Bloggers: This Is How Long Your Posts Should Be
Written by Glen, this post has 63 Comments
When I analysed the most tweeted blog posts ever, I found that Twitter users like posts that are around 1,100 words long. When I wrote the most important blogging analysis ever, I found that the average length of popular posts was 1,600 words. This was quite surprising to a lot of readers and is a figure far higher than most people are producing.
In the comments for one of these posts, someone gave me the idea of analysing different industries to see the average post length in each, so they could gauge how long their articles should be. I’m not a blogger who will guess numbers and just throw stats out there, so I decided to do an in-depth analysis. I picked 3 posts from 5 blogs in 8 different niches (confused yet?) and noted the word count for each.
I tried to pick some of the biggest sites in each niche as it’s pointless using unsuccessful blogs as your guide. For two of the niches I didn’t know the top sites personally, so I relied on Technorati and The New York Times for recommendations.
The Results
Before I share the exact data, I’ll share what this post is really about: the results. I love doing tests like this as I apply them to my own endeavours, but as I do write for an internet marketing blog, it makes sense to share them with you guys as well.
Out of the 8 different industries I monitored, here is the average post length for 5 top blogs in each niche:
I picked 3 random posts from every site, so there are a total of 15 blog posts making up the stats for each industry. Some people might prefer a larger sample, but I prefer to look at the successful sites rather than a niche as a whole.
As you can see, Celebrity Gossip, Web News and Gadget blogs tend to post short articles. However, don’t forget that these blogs are known to post multiple times per day and I know one of them publishes more than 20 posts, daily. Sites in industries like Marketing, Finance and Personal Development post less (1-7 times per week) but write much longer articles.
If your niche isn’t here then look at successful sites to see the types of posts that other bloggers are writing and how long their articles are on average. In some cases, a blog would write a 1,000 word post and then a 300 word post, which is why I worked with averages. Don’t think that you have to stick to a specific length, I just believe it’s useful to know how much the top players in each industry are writing.
The Data
I was going to put all of this into a table, but I think a screenshot should suffice. If you want to use this data for your own analysis of sorts, feel free to take it. You don’t have to link back here; it’s all yours. I put together this data manually but it didn’t actually take that long. Doing this made me realise how much more productive a bigger screen (I’ve just purchased a 27″ iMac) is making me.
Or Should They?
It makes sense to think that if the big guys are writing posts of a certain length, then you should do the same to be one. Yet, one piece of advice most successful bloggers give is to do something different and stand out from the crowd. There is no doubt I pushed up the average post length of the marketing niche, but I don’t think that hurts me. I believe one of the best things about this site is that I post long in-depth articles that nobody else is willing to write.
Similarly, when sites like Engadget and Gizmodo are writing 200 word posts, you can find ArsTechnica writing articles that are thousands of words long and they are one of the biggest websites online. Remember that the only rule in blogging is that there are no rules.
My advice is this: write as much as you want to write. Your blog is your home, and your empire, and to some it’s even their baby. If you want to make your blog a profitable entity, then you may need to do some things (initially) that don’t align with you internally. However, if you keep carving out articles that add value, it doesn’t really matter how long they are. You will find someone who loves what you have to say, and loves the length of your content.
I believe this post works as a great guide to give you an idea of how much you should be writing – there isn’t much room in the personal development niche for blogs writing 100 word articles – but go with your own instinct and desires after that. Sticking to set numbers takes the flow away from your articles and the fun away from blogging.
If you have any other stats posts ideas you would like me to spend far too much time on, please let me know in the comments.
Thanks for another great analysis Glen. I believe most people actually prefer to have a post that goes in depth about a subject. That way the can scan all the post and eventually read the parts that interest them the most.
Quickest comment ever? Congrats
You’re welcome Oscar, thanks for stopping by as always. I’m finding more and more that people are enjoying my long articles, and I prefer writing them, so I’m going to stick to that strategy.
Yes, saw your tweet and headed here as usual
Thanks for the analysis, Glen.
After listening to Seth Godin’s Tribes, I realized the need to acknowledge that there are people out there with different interests, likes and dislikes. When we write a post, it will resonate with some people, while boring others. I have, therefore, chosen to write in the way I feel most comfortable, to the people who will enjoy my writing style (with slight modifications to my style in order to provide greater value). Those who like what I write will stick around.
