Affiliate Programs

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The subject of how long a blog post should or should not be has been hashed out many, many times on the Internet.

Yesterday, after getting my Internet service back, I finished a blog post for one of my other blogs which I had started last week. The blog post turned out to be nearly 2500 words long. Wow, that is my all time long-winded blog post!

An instant after I hit ‘Publish’, the thought came to me that I should have cut that post up into smaller sections and did a mini-series. That is, I should have used short 300 to 600 word blog post over a period of days to get my message across rather than one huge blog post.

To Break Up a Blog Post or Not…That Is The Question

I personally do not have a problem with the length of blog post as long as they stay focused on the subject. I don’t care if they are 200 words long or 2000 words long. The important thing to me as a blog reader is that the post gives me the information I want and I just as soon have that information in one large chunk, not strung out over a few days.

I understand why some bloggers use a mini-series type post. They can micro-cover one subject over several days. If the subject you’ll be posting about has many points or differing angles, you might consider breaking it up over several post rather than one long one.

Of course another advantage of breaking a long post up is that you’ll have several post on the same subject. This may help you in search engine rankings, especially if every article is SEO optimized and linked to the other related post.

So When Is a Blog Post Too Long?

When the blogger starts to wonder from the main point and fails to remain focused. A blog post should be a focused article aimed at one singe idea or subject. If you get off track and start talking about something else totally different in the post, it’s time to back up and end it. You can always put up another post dealing with the different subject and link back to any previous post to prove your point.

Long blog post can also run the risk of losing your readers interest. Now, having said that, if you’re a captivating writer you may be able to keep your readers interest from the first word to the last. It depends on you.

Here are Some Pro’s and Con’s of Long Blog Post

Pro’s

• You’re able to give the reader all the information in one chunk
• Your post should be focused and SEO optimized which will help you in the rankings.
• If it’s truly a pillar article, it’s more likely to get back links

Con’s

• Run the risk of losing your readers interest
• The keyword density of the page is diluted
• It’s harder to keep a long blog post focused on the subject your writing about

Only you as the blogger know your readers and what they like/dislike. If you’re the type of blogger who dishes out short, lazer beam focused 300 word post, then hitting them with a 2000 word post may send them over the edge. You need to be aware of the Pro’s and Con’s of long blog post and know when to break it up!