How Long Should Your Posts Be?
There is a lot of discussion on Wealthy Affiliate regarding post length. Some people advocate long posts, stating that an article must be 3000+ words in order to get ranked. Other’s submit that length is not important, and that even a post as few as 200-300 words is just fine.
Such discussions, of course, can be quite confusing to brand-new members. Which is better, short posts or long ones? Today is a bit of a continuation of my thoughts from yesterday on what is required, and I hope to give some comfort to those still conflicted.
Short Posts Are Fine (Sort Of)
One thing that scares a lot of new members who lack experience is the thought of having to write thousands of words. If you’ve never written 3000 (or even 1000) words before, the task can be quite daunting.
I get it. I'm currently in the planning stages of my first fantasy novel. The industry standard for fantasy is roughly 100,000-140,000. Talk about unsettling! But you write it the same way as anything else... one word at a time.
Yes, it is true. Google prefers longer posts. But it’s not for the reason you might think. We’ll cover that in a bit.
In the meantime, here’s the good news…
I have a saying: You have to get it “write” before you can get it “right”.
The hardest part is just starting. Don’t worry if you can’t think of a lot to write about. Don’t stress if you were only able to come up with a few hundred words to begin with. Who cares?
Just get something out there, regardless of how short — or “bad” — you think it is. Getting anything published will always be better than nothing.
Focus on getting it “write” (written); you can always tweak it later.
Longer Posts Rule (Sort Of)
As mentioned, Google loves longer posts. I’ve had posts rank quickly that were 3500 or more. One post that does extremely well was nearly 10,000 words. And, yes, before you ask, as much as I would like to impress you, I didn’t bang it out in a day; it took weeks to write and edit.
Here’s the thing you need to really understand. Google does NOT like long posts because they're long. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but stick with me.
Google couldn't care less about how many words you use. For example, you could write the word “the” 10,000 times and post it on your site; sure it's long, but that doesn't mean it will rank. Google will simply ignore it.
It’s not about the number of words, per se. It’s that more words, in general, tend to reflect the level of research you have done on a topic, and how much information you are sharing about it. That’s it.
In other words, Google considers your word count a natural consequence of how much effort you have put into discovering good information that you can share with your readers. Longer posts tend to contain more quality information than shorter ones. It’s that simple.
Conclusion
If you are brand new, just concentrate on writing every day. In fact, at this stage, it’s not even about publishing. Instead, concentrate on the act of writing in order to build that habit. Even if you only write 100 words, or for 10 minutes, it doesn’t matter. Just do it every day.
Once you’ve developed a daily habit, now you can begin to publish shorter posts when you're ready. Spend a day or two writing about a particular topic, and once you hit 300-500 words and can’t think of anything else to say, publish it.
Will it shoot to the number one slot on Google tomorrow? Not a chance. But that’s not the point. You can’t rank what you don’t write.
Finally, as you progress and get more and more comfortable with writing in general, you can begin to research more and go back and “punch up” some of those shorter posts. I’ve done this myself, and I can assure you that what started out as a couple of paragraphs evolved into a rather hefty post after only a few months of chipping away at it.
No one gets it right all the time. In fact, no one even gets it right most of the time. Consider this...
The immortal Babe Ruth had a career batting average of .342. Ty Cobb currently holds the highest average at .366. If you are not into how baseball works, let me put that into perspective...
A batting average is the number of hits in a career divided by the number of times they were at bat. In other words, two of the best baseball players of all time literally failed over 6 times out of 10.
So, stop beating yourself up. Just do what you can do. Always remember, it’s about progress, not perfection.
Please share your experiences (and struggles) with post length with the rest of the community.
Good luck, and keep writing :-)
Recent Comments
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Although writing can be frustrating at times, resisting the actual effort to start the process of writing is more of a problem. After you start putting something down it will be basically easy to have other ideas occur to you. The vast majority of writing can be done without consulting additional sources -- however, if you need to follow the following:
If you need to research the topic(s) before starting the process of writing, there is a plethora of sources you can use, You can consult different websites, databases and/or you can consult various different research libraries. And at those libraries you can save time by talking to the research librarian about the topic(s) that you are writing about.
"The vast majority of writing can be done without consulting additional sources"
Yes and no, Richard.
Different writers have different processes. See my comments below to @Bald Eagle where I detail this more.
Your comments suggest that you are a seat-of-the-pants writer, and that is great because it works for you. But if an outline-style writer tried to write that way they would likely stare at a blank screen for days.
And that discovery process is part of the joy of writing. We each have to explore to find what method works best for us. In that sense, it's very similar to choosing a niche... what one finds fascinating another may find dreadfully boring. :-)
I meant my comment with a degree of sarcasm (my writing has just been done in little journals like Science & Nature).
