Questioning Blog Post Length: Does Size Really Matter?

Word Counts: The Magic Number Everyone is Looking for 

“How long does it have to be? What do you mean there is no limit? But we need a word count” were just a few of the questions asked in regards to our first blogging assignment in a social media based class this semester. Panic. Sheer panic. With essays, online forum responses, and reflection papers this is an easy answer, just look in the syllabus, you know who your audience is and what they expect from you. But for blogging, the answer isn’t always as clear.  For social media it is never clear what will work and what won’t, especially the first time you attempt something; it is more or less trial and error until you start to get it right and see a pattern of positive response from your intend audience.

Inspiration vs. Necessity 

As an English major and lover of the written word, my tendency is to always write way more than I need to, sometimes to the point of excessive repetition, regardless of the assignment, topic, or course at hand. I always get the feeling that I could always say more, research more, make just one more point, or expand beyond the bounds of the continuously growing word count. In the blogging world, this desire to write until I just can’t anymore applies as well. As Joe Bunting describes in his own blog about the question of length in a blog post, “How Long Should Your Blog Post Be? A Writer’s Guide”, if you feel inspired, you do not always have to conform to a certain word count or paragraph limit; this is good news for me. "If the muse moves you, don’t be afraid to write posts that are 2,000 words or more. At the same time, don’t feel bad if you want to write a post that’s just 200 words long.” It is all about finding the balance between your wants and desires and those of your audience as well. 

It is much easier to fall into this writing black hole of inspirational rambling because you are fully in control of what you write and the numerical limit literally does not exist. But does it? Is there a certain limit that can apply to blogging as a whole, regardless of the topic or content, that will make it successful, or does it indeed depend on the content and topic of what is being written in order to determine the length of each blog post? This is able to be argued both ways I believe, for both are very influential factors when blogging. 

Bunting points out the bloggers themselves all want more readers, comments, links, and traffic, but in order to get that, we have to be strategic in the content that we share with the public. Naturally, your audience pretty much drives your word count when paired with your goal in writing the post in the first place. However, this is hard to do when you don’t necessarily know who your audience is, what they may or may not be interested in, and what length will keep their attention or generate the most response; especially if you are a beginner blogger, like me.

Share More to Get More

Not only do you need to focus on how readable the blog post is, but also how shareable it is, the SEO, depending on where you are intending to share it. The potential share ability of your blog post can affect how long or short you make your post, depending on your audience and content. Simply put, Bunting explains that the longer the post, the better for social shares, the shorter the post, the better for more comments; it is all about your priority in what type of response you want most.

In contrast, Marieke van de Rakt makes the point in her blog about blog length that even if your post is lengthy, it still has to be done in an effective and readable way. "However, long posts require strong writing skills. Not every writer will be able to write readable blog posts of more than 1000 words. Still, these lengthy blog posts are of great importance for your SEO strategy”, (van de Rakt). You cannot depend solely on length, you actually need some skill. This means structure, a clear direction, short, easy to read parapgraphs, and no distracting grammar mistakes; it is much harder to do. The higher the length, the better chance you have of your blog making a presence on search engines, like Google, especially if it is over 300 words. This is the most solid and dependable word count you will probably be able to find in regards to blogging, but it gives you a starting point. 

Try, try, try again.

Social media is all about trial and error, and this applies to blogging as well. You have to find what works for you and concrete way to go about blogging that will lead you directly to the perfect way to blog, but there are definitely some key factors that will help you along. You won’t ever know if you don’t try. If you have forgotten just how much you can grow on social media, look back at your 2010 Facebook self and compare it to now. Hopefully a lot has changed, but if not, make your blog that place of change, you still have a chance to redeem yourself.