I am going to give you a very brief update right now on how to write a short blog post. Ha ha, yeah, right, if only! I seem to be having the uncanny trend lately to write longer and longer posts. My previous post where I reviewed if Wealthy Affiliate is a Scam was over 3500 words! However, I will try to keep this one short and sweet.
Should you be writing shorter blog posts? Is lengthy content a good thing? What are the best ways to write a shorter post? These are the questions we will look at today.
In my first job back in 1997 when I worked at an IT Consultancy company after obtaining my Masters, new staff were put on a 3 day psychology and personal development course called Skills for Excellence.
One of the things discussed was how to get your point across by giving a presentation in 5 minutes. The idea is that it is not quantity but quality that is everything. If you can deliver your message within 5 minutes then this is far more relevant than a 30 minute talk.
This has always stuck with me and it is so true for blogging. Can you deliver your message in 500 words or less? Or are you going to take 3000 words to explain something that should only take 1 paragraph?
This is where I have a problem with those whom say 1500 words at least for a blog post for the sake of it. The idea is the more content then the more you will get noticed by Google when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Is Big Really Beautiful? Is Size Everything?
From my own experience, I am going to have to pretty much disagree with all of that. Yes, writing a detailed post getting your message across is always important with information that is valuable.
However, writing 3000 – 5000 words of fluff is not going to sit well with Google and certainly not with your audience.
The A.I. algorithms in the search engines are extremely intelligent and up to a point the internet has the ability to think for itself. Google has the ability to read your content and determine how relevant it is with the keywords you are using but the algorithms I am sure, will be able to make judgments based on the quality and engagement of your content.
Also in a couple of niches I have written less than 300 words for a blog post and it has ranked on the first page even with a quite a few affiliate links in it. If percentage of your affiliate links is high in ratio to your content then the search engines might consider it spammy.
So my dear lovely pretty girls and boys of the blogging underworld, experiment with shorter blog posts!
It is not about being lazy or not willing to put in a lot of effort but more of getting to the point and at the same time deliver effectively your message on what your audience are after.
I am going to be continuing experimenting with shorter blog posts and see how they rank.
Depending on the competition, low hanging fruit key words can rank really well with short content.
If you create a lot of short blog posts for each of those low hanging fruit keywords then that is going to accumulate a lot of organic traffic – targeting each of those short blog posts that can rank on the first page.
This also goes to show how mini-niche sites do very well with organic traffic if you know what your doing. Just like with what I see discussed out there about short blog posts – another urban legend is that small niche sites do not rank high in the search engines.
Short vs Long Blog Posts…
Okay, keep calm for a second. I will not be giving up on the long style format, not least as long blog posts are very evergreen content that can be as relevant today as it will be for years to come. So don’t get me wrong I think long form blog posts are very important and always will be. I will certainly be writing longer and longer posts but my point is it needs to be engaging and valuable for the audience and not just a large post just for the sake of it that is full of waffle.
I say if you are promoting a product or service as a review, then nothing works better than a lengthy blog post that is detailed and your explanation is thorough.
Quality evergreen content in the form of a long post is always going to work the best.
So yes, absolutely long form content works for your rankings, but we should not discount short content blog posts. Not least, as they can be a great way to get you started on your blog.
I would recommend if you are a just starting out online as a blogger, then writing regular short form blog posts is the ideal way to go. This will make sure that you are not getting too overwhelmed or burdened with the task of writing a lengthy long blog posts.
It can be off putting for the newbie blogger when they are told they have to write long detailed blog posts. Blogging is a skill and like learning any other new talent, it is best to do it in small steps.
They will allow you to build up your writing blogging endeavours as you explore your creative abilities.
When you are starting out you may find you run into writers block and so it is best not to overwhelm yourself with the idea that to be successful you must (as a rule of thumb) write 2000 – 3000 words each time. Learning to write short blog posts will allow you to blog on a regular basis.
If you are a new to all of this, I would advise you to write a blog post once per day or at least 3 – 4 times per week.
What I am getting at here is that short blog posts vs long ones have their place and each should not replace the other.
