Over the years, search engine optimization (SEO) experts have changed their recommendation on the best blog post length to get free website traffic. At one time a 300-word blog post was adequate. Then 400 to 500-word blog posts became the standard. For a moment, 750-word blog posts were recommended. By 2019 and leading into 2020, new research shows that blog posts of 1,000 words or more are ideal for gaining credibility from search engines. How can you reach that post length to grab Google’s attention? We’ll walk you through some insight from experts and recommend ways to meet the lofty length for specific blog posts without getting overwhelmed.
Yoast is a well-known SEO plugin for WordPress that helps content creators optimize their content for search engines. On the Yoast blog the experts recommend longer text length:
“These reasons all have to do with the fact that in lengthy texts, Google just has more clues to determine what your text is about. If you optimize your copy well, your focus keyphrase will naturally be in the text. The longer your text, the more often it will mention your focus keyphrase. There’s no need for keyphrase stuffing though. As your text is longer you’ll be adding more headings, links, and pictures, in which you mention the keyphrase.”
Pros & Cons of 1,000 Word Blog Posts
Pros:
- Provide valuable content to the audience.
- Showcase your expertise.
- Long posts are shared more often and get more backlinks from other websites.
- Search engines recognize your work.
- Typically evergreen content.
- Converts sales easily for products, product reviews, affiliate marketing and downloadable content.
Cons:
- Readers with long attention spans may not stick around to read them.
- Long blog posts take longer to write.
- Writing for length vs. writing for your audience’s interest.
- Bad writing and keyword stuffing can be a fallback to accomplish the desired length.
RELATED TOPIC: 4 SEO Mistakes You Can Fix Today
Best Types of Long Blog Posts
Tutorials: How to blog posts are always a hit. You can break them down step by step. With a focus on helping your audience reach a desired result, tutorial posts inspire shares from readers.
Plus, search engines love the keywords “how-to,” a tutorial or an infographic.
Recipes: There’s a reason foodie bloggers are in demand! You may recall the recipe plugins we recommended to the food influencers in our community.
Crafts: Every season can inspire a new craft theme. Walk your audience through the items they need to buy, ways to repurpose items they already have and even how to store your crafts for the next season. Crafts posts also get great engagement on Instagram and Pinterest.
Product Reviews: In case you missed it, You Need More Product Reviews on Your Blog. An in-depth 1,000-word blog post that compares and contrasts product features will have your audience signing your praises!
Opinion & Activism: Explore a topic that’s your passionate about or explores your passion protect.
Trendy Topics: Quote other articles or bloggers. Embed or screen capture tweets that are getting a lot of attention.
Comment Replies: Get inspiration from a comment on your blog or social media profiles. When readers know you listen to them and respond to them your overall engagement and credibility increase.
Photography Tips for Long Blog Posts
Photo Galleries: Photos help you tell a story or walk your readers through a tutorial. Make sure you use an editing application like Canva, Picmonkey, Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. Your mobile phone’s editing app is another option.
Infographics: Graphics can help your audience skim your blog post and find the parts that are relevant to them. We saw some of the best engagement on our network’s social channels and on the blog when we created this detailed infographic on blogging expenses. We used Canva to design this infographic.
Youtube videos: Add your own YouTube videos to a blog post. You can add the embed code to include credible, related video content from YouTube.
Lengthen Old Posts to Reach 1,000 Word Count
Instead of starting a new goal for writing new blog posts with word counts of 1,000 or more, consider lengthening your old blog posts. Republish them with a new date and share them.
Explore Google Analytics
Go into your Google Analytics Dashboard to see your most popular blog posts, which search engines are directing traffic to your post and what keywords are most closely related to your blog.
Aside from Google Analytics, Search Engine Journal recommends this 15 SEO Tools.
Google Analytics also has an SEO Optimization Guide that’s a good resource for all of your questions.
Dive into Pinterest
Find your most popular pins that are sending traffic to your blog. If these popular pins have close to 1,000 words, add additional content tor reach that desired word count.
This way you’ll be getting Pinterest traffic and increased search engine traffic to quality blog posts.
Create Round-up Blog Posts
Are you familiar with the term “Teamwork makes the dream work”? It encapsulates what a round-up blog post is designed to do.
Instead of relying simply on your own expertise, you solicit input and related content from other bloggers you trust. Recipe round-ups are a simple place to start. Ex. Your most popular pin is a sweet potato pie recipe. Ask your favorite influencers or community members for their favorite sweet potato pie recipes, including links back and ask permission to use their images in a Pinterest-worthy photo collage.
COMMENT BELOW: What’s your target word length or text length for an SEO-optimized blog post? Does your Google analytics dashboard show that longer blog posts bring more traffic to your blog? How closely do you pay attention to the word length for your blog posts?
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