If you do article marketing, particularly through article directories, you’re expected to submit at least 400 words. This is about the average length of a post. In fact, Ezine Articles has a word meter at the end of your article and its perfect rating is at 400 words or just above. If you move into the 500 word length you move away from what the service likes. But, aside from article directories, blogging sites owned by individuals or businesses have varying word counts.
Take super-heavy-hitter blogger Seth Godin (Alexa rating: Globally 7010 / U.S. 2708). His post, “What ‘no’ means,” is only 116 words. And, this is the average post length he uses regularly. I’m not kidding, visit his site.
Then you have other authority sites, like The Renegade Writer, Inkwell Editorial, and Savvy Authors. The posts on these sites can be around 1000 words or more.
So, let’s ask the question: Does the length of your blog posts matter?
In an article at Hubspot.com it discusses this very topic. It noted that the blot post length should be whatever it takes to effectively deliver the message. I agree with this philosophy… to a degree.
When article marketing, one strategy is to create content that can keep giving. This means three things in particular:
1. If you use article directories, your articles usually need to be at least 400 words.
2. As a marketer and solopreneur you want to create content that you can morph into other products. For this strategy, you need to create substantial content. A 100 word article really won’t cut it.
3. Google loves content. While bloggers like Godin can rank high with 100 word posts, the average blogger won’t have the same success. Google wants your content to be readable, relevant to your site, and SHAREABLE.
Using these points, it would seem best to write average length blog posts.
Just Can’t Keep The Blog Post Length in Check
The trouble I encounter as a writer is I usually go way over 400 words. Lately, I seem to average 600 to 700 words or longer. And, the content doesn’t include fluff. It’s just that as I write, I think of additional strategies or tips I want to share with my audience.
This isn’t a problem though. You have at least three options when writing longer articles:
1. Post it as is.
2. Add enough words to make the article 800 to 900 words, then make the article a ‘two-parter.’
3. Divide it into two separate articles.
I usually create a series out of my longer articles. Some of my articles can be over 1000 words and I’ll create a three-part series. This works well, because it gives me ‘free’ content for other posting days.
There are though occasions when I’ll break the article up and create two or more separate posts. You can do the same.