The great thing about your analysis is that it shows that there are people out there who actually read and enjoy long posts, as opposed to the assumption we keep hearing that long posts aren’t popular.
Hey Haider,
So true, I love that book. That’s true. As I say at the start, I’m not just someone who will throw stats around (which most people tend to do) and like to look at these things in detail.
Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for those stats Glen,
Now I know exactly what NOT to do. Although I doubt people would be willing to read blogposts that are just over 100 words in length. Perhaps… This is actually giving me some ideas.
On the one hand I’d have the urge to conform to the template, it’s a proven and safe thing after all. But on the other side doing so won’t get you noticed. Ah the lure of taking risks. There are no rules indeed, only rough guidlines for those who want to conform to mediocrity. Actually breaing every single rule out there wil get attention. But is getting noticed always a good thing? (Any publicity is good publicity – yeah right)
Looking forward to more lengthy blogposts, they really are very informative
There’s a personal development blog I love that is: Wakeuptiger.blogspot.com and they only write articles around 50-100 words. Short, but awesome.
I think you have hit the nial on the head with your final paragraph. There are no rules, so you are free to write as long or as short as you please – but the key is to finding the ‘right’ length according to your readers!
Readers rarely know what you want until you give it to them.
It’s great to follow this wonderful blog as it answers my questions in the same pace the arise
As I just got started with my own blog I’ve been wondering if size does matter, thus your entry was really helpful
Best regards,
Andrés
Size definitely matters
Seriously though, glad this came at the right timing for you. Always good to see you here, Andres.
I like your analysis of the different blog post lengths (i liked the last one even more than this one).
It made me look back through my own posts, and I found that the ultra-successful ones were either:
1. Long, in-depth posts (like you typically discovered)
2. Extremely passion-filled points of view
And sometimes both
A blog post only has to be as long or as short as it needs to be. Period. Worrying about how long you should make a post is almost as stupid as worrying about the ROI on social media.
Maybe.
But start writing 50 or 50,000 word posts on any topic and tell me how well you do.
Looking at the data with a scientific mind, I have to say it’s inconclusive, which I think is what you’re saying.
Two of the biggest blogs I can think of illustrate the point: Steve Pavlina and Seth Godin. One has posts that are thousands of words, the other barely a few hundred (For what it’s worth, I consider Godin’s blog one of the few must-haves in my RSS feed)
I think it comes back to something very simple: the post length should be dictated by the material. If someone asked me how long a post should be, I would ask them, “How long does it take to say what you need to say? Well that’s how long it should be.”
I think bloggers forget the “writing is rewriting”, and that judicious editing does wonders for clarity of writing, post-length be damned.
Hey Glenn,
Thanks for putting together this analysis. When I’m reading a blog, I personally find longer posts to be of more value when I want to understand a topic in a step by step & comprehensive way. Conversely, when I’m looking for a quick fix, obviously shorter posts do the trick. So I guess the non-rule rule is to go with longer when you have some explaining to do, and shorter when you’re just throwing out an idea or tidbit.
When I consider Viperchill Glen, I know that you are likely going to produce 1 or 2 High Quality, 1500+ word articles a week. That’s what I like so much about this blog as well as your style. I know you’re not posting just to post, but rather your focus is all about quality and value….’less is more’.. But isn’t this what Web 2.0 is all about? Quality, remarkable content….and man do you do it better than just about anybody IMO Glen. So as always, thanks for the great post and please know that what you are doing is a great service to the rest of us in the blogosphere.
I very much appreciate the analysis Glen. It goes completely against the original intuition that I had about the length of my own posts. I started out by writing articles that were lingering between 900 and 1,200 words, and then (apparently in error) I made a conscious decision to shorten my posts to between 300 to 500 words because I felt if I made them shorter I would hold people’s attention, and they wouldn’t be so intimidated.
Slowly I’ve realized that perhaps in doing so, I have reduced the value of the content because of trying to make things as concise as possible, perhaps even too much so just for the sake of brevity. I think in my niche and for my topics writing the longer posts makes more sense and adds more value to my readers. I think in my case its appropriate to go back to where I started, and your results prove it. Thanks for the confirmation on something I was already wondering about.
