How Long Should A Blog Post Be? Ideal Length for 2024

Figuring out the ideal blog post length is an important task for any blogger to master. When I first started out blogging in 2006, you could rank #1 in Google with shorter articles of less than 300 words.

Fast forward to 2024, I have seen a drastic change in the average length of top-ranking articles. Many of these changes in the average blog post length were affected by several things:

• AI tools like ChatGPT have made it easier to crank out an endless supply of content.
• The cost of content is approaching zero so bloggers are writing longer posts to compete in the Google search results.
• Google Adsense will switch to impression-based RPMs in 2024 so bloggers are incentivized to create as much content as possible to boost ad income

According to SEMrush, blog posts with 3,000+ words get 138% more pageviews than blog posts with less than 500 words.

Longer form content performs better on average but that doesn’t mean you should start cranking out 3,000+ word blog posts right away.

Think about your niche and the user intent to figure out the ideal blog post length. If you’re a tech news blogger then you don’t need to write 3,000+ words for every news article.

The Ideal Blog Post Length for Various Types of Content

Here’s a quick guide on how long a blog post should be based on the type of content:

• Press Releases: 400 to 700 words is ideal for a press release on a new product, company announcement, or upcoming event.
• Announcement Articles: 400 to 600 words is the ideal length for a blog post announcement.
• News Articles: 600 to 1,000 words is the optimal length for news-type blog posts
• Informational Blog Posts: 1,000 to 1,500 words is ideal for a helpful blog post that guides the reader from problem to solution.
• How to Guides: 1,500 to 2,500 words is ideal for a comprehensive “How to” blog post.
• “Best Of” Posts: 1,000 to 2,000 words is ideal for a “best of” blog post.
• Pillar Blog Posts: 3,000+ words is the ideal target for a pillar post.
• Comparison Blog Posts: 1,000 to 1,5000 words is ideal for a comparison blog post.

On average, most high-ranking blog posts are at least 1,500 words in length. I’m also noticing a huge surge in articles with well over 2,000 words and sometimes even 5,000 words for extremely competitive keywords.

The Ideal Blog Post Length Based on Keyword Difficulty

My general rule is that you will need to write more words if your target keyword is more competitive. Here’s a quick guide on how long a blog post should be based on how competitive the target keyword is:

• Very Easy (0-14% KD): 500 to 1,000 words
• Easy (15-29%): 700 to 1,200 words
• Possible (30-49%): 1,000 to 1,500 words
• Difficult (50-69%): 1,500 to 2,000 words
• Hard (70-84%): 2,000 to 3,000 words
• Very Hard (85-100%): 3,000+ words

Real-Life Example of Top 10 Google Rankings for “How Long Should A Blog Post Be”

Let’s take a look at the average blog post length for the keyword “How Long Should a Blog Post Be”. This keyword gets around 1,600 US Google searches per month and is the target keyword of the article you are currently reading.

Position	Blog Post Length
0	614
2	2,495
3	2,625
4	2,837
5	2,504

BrightEdge earned the top spot of position zero with a 600-word glossary article but the rest of the top 5 blog posts were all over 2,000 words.

If I want a decent chance of ranking in the top 10 then writing at least 2,000 words looks like the best strategy.

Research The Average Word Count of the Top 5 Ranking Pages

Certain keywords require more in-depth content so be sure to research the word count of the top-ranking pages before you start creating any content. This will also save you from targeting keywords that are too competitive and will cost you either too much time or money to focus on.

You can download the free SurferSEO Chrome extension to display average blog post length whenever you perform a Google search. Another free tool is UseTopic’s Blog Post Length calculator.

Think about User Intent

Certain topics require more words to explain than others. For example, a blog post about “Best Gaming Mouse” needs around 700 to 1,000 words to review each of the best products.

However, a blog post about “How to Start a Blog” needs at least 3,000 or more words to cover the topic in-depth. I don’t necessarily write more words if Google is ranking shorter content at the top.

Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and find a way to write helpful content in the shortest amount of words possible.

“How to” posts require a lot more words but most other topics need 2,000 words or less.

Publish First Then Add More Content Later

Don’t make the mistake of seeking perfection as a blogger. Write a good enough article and get it published as fast as possible. See how your audience responds to your blog post and review your Google Search Console Impressions and Analytics traffic data.

Getting GSC impressions but not a lot of clicks? Add more content to the end of the article by including:

• More paragraphs: Make yo
• images
• videos
• infographics
• quotes
• embedded social media posts
• charts

Adding a couple hundred words of content along with a few images is enough to bump up your rankings and drive more blog traffic.

Optimize Your Blog Posts for Mobile Devices

80% of my readers across my networks of blogs read my sites on a mobile device. Optimize your content for mobile devices by doing the following:

• Use shorter paragraphs to make it easy for your readers to skim your articles
• Break up large walls of text by hitting the Enter button frequently
• Add bulleted points and lists to your articles to make them mobile-friendly

Mobile readers have short attention spans so think about getting to the point and cutting out the fluff.

Test and Make Changes Accordingly

Test different types of short and long-form blog posts to see what works best for your blog.

I’ve had success with shorter posts for low-competition keywords while higher-competition keywords require 3,000 or more words to rank high in Google.

If you have success with long-form content then keep doing what’s working.