You’ve been diligent in developing the topics that you wish to cover and now comes the fun part – actually writing your blog. But how much or how little should you write? Some of us can go on and on with our coverage of significant topics like how to apply a passive electronic component or process control safety, while others are shorter than short on topics ranging from a selection guide on anti-virus software to book recommendations. The challenge for bloggers is there really is no practical physical limit to a blog so how do you know when enough is enough?
There are a few guidelines that you might want to consider before you exhaust your next topic. 1) Think about the reader. The internet has taught many of us to have short attention spans – odds are that I have already lost a 1/3 of my audience because this blog is already too long. Short attention spans call for shorter, more targeted posts. Studies have pegged the attention span of an average North American reader at somewhere between 96 seconds and 2 minutes. 2) Write enough to properly cover a topic. Some topics demand more space. One never wants to disappoint a reader by not giving them enough of what they came for, just make sure you shed the non essential and try to keep your typical post between 250-1000 words. If a topic is simply too big to cover in this space, consider breaking a single longer post into two or three shorter posts that cover the topic in natural chunks of information. 3) It has been hotly debated as to whether blog length impacts search engine results. Search Engine Optimization experts have varying opinions, however most agree that extremely short and extremely long web pages are not ranked as highly as pages that fall between the magic 250 and 1000 words. Going one step further, some SEO experts caution bloggers to specifically consider the length of their blog title with a recommendation of keeping it to 8 words and under. Learn more at: https://www.bloggeradda.com/seo-tips/length-of-title-of-blog-post-and-seo/
In the end, it is up to you to balance all of these factors when determining the right length for your blog. More important than rules, one should consider that if you have something to share with the world to help make it a better place, you should get out there and say it. Who knows, that post on motor selection might just help inspire the next great break through and that cloud computing case study might just save a company from being hacked and prevent economic ruin. For 100 simple ideas to help you save the earth, check out https://www.seql.org/100ways.cfm. Now get out there and do your part, in concise, valuable and informative blogs that can be read in two minute or less!