This is why I shun the advice that you have to have something new on the blog each day. I don’t have the time or energy to post quality 1,000 word plus articles each day. To me, it’s a lot more important to post content that will last beyond one day.
Thanks for the research. Very helpful.
Thanks for this post and taking the time to put together those very interesting results. Please note your post is 824 words, not quite Personal Development standard now is it. ;o)
That’s why I’m in the marketing niche
Ah, good point! derrrr, lol
Very interesting blog. Word count is something that I’ve never considered. I write about a topic. How ever long that topic may be is what it ends up. Sometimes it’s short and sweet, other times it’s a mile long. But, this did get me thinking about what my average was. Going back and picking 3 blogs I averaged them out to 870 words. I’m happy with that.
It does drive me crazy when I come to someone’s post that has only a couple of sentences. Why bother? I like good content, something that helps me or teaches me, and if it’s a really good article, then I don’t mind taking the next hour to read it.
Great study. I enjoyed the insight.
Here’s how I react as a blog reader:
Under a hundred words (OK – I mean looking really short) – maybe not worth too much.
Much more important: Frequency of posts. I don’t like blogs that are posting more than I can take the time to read. Daily is off the chart. Three times a week is a lot. I really like Viperchill and recommend it to others (yes I’m new here) because it is digestible. I can feel like I can get to know Glen and some other commenters simply because I can keep up! I respect Darren Rowse and appreciate him but I feel like he is too much overwhelm. If I come back two weeks later, I’m more or less lost. Glen could write a three page post and I’d read it and welcome it because I know it is of value. Because they are several a month, I know he isn’t just trying to keep to a schedule no matter what. Thus I also would read a short post from him (probably not likely) with an open mind.
Summary: Am I alone in liking fewer posts (that have real value) then daily (or G-d forbid more frequent) posts?
Wow, some of them are way to long what about tl:dr. Give me 500 words or less, otherwise it’s an article not a blog.
i just discovered this at the beginning of this week, i think i arrived at on of these rare and valuable blogs.
thank you for sharing the analysis with us, from my point of view i think we can deal with it as indicator not as a rule .
Great post man, thank you for doing the research.
I loved your say that at the end of the day, blogging has no rules
I will love to read more posts like that.
Thanks,
Sharel
Interesting stats. I agree with Richard Goutal on blog frequency, I have found that since I changed my blogging to less than 4 posts per week I have gotten more traffic and more subscriber’s as well.
I think longer posts show that genuine effort went into the writing of the post.
One thing I would like analyzed by other blogger’s is the importance of images:
Do they really matter?
Do they keep reader’s more interested?
Or do they just compliment what you are writing about?
In any event these are important statistics for blogger’s to consider.
Have agreat day everyone
Hm, is Glen running out of ideas? I loved this Blog so far but this was by far your worst post on this Blog.
Awesome
Yep – 5 years of doing this and I have no ideas after 4 months.
Interesting analysis. I like your approach to finding out the average length of post. I’m an analytical mind and like to approach things scientifically as well.
The numbers look higher than I expected. I often write posts over 1500 words (my niche is puppy training), but it’s not all that norm for me. I usually try to vary my article length, but my general rule is to try and keep it over 300 words and under 1500. If I start nearing 1500 words I’ll split the article into 2 or 3 parts.
Love this post Glen, had to share it with everyone. Anyone else find it funny that the blog ThinkSimpleNow has the highest average of words 2,542
Righto, keep them about 400-1200 words long. Mix it up for special occasions and stretch it out if you have something extraordinary to say. Just because some people chunder on and on doesn’t mean we all have to:) Gracias amigo!
[...] Just as there are no experts, I believe there are no actual “rules” for any type of social media. I think there are many valuable tips out there – but no rules. The very essence of social media, in my opinion, is that it’s open, free to everyone, and very much outside the box of traditional communications and marketing. If you Google “blogging rules” today, you will be given a list of over 26 million returns. How can there be so many people professing rules if social media is free and open, figuratively and literally? For example, many people suggest there is a limit on how long a good blog should be – how many words it should contain. While it makes sense that people would prefer short posts, new research surprisingly suggests the most-shared blog posts are actually much longer than you might think. [...]
