It’s a question that turns up again and again: how long should my blog post be?
I’ve answered it before but since blog post length has come up on my Twitter feed today, it’s obviously worth looking at one more time.
What is the optimum length for a blog post?
My answer is this: as long or short as it needs to be to do a proper job.
Long posts don’t put people off unless they’re unnecessarily long. There’s nothing wrong with long posts per se. If you need to write 5000 words to cover a subject in the right amount of detail to satisfy your target audience’s needs, they will read it.
Short posts are not off-putting either, as long as they do the job in hand. Which means getting the message across clearly or answering the question in full. Just because a post is short it doesn’t mean the writer hasn’t done a good job. Succinct is perfect when the message you’re putting across is simple or the question you’re posing only requires a short answer.
This is a very short blog post. I’ve made it short because the answer to the question is very simple. How long should a blog post be? As long or short as it needs to be. Long is fine. Short is fine. Everything in between is fine. There are no rules except this: make a bloody good job of it.