Well said! Thanks, your post has made me reflect on my own writing habits and style - and stopped me from beating my head against the wall (a little anyhow lol).
I personally don't believe the length of the article is the most important aspect. What is important is to discuss the topic, whatever that may be, making sure to convey your knowledge and ideas on it completely.
Each time I sit down to write a post my 'goal' is to write 1000 words however, I honestly don't pay much attention to the length of what I've actually written until I get towards writing the conclusion.
I've hit a few bumps in the road with the article I've been currently working on. What seemed like a simple subject to research and pump out a post on has turned into literally TWELVE 2-sided pages of notes that I must now somehow organize and turn into a post.
Needless to say, that half-day writing session I was envisioning has not been the reality!
I've beaten myself up a bit about not holding to my goal of 2 articles per week this week. I know though, once I do get my monster-post completed, it will be worth the weight of 2 or even 3 posts (at least in my mind) and I will be satisfied knowing I covered the topic completely and to the best of my ability.
Thanks for the read - it helped pull me out of my "writer's blues." I know with practice, writing will get easier (and hopefully happen faster).
All the best to you,
Shannon
No worries, Shannon. Sounds like you're doing great.
And remember, goals are merely that: goals. Sometimes we hit them, and sometimes we don't. What's important is that they push you to do your best, regardless of the outcome.
You control what you can control and then let it go: Are Your Goals Hurting Your Progress? Here's the funny thing about goals... even if you set an impossible goal and don't make it, you've still usually accomplished something pretty amazing.
As I like to say, aim for the stars, because even if you miss, you still cleared the mountains. :-)
I love that: "Aim for the stars, because even if you miss, you still cleared the mountains." Very nice :)
I'm not too bent out of shape about not getting this post out as quickly as I would have liked but I do think about consistency. I keep hearing 'consistency is key' so having my site just sitting there stewing while I work on this monster does irk me a little bit.
I've also had other set-backs this week that included a fried laptop and my son enduring a fractured collarbone injury. It's been quite the busy last 7 days haha!
Thanks for the reassurance, you really lifted my spirits!
Blessings, Shannon
Hi AJ,
Thanks for great article and encouragement for someone that has been with WA a little while.
I started like you mentioned ... wondering "How in the world can I write 300 words". I did what you said, just put out what I could.
The amount increased as I dove into my niche and just "talked" about it. Soon I was up to an easy 1,00-1,300 words. Then I did the "big one" 2,500 words.
I am writing a review on a famous person, havent' finished it yet but approaching 5,000 words, should be able to go over that. As you said, it is not the word count that matters so much as the quality of content and information.
When you are on "fire" on a topic the word count will build itself. So it is the research and expansion of the information that will get you there.
Thanks again.
Bill
"When you are on "fire" on a topic the word count will build itself."
Hahaha... darn it, Bill. You just wrote my entire article in only 14 words! lol
Well done, sir. Thanks for sharing :-)
Hi AJ,
Sorry didn't mean to steal your thunder. I really enjoyed your article, very informing.
Bill
Good evening my friend, I want to give you an example of my experience in the last year at wa, and that is when I first began I was only doing 200 to 500 words in my articles, yes most of them got index however, when I started writing articles between 1000 and 2500 words, My article started to hit the first page. What I'm saying is, if your articles are between 1000 and 3000 your chances of getting on the front page are much better. By the way, I think your block was outstanding, may you have a blessed week.
A perfect description of the process I outlined... you got "better" as you progressed. Well done :-)
Great post. I have been working on my site for almost 6 mos and typically I don't do less than 1100, and some 1500-1600.
All of my posts seem to be getting indexed. I guess time will tell how well they do. I do have about 70 posts and 3-5 are 2nd page google already and 1 first page.
For me when I am reading a post, the super duper long posts is just not my thing.
Thanks for the post.
Coralie
Awesome. Sounds like you are right on track with what my data shows as a good timeline. In fact, you're even a bit ahead of the curve, so well done. Keep doing what you're doing :-)
I agree with you - I tend to lose interest many times when the article is TOO long. There are times however, when I'm really into the topic and find myself wishing it hadn't ended, even if I've already been reading for 30 minutes.
I guess it just depends on the topic. The writing style can make a difference too - some people just have a flow and corkiness to their writing and I could read their words forever :D
Take care, Shannon
Good points all around. Breaking the texts up and all the other info that goes into writing good posts gets easier after you just do it!
Make it enjoyable and something you would stay and read is what I try to do because otherwise they are off and onto somewhere else, not your site.