Thank you for compiling the info Glen. As I understand it there is minimal competition as we will resonate and attract those we are meant to attract. Deliver in bullet point form or as a novel — as long as the content is relevant to what the reader is seeking, it’s all good. Your content has given me pause (no matter the word count) and I’m reevaluating and making positive changes thanks to PluginID and Viperchill. Cheers! – Kim
Thanks for putting it so clear Glen. I am often wondering now that I am moving from technical writing to blogging if my posts are long or short enough. I know enough to trust that your right in saying that I should stick to writing the post the way I want it. I can see that if I say all i want to say in a great post that makes sense in 400 words. Just adding more to hit a length might make it read much worse and keep people from reading it through.
Great content Glen! Wow this was eye opening… i guess i need to write more
[...] through my feed reader, I’ve discovered Glen Allsopp’s excellent and related article, Bloggers: This Is How Long Your Posts Should Be, in which he examines the average length of posts in the top 5 blogs across various industries. [...]
Hi Glen,
As always .. very interesting post.
When I was reading through the different blogs, I was wondering if there is no relation between the length of the posts and the number of posts delivered per month. You for example write longer posts but you ‘only’ write 6 or so per month. While the gadget blogs write short posts but a few a day. Perhaps it is an idea for a next post, that you count the number of words published per month per blog. I would not be too surprised if you would find out that that number is roughly the same for a lot of blogs. Readers have limited time on their hands, so they would not be willing to read 1.000 word posts on the gadget blogs I assume.
What do you think?
Richard
Hi Richard,
I did mention that the blogs that write shorter posts tend to publish a lot more posts. I can see that being a hell of a lot of work, but I would like to test it.
Thanks for the idea.
I agree that it will be a lot of work, that is why I asked you to do it hahahahah.
What I meant is that I think that the gadget blogs would loose a lot of readers when their blogposts would be as long as yours. So we are on the same page here.
Enjoy your weekend, must be great to be back in Cape Town, at least I assume you are back there.
Richard
I much enjoy your “long” articles. The in-depth analysis is what your base needs and you give it. Rock on.
I like your analysis of the different blog post lengths. We are just starting out with our blog and are often asked the question of how long a post should be. I am going to take this and share it with my team.
[...] Bloggers: This Is How Long Your Posts Should Be [...]
Interesting analysis.
This guy, http://greatday.com/, who writes personal-development has extremely short posts, every day and he’s extremely successful, so it can be done.
At the end of the day, I think one should focus on residue. How does the reader feel once he’s read your post? That’s what it’s all about — and length doesn’t really factor into that equation.
Length is certainly something to think about, though. But, of course, length should be a servant to what you want to get across. In other words, the length should be entirely dependent on how long it takes you to tell your audience what you want to tell them. So it’s not really the length that matters, it’s what you tell your audience that does.
Yep, I mentioned wakeuptiger as well in a comment above. It isn’t hugely popular, but it’s one of my favourite blogs.
I’ve learned quite a bit while writing on my DJ blog.
What I’ve found is there seems to be a certain sweet spot depending on the subject. I cover a variety of topics such as tutorials, gear and music reviews, parties and more.
For the tutorials, I’ve noticed the longer the better. With these posts I try to get extremely in depth so they can become that “ultimate” reference for people. One of my largest posts reach nearly 7,000 words before I decided to trim it.
For the smaller posts, such as music reviews, it seems to work much better keeping it around 500 words because people just want a quick opinion. I think the reason for this is that people can get the album and listen themselves, reading some 2,000 word post about an album will take some time so why wouldn’t they just listen to it?
I think the perfect blog post length is however long you need to thoroughly explain your subject but without boring them, cutting out the fat and not wasting the readers time.
Hey Glen.
Glad to see your research. It’s cool to see some of the top sites in other categories, as I don’t tend to check other niches of sites too often. It is always better to have an expanded mind than a contracted one.
Post length does mean something, because it is certainly more difficult to write a more detailed post than a quick one, and although this is not to take away from short posts, it is easier for a person who regularly writes 2000-word articles to switch to 400-word ones than it is for someone who regularly writes 400-word articles to 2000-word ones.