How Do You Write A Short Blog Post?
One thing that is very important to understand is that the length of the post does not matter.
It is how you convey your message and if you are able to give quality content that is helpful to the visitor.
So let us look at some important elements that will make a great blogging experience.
I will be discussing what I mean as a short blog post in a moment.
Quality, Engaging and Unique Content
If you look at the first page of google and you will see that the search results have something different in terms of content for each blog post that is being ranked for the keyword you entered into the search engine. It is not always the case but usually the search results will offer a variety.
Google is wanting to provide a number of different insights or solutions for the reader.
You will see Youtube videos, long and short blog posts, plus images and Ads. There is all kinds of content on the first page.
I am looking to start creating Youtube videos and other multimedia elements like podcasts to my regular blog posts – so the videos will be supplements to the blog posts. If you do this then you will be making full use of different platforms, social media and different search engines. Thus taking full advantage of the traffic they will bring.
Not everyone has time to read a 3000 – 5000 blog post!
To be frank, I don’t always want to be spending forever writing such long posts and nor should I need to if the message can be communicated in 1000 words or less.
Thought Provoking Content
Content or articles that are well researched and have links to authority publishers will be getting plenty of Google Love and eventually you will get links from other blogs to your site.
This has happened to me on my Limb Regeneration site about a particular area of research on the African Mouse and its regenerative abilities.
Inside Google Console (Webmaster) I found some publishers writing on the subject of regeneration and had linked to my site! Also once I noticed an authority site on the subject embedded a Youtube video of mine on their article.
Why is that? Without meaning to brag, it is because it is interesting and thought provoking content. While I tend to wrote long posts on the subject it does not have to be.
No one (including Google I reckon) is saying that your posts must be over 2000 words.
I know what you are asking right now… That million dollar question of how many words makes a short blog post???
You will be delighted to know that for me the ideal number would be 500 – 600 words.
I have read blogs that have content in access of 3000 words and to be honest a lot of it is waffle around the edges where the “meat and potatoes” was a few paragraphs in the middle.
I mean seriously, can bloggers these days not just get to the frigging point?
I know what they are doing and it is called “filler content” and its supposed to give the search engines something to munch on in the cyber ether. Thinking that if there is a tonne of content then it will keep Google sweet.
I think a lot of these long online novels could get their message across in a shorter blog post.
I am sure if it has not happened already then Google will come out with something that will address any “filler content”. Google would like a quality, accurate short blog post as opposed to a long one that does not have relevant information and no value.
Ranking and SEO Techniques
So you have put a lot of effort into writing a blog post, you have proof read it, edited multiple times, and perhaps spent many hours or days working on it. Only it was all for naught as it is not ranking well which means your hard efforts are not going to be seen by any one. So what was the point?
So learning how to rank with SEO techniques and how to promote is perhaps even more important than knowing how to write a good post.
It really all depends on the competition and the also the subject but I have out ranked others on the same subject and I didn’t have as much content or as many related additional blog posts.
I took a screenshot showing the eleven40 Pro Theme by StudioPress that I reviewed recently, is on the top position in the Bing search engine. You will find that these rankings will bounce around a bit.
In addition, if you include videos and podcasts this means you will be using several search engines and not just one. If you go about promoting your blog post on Social media then this can help getting traffic with engagement and not just depending on Google to rank you well.
Blog Small, Aim Big
To understand SEO ranking and how to write a great blog post you can get Free Coaching by me and working through the Free Wealthy Affiliate Training. I would get you started on writing smaller blog posts to get you going.
Learning how to write a short blog post, will get you used to building out content if you are brand new along with experimenting with other kinds of content.
As you get more advanced you can go back and expand on those shorter posts and start writing longer more detailed ones with powerful content as you move forward.
So basically, blog small and aim for bigger pastures. This is where the power of smaller blog posts can come into play.
Let me know in the comments below, what you think of this post and if you have been looking at writing shorter posts. Has it worked well for you?
P.S. This blog post is showing around 2024 words long, I guess defining what a short blog post is a relative thing… 🙂
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