey valuable info quickly. I think they support your view as well!
Props to all for sharing their insights here – comment threads in blog posts are a rarity these days. Well done on creating engagement here Michael.
Despite the changing nature of search engines and consumer behavior, SEO continues to be a process driven practice creating enthusiasm for rules and specific questions like, how many words should a blog post be?
The reality is that marketers who skim the surface of their craft solely with operational best practices are satisfied with a certain number answer to that question. And then there are those who consider specific insights about customer preferences, competition, current situation and goals that understand it’s not about word count, but about the content quality and effectiveness.
500 words, 1500 words, whatever. Count them after you’ve made your content the best answer for the topic your customers care about.
Great answer Lee! It is nice to see some hefty debate in comments these days!
It is all about the quality and it’s easy to get caught up in boxing in on a specific number.
I love the idea of using insights, customer preferences and goals to derive the answer to this very difficult question.
Although this post is dated 2023, the comments are from 2020 during the pandemic. Here’s my 2023 question… Is the purpose of the Blog to improve the website’s SEO/search ranking OR is it to provide valuable content on a subject in a relevant way. I say relevant way because in the past we were always told we had to sprinkle certain Key Words in the Blog so the crawlers would catch them. Pick one.