Does anyone know the optimal length of a blog post or internet article?
I mean 140 characters or less is Twitter.
And if your article is over 10,000 words, I am going to have to be extremely interested in the topic to read it all (and you may as well just call it a book).
Medium says 1,700 words is best.
My wife won’t usually read an article over about 1,000 words.
And Seth Godin seems to prefer very short posts. And Godin is a marketing genius.
Who is right? I don’t know.
There is probably no perfect answer.
I will tune out and skip over a 1,200 word post if it is not compelling.
But I also regularly read NYT Magazine articles over 6,000 words.
The crux of the question: “What is the optimal length of a blog post?” is, however, actually deeper than it first appears.
Asking the question is essentially seeking to tailor your writing for your audience – or at the very least – considering the preferences of your audience while you write.
Writer Ryan Holiday thinks that this is one of two important questions writers should be asking themselves.
In the end, I believe the key is not length – but content.
Be compelling. Be interesting. And care.
If you do not care about what you are writing – trust me – your readers won’t either.
In the end, all I know for certain about the optimal length of an article is that if you want me to accept it, 500 – 1,000 words is best.
