Yes, a blog post’s length does affect how well it will perform on search engines. To climb page rank on the almighty Google, marketers need to create quality content with an appropriate length, which directly helps SEO efforts. While short form, keyword-rich posts lasting a few hundred words may have once worked; this is no longer the case. The evidence shows that lengthy, well researched, and relevant content will usually perform the best on search engines.
So, what exactly is the appropriate length for a blog post to rank on Google today? The digital marketers at Premiere Creative can help you determine the best blogging strategy.
What Do Search Engines Look For?
Do you want more web traffic from search engines like Google or Bing? If so, then take a look at your existing blog posts and evaluate whether or not each article has an appropriate length. Statistics indicate that an ideal blog post usually falls around 2,300 words. Search engines look for long, heavily researched posts, especially when they’re focused on solving a pressing problem for readers. While longer posts might receive less engagement on social media, you will eventually see a huge spike in traffic once Google indexes your blog post. This phenomenon occurs because Google will deem you a reliable and authoritative source of information, thereby securing your place at the top of its SERPs.
The actual content within your blogs matters just as much as the blog’s length. In fact, the length of your blog post is secondary to the quality of your post, the structure of the article, its readability, and its engagement level. Don’t strive to meet a 2,500-word count if you can effectively articulate your ideas in a post half the size.
Weekly Content Strategy: 1,000-Word Blogs
When people search for information, they generally want a quick answer. When the subject does not require longer content, readers prefer shorter content. Seasoned marketers believe that the best blog length is “whatever it takes to make your point.” Content ranging between 1000-1500 words will receive fewer comments, but a lot more shares on social media. Writing weekly blog posts at 1000 words will help to increase your business’s presence on search engines without exhausting all of your creativity and resources. These weekly posts will also help you keep your audience engaged. Additionally, consistent blogging will show Google that your website continues to produce fresh and engaging content worthy of that top spot.
Monthly Content Strategy: 2,500-Word Blogs
Word count is a great way to get Google’s attention. The majority of blogs located on the first page of Google have a word count of over 2,000. Thus, you will want to aim for 2,500 words to start ranking on search engines and become noticed by hundreds of new readers per month. For the highest rankings, your posts should be well researched, focus on solving someone’s problem and incorporate competitive keywords. Digital experts agree you can ease up by writing monthly blogs at 2,500 words since these posts require extensive time and research. These blogs will be highly targeted posts that serve a real purpose.
How Do You Keep A Reader’s Attention?
Not sure how to capture people’s attention? You can do so by adding images, videos, infographics, bullet points, to keep them reading 2,500 words rich information. It may also help to frame the information in a way that they can understand or relate with. Plus, the better job you do of engaging the reader, the lower your bounce rate and higher your engagement. Time spent on a page is a signal to Google that people didn’t just bounce back to the search results.
You can also keep your readers engage with how you structure the post. People tend to have a short attention span these days, so they may find reading a post with long paragraphs a difficult test. To solve this dilemma, try including bullet points within the post to highlight key points and break up paragraphs. You can also try adding multimedia such as videos, infographics, and images to break up long paragraphs.
How Do You Title Your Blog?
Do you want your blog posts to rank really well in search results? For the purpose of SEO, the ideal title length has to do with the dimensions of each entry on a search engine results page. For Google, titles of search results are usually contained at a length of 600 pixels—which means it is able to display the first 50-60 characters of a title tag. Therefore, keep your title under 60 characters if you do not want it to get cut off in the search results. To optimize your blog for social sharing, it needs to be a different length. For instance, titles between 8-12 words in length got the most Twitter shares on average, while titles with either 12-14 words in the title got the most Facebook likes.
While content is most definitely King, marketers need to understand that context reigns as queen. What good do your posts offer if readers aren’t able to comprehend the message you’re trying to communicate? The next time you write a blog post, try to link it to popular culture like television shows. For example, maybe you wrote a really great article about the basic tenets of content marketing. While this may be excellent information, some readers might find it a bit dry. To peak your audiences’ interest, try renaming and restructuring your blog post with a catchy title like “5 Content Marketing Lessons from Game of Thrones,” or “What The Walking Dead Taught Us About Content Marketing.” While this method may take some creativity, it will help set apart your blog post from the same old, recycled material.
What is a Meta Description?
A Meta description refers to the HTML attribute explaining the contents of your web page on Google’s SERPs. Basically, it’s the snippet description you see on a search engine results page before you click to go to the page—the “preview.” Marketers need to be aware Google has a tendency to cut off most meta descriptions after two lines of text, or about 160 characters.
While a Meta description does not have a direct effect on your ranking, you shouldn’t neglect it. Taking the time to create a Meta description may actually entice people to visit your page because it paints a somewhat clear picture of what the page might contain. We recommend that you keep your Meta description at 155 characters to optimize your search engine results.
Bringing It All Together
The length of your blog post depends on your business’s goals and resources; unfortunately, some companies may simply not have enough resources to publish blogs consistently. But by following our tips, your team can create optimized content with an appropriate length to help business growth. If you want to increase web traffic to your website, contact the digital marketing experts at Premiere Creative today.