How long should a blog post beIf you’re running your own blog, especially if you’re just starting out, you probably have a whole host of questions. After you get the basics of blogging, including how to research keywords and find out what your audience wants, you can start your own personal research and determine what your audience likes best. Fortunately, there are a few rules of thumb that can put you on the right track.

How Long Should Blog Posts Be?

Generally, you don’t want to get too long-winded with your blog posts. Shoot for 400 words and give yourself 100 words of wiggle room in either direction. If you find that you have too little to say on a particular topic, that’s okay — short blog posts are okay every now and then. Too much, though, and you should probably write a series (and that’s good, too, because then you have even more fodder for your blog). Try breaking up long posts into two or more; your audience will appreciate the fact that you’re writing posts that are easy to take in, and they’ll come back to read the next installment, as well.

What’s Too Long for a Blog Post?

Search engines like long blog posts now and then, too. Here’s where I’d caution you: if every one of your posts is topping 700 or 800 words, you’re probably packing too much in at once. (See above about breaking them up into two or more installments.) You can pull it off once in a while, depending on how frequently you’re blogging.

And don’t forget: if you need help from a professional blogger, I’m here.