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Social Media Round-Up [February 2020]
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Dan
How Long Should Blog Posts Be in 2020?
Originally published Mar 2, 2020
When checking in to see what is happening on Twitter and LinkedIn, there were references to an update provided on HubSpot about blog posts that featured data from folks monitoring Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – in other words, what gets posts noticed. For the HPE NonStop community there are now numerous bloggers actively writing about NonStop and for the NonStop community, it is definitely an encouraging sign to see as many active bloggers as there are today.
So what did HubSpot blogger AJ Beltis have to say?
If you’re a blogger, you’ve probably asked your editor “how long should this blog post be” more times than you’d care to admit.
And most of the time, you’ll hear an answer that sounds something like this: “However long it needs to be.”
Fair enough. However, what we really want to read about is what might be expected of us once our stories are published and promoted to the NonStop community? For more than a decade I have tailored posts to different blogs, each with different lengths, but even so, I am still open to feedback at any time.
So, what is the ideal blog post length?
For Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the ideal blog post length should be 2,100-2,400 words, according to HubSpot data.
We averaged the length of our 50 most-read blog posts in 2019, which yielded an average word count of 2,330. Individual blog post lengths ranged from 333 to 5,581 words, with a median length of 2,164 words.
But before you go writing your 2,300 word blog post, keep in mind that not all blog posts need to be super long — in fact, 16 of our top 50 read posts (or about one-third) were under 1,500 words, so there’s still plenty of opportunity to get your posts ranking even with a lower word count.
Based on HubSpot’s data, the ideal length of a blog post intended to generate leads is 2,500 words. The 50 posts that generated the most leads in 2019 were an average of 2,569 words long and had a median length of 2,529 words, which is approximately 250 and 400 words longer than the average and median lengths of the most-read blog posts. The longest post in this cohort was 8,197 words, or approximately 2,500 words longer than the longest most-read post.
So, for a blog post intended to build your contact database, writing longer content definitely works in your favor. Longer content reinforces your knowledge and authority on a subject — particularly if it’s a keyword or a topic for a very specific audience. When your coverage is more in-depth for these ideas, you increase your chances of ranking better — and while your audience might be smaller, your chances of converting readers into leads are far greater.
What about different types of posts? You may have come across references to a pillar page (it covers all aspects of the topic on a single page, with room for more in-depth reporting in more detailed cluster blog posts that hyperlink back to the pillar page) and even listicles (a piece of writing or other content presented wholly or partly in the form of a list). Then there are the familiar “How-to” posts as well as the “What-is” posts.
According to HubSpot blogger AJ Beltis: “Ideal Blog Post Lengths for Different Blog Post Types” come down to this –
How long should pillar pages be?
Pillar pages should be around 4,000 words, since they are supposed to cover significantly more content than an average blog post.
How long should listicles be?
Listicles, or list blog posts, should be 2,300-2,600 words.
List blog posts are probably the most approachable blog post format for new bloggers. Anyone can make a blog post just by listing off and explaining a few examples, tools, resources, or ideas for a given topic.
As for the rest of the blog posts, you will need to read the complete post referenced above. It can be found at –
Once I got over the lengths of posts being discussed here as I have always been challenged by what really constitutes an ideal blog post length – I have been advised that there are posts that I have published that have been too long, too short, too frequent and yes, too “flowery!” Like all bloggers I continue to work at coming up with the ideal post. What I liked about this particular post to HubSpot was the all-important takeaway it provided.
No matter the type of post – Pillar, Listicle, “How-to”, “What-is” or something completely different – the important consideration is to simply write something of interest to you. Tackle subjects that are of interest to you – and aren’t we all interested in NonStop? Getting started is always the hard part but then again, just as everyone has an opinion, everyone has a story, especially when it comes to NonStop.
So please no inhibitions – just start posting!