You are correct, quality and not just size are very important to Google.
I do much better writing as I would discuss now, and it fits who I am.
Take care,
Bill
"It fits who I am."
That's it, Bill. As I mentioned to @Bald Eagle below, we have to find what works best for us. My way might not be your way, and your way might not be someone else's... and that's perfectly okay. As long as we get the content out, at the end of the day that's all that matters.
Thanks for sharing :-)
All valid points.
It's the Nike slogan all over - just do it.
As an aside ...
I am very pleased to hear that you took a couple of weeks to write that monster post.
I have just taken two to three weeks to do the same.
My first hurdle was the structure - turning that over in my mind and on paper was frustrating but in the end I came up with something.
Once I had that skeleton in place dressing it with 4,000 words was pretty easy but time consuming.
Then of course I needed images, and with a 4000 word post you need a few.
They had to all be optimised.
In the end it was a bigger task than I thought but the research into the subject has given me ammo for more posts that should be a lot easier (and shorter).
And the post is now published for all time and no matter where it is ranked (I presume on page 1,200,763 :) ) it is already working for me.
Now to get some more posts behind it to push it up the ranks.
Awesome. Sounds like you and I are similar with regard to structure.
There are generally considered to be two types of writers out there (at least in fiction): pansters and plotters. There is actually a third, which I'll get to in a minute...
A "pantser" is someone that just opens a blank document and starts writing whatever is in their head, just getting it down, and then goes back and tweaks and edits later. My daughter writes this way, as does Stephen King.
Others, on the other hand, are plotters. They tend to have a detailed outline of what they intend to say and where they intend to go before they start actually writing the content. Once all the blocks are in place, they literally just fill in the blanks. It is rumored that the late Robert Ludlum outlined as much as 70% of the Bourne Identity novel before he ever sat down to actually write it.
Then there is me (and others like me, of course.) I fall into a category I have named "planter" -- a combination of plotter and pantser. I will generally start with a rough outline to keep me on the right path, i.e. planting the seeds, but then I write by the seat of my pants within that structure, sort of like how a river is free to flow, but still restricted by the shore line.
At the end of the day, no one way is right or even best. We're all different people and we all write differently. They key is to find what works best for us as individuals and then start banging out the words.
Thanks for sharing :-)
I don't personally like to have a lot of fluff(filler words)in a post just to jack up the count. For myself, I have found that around 1200-1400 words are plenty to get my message across.
Recently my posts have been getting indexed in a day or so after writing and according to WA 113 of 131 posts are now indexed. However, I put each post through Google Search Console and only five of 131 have not been indexed according to them.
I have no problem with writing as I have self-published eight books, but have learned over the years to get to the point when writing as it seems to create more interest for the reader.
I think the same is true for websites. Most times you only have a matter of seconds to entice a visitor to continue reading. If your post is full of text that makes no sense because you strived to reach 1000 words(or any amount)at all costs you will lose that visitor for good, along with any chance at monetization.
Just my take on it.
Agreed. And that was one of the points that I made. Filler "fluff" doesn't do a lick of good, although I see it quite often. It's all about quality and really communicating with the reader. Sounds like you've got your "recipe" dialed in nicely :-)
This should be some great reassurance and motivation for people to just start writing! It gets easier the more we do it so just start!
The more you write on your site the more you will get into a habit of writing in a certain way. For example, once you find the style that works for you (where to insert images, when to use headings, where to insert links, what questions to answer about products your review) you will find it easier to use those same style elements over and over. Those elements make it easier to think of a post as a series of smaller topics rather than a daunting wall of text.
I always use a header image now. When I started (and for a long time) I did not know what a header image was. Now it is faster because I am not struggling to center or size an image. I just find a good image and use it as the header image. This is a bit off topic since it is about an image rather than actual writing but the same holds true for using headers or any other element of our posts.
When I started I did not understand the importance of headers. Now that I know headers are necessary for our posts to rank well, I always use them and they are natural break between thoughts. Where I would have just started a new paragraph before, now I use a header to introduce a new topic to my post. If I don't have much time to write on a certain day I might just write a header and the associated text on that day and do another section under another header the next day.
Whatever you do, do something!
Jessica
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A.J,
This post should be compulsory reading for all new members. You put the act of writing articles into perspective.
Practice makes perfect. It’s all about sharing valuable information. Quality trumps Quantity. Clearly, longer quality posts should be the goal.
I enjoyed reading this and got something valuable out of it to.
Edwin
Aww, thanks for your kind words, Edwin. And feel free to send as many new members you talk to this way :-)
AJ,
Will do. When I get them. None so far.
Cheers.
Edwin