To those who see this comment, Glen has a work ethic worth modeling after.
Dude you put a ton of work into this study, I really appreciate it! This is some interesting stuff, and I find that figuring out just how long to make my blog posts is something that holds me back a lot.
[...] love the findings that can be made from this data in aggregate. A good example of this is a recent post on blog lengths in certain industries by Glen Allsopp, who recently guest posted here. By looking at the standard lengths of blogs in [...]
[...] Viperchill [...]
Glen, I actually prefer short and sweet, non-the-less you have a great topic here and including visuals (graphs, images, videos) makes for blog reader eye candy. Great post, I will be watching this space from now. Congrats on your number one spot on Upgrade Reality!
The research is great, but i was surprised by the statement that bigger screen makes you more productive. You’ve also mentioned that you use MAC as an OS. Does those things really help/matter and in what degree? What hardware do you actually need in order to be productive? It will be interesting for me to know in details. Also does your 27in MAC serves you better/do you use it more/ than your notebook in your EVERYDAY life. Thank you in advance.
Very interesting data … what I am wondering is how this relates to attention span. I see more and more short posts … and … what about video blogs? Almost now test, yet powerful and popular.
[...] Bloggers: This Is How Long Your Posts Should Be [...]
Thanks Glen! This is really a valuable post for bloggers. You researched a lot on this topic, great work!
Bises,
7jades.
Great analysis here!
It seems like quality is more important than quantity.
Glen,
He didn’t have a blog (to my knowledge) but Nathan Myhrvold (Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft a while back) wrote 100 PAGE emails that were said to be brilliantly accessible, even to non-technology types. Warren Buffett’s letters to his shareholders are also famously comprehensible, despite averaging 20 PAGES or more, and Michael Burry (the medical doctor turned hedge fund operator who made hundreds of millions by shorting sub prime mortgage bonds) received the bulk of his original funding because of a remarkably insightful stock market blog (that he began writing while in medical school!!) which featured longer than average posts.
In another arena entirely, I have written initial emails for the users of online dating sites. Typical length was 600 words (about TWENTY TIMES what is supposed to be the optimum, according to conventional wisdom) and yet the reply rate was 250% higher than expected on Plenty of Fish, and 400% higher on eHarmony. I’m currently trying to capitalize of that experience by blogging about some of the more entertaining episodes (”No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money” – Samuel Johnson) which brings me to the reason for this comment. If you or your readers would care to hold forth on the length of my posts, I’d be most appreciative. (But regardless of whether you, or they, elect to do so, your article was the still best that I’ve seen on the subject.)
Spenser Hepburn
http://stillafrogblog1.wordpress.com
.
Hi Glen. This article really enlightened me with the data you found. While I strive to write a 1000 word article, most of the time I reach half of that and that’s to say is only a start. For some reason that seems to be the average for my posts. While I strive to create more I don’t want to push myself to sound brooding. It’s all about experimenting with what works well for you and you yourself here got something which you’ve nailed. I’m sure it didn’t come overnight but the standard you’ve made, well your readers are just going to have to learn that’s just who you are. I think that’s representative of yourself through the writing. Whether readers like it or not, at least you’ve made your point.
Great article BTW and thanks for the discussion,
Thu
[...] it would be interesting to see how long each of their posts are. I’ve already performed a similar analysis across different industries, but never one for the biggest blogs in the [...]
Thanks for this information. It’s actually kind of interesting noticing that things like gadgets and entertainment news are more to the point and self improvement and finance seem to be more in depth in their posts.
I’m a little late to this conversation, but while researching the length of an optimal blog post, I came across your site. Great post and a health analysis. I would love to have a dataset that includes the information you collected, as well as:
# of comments
# of visitors to the post
average visitor time on site &
# of referral sources
I’d also like to test the hypothesis that the most successful blogs have a shorter word count than the average blog post. I’m not sure how one would go about getting this information given the 143 million blogs worldwide.
Happy data hunting!
[...] intentional; my brain just seems to be trained to write like that. Viperchill wrote a great post on how long your blog posts should be that I’d encourage everyone to read. Personally, in most cases I’d rather see a longer post [...]