How many words should I write?

peachpurple Level 1

October 16, 2017, 11:35 am

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How many words should I write?

I have a blog at blogger dot com. I was just wondering how many words should I write for my blog? I had visited some recipe blogs , found the writers could write lengthy paragraphs while some are just a few lines and goes straight to the recipes. SO, how many words would fit best for writing a blog post?

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

This is always a tough question. I can't tell you how many times I have been asked this question by a student as an English professor. The answer is that you write as much as it takes to really develop your content for your audience and to give them what they want and need, but you don't write too much and kill everybody with a verbose self-indulgent tirade. In other words, I think that the content dictates the length as well as the personal style of the writer. I have heard that blogs which are over at least 300 words long tend to do better in searches and with overall audiences. I guess shoot for 300 words but be careful of over-doing it at the same time. Finding the balance between content and length is tough.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

peachpurple

thanks, I think 300 words should be just nice, I would make it short for my recipe blog

7 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

Your suggestion of 300 words at minimum is a good idea because I believe its going to give the writer the opportunity to at explain and discuss his or her point well without making the content look rushed. And by having a content being rushed, there are certain points that would be left out which is going to affect the overall quality of the write up.

7 years ago

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jeffreyjose48

jeffreyjose48

I could write as many words I would like to write. I think it depends also on the theme. If the theme is your favorite I believe you can write up to thousands of words. If the theme is not familiar to you that means you cannot write as many as you can.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

In my opinion the longer the blog post, the more people will not finish reading it. Even if it's a quality post. This is due to a short attention span or just plain boredom and time constraints.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

The longer the article, the fewer people would read and finish it. Gone were the times when people have a lot of idle time to spend on reading lengthy articles. That's why most short articles gets the most number of readers. Time is Gold, and there's always limited time to do things in this tech age. Everything is fast paced.

6 years ago

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iamawriter

iamawriter

This is your personal property and no one can dictate to you on the format or the number of words that you should write in your blog. You could scan some blogs on the Net and see how they are received by viewers and that could be your parameter.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

I also believe in freedom to express one's self while writing unless it is a situation where someone has been employed to do a particular job and given the number of words to write.

7 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

In my opinion, if you own the blog you can just write naturally and don't compare your writings with others. What people are forgetting nowadays is that what's important is not the lenght but the essence and content of the article.

6 years ago

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DarthHazard

DarthHazard

There is no correct answer. It depends on what content you are going to be writing for your blog and how you are as a writer. What niche will your blog will about? If it is recipes then the length of your posts will depend on what recipes you are writing about. For example, simple recipes may only require a few paragraphs but a more advanced one will have much more words in that post.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

peachpurple

Dear DarthHazard,
yes, my recipe blog is short , just one paragraph and straight to the recipe with instructions and step by step photos. Less than 100 words, too short?

7 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

I do second your point in saying that there is no actual correct answer to the exact number of words a blog content should have. The content topic and the discretion of the writer should be the decider of the exact number of words that would be appropriate to use and convey the complete information needed.

7 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

When I first started out blogging and wanted to get approved by Google, I was advised by people who got approved to make longer posts like at least two paragraphs. I decided to overshoot and do three and now that I have a good amount of content I am more free to just write as short or as long as I please, but even nowadays I usually keep it in between two and three paragraphs. I don't think there is a set rule but just make sure you don't lengthen it too much just for the sake of it because that may cause the article to become boring.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

Thanks for such a useful and priceless information you just wrote. I never knew that there is a qualification for that and knowing that is great for me at the end.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

peachpurple

Baburra
May I know 2-3 paragraphs means 300 words or less?

7 years ago

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mildredtabitha

mildredtabitha

I can say 300 to 500 words if you want to keep your blog posts as brief as possible. You can then write up to 1000 words if you have enough content and topics to write about. You should not worry about the length as long as your post is able to capture readers attention and meet their expectations.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

Keeping the blog posts as brief as possible can be a way to keep the visitors not bored as a result of reading the articles. So, you have a point on that as well.

7 years ago

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mildredtabitha

mildredtabitha

Yes. That is what I like. It is better to write something short and have a reader request for more than to write a well detailed long post that people will get tired reading after reaching halfway.

Anyway, we all have different tastes.

7 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

This is actually a topic that I find relatively confusing and am not very sure about.

According to most SEO experts, currently it would seem that the optimal amount of words for SEO optimization of blogs is approximately 1,600 words. This would equate to around seven minutes of reading time.

Now many bloggers agree that they have had the most success with this word count, but sometimes I find it so hard to believe. Why? Because what busy person subscribed to multiple blogs has enough time in their day to read a blog post for seven minutes? Most people I know don't have the time or attention span for that.

That being said, you can't argue with statistics so I would say you probably want to shoot between 1,000 and 2,000 words.

7 years ago

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ballyhara

ballyhara

Definitively, as long as you make your point clear. Of course, you're not going to write 25 paragraphs, with 3000 words. But maybe 200-300 words, in 3 or 4 paragraphs, that explain your point of view, will be more than enough. Not very sure if there is some kind of grammar rule about it, but usually that long is good for exposing your opinion. Also, just go straight to the main theme, avoid saying same thing once and again, because that could be repetitive and boring for your readers.

7 years ago

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Barida

Barida

Going straight to the point can be a way to keep the readers glued to their seats to read till the end. It's not always easy, but doing so can payoff at the end.

7 years ago

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ballyhara

ballyhara

You couldn't say it better my friend. I've noticed that going straight to what you want to communicate, is the best way to get your message received. We tend to be a little bit "extended" when explaining something, and that may lead us in a wrong direction. So, yes, just say it in few words and it will work just fine.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

I guess that I am also a bit "confused" about this topic as well. I do acknowledge that there are some topics I can write about in a short period of time with what I perceive to be a great deal of proficiency--however, there are other topics that require much more attention and length to properly cover. When I am writing about literature, for example, I could go on for page after page, thousands upon thousands of words. However, if I were simply answering a specific question or responding to a forum, such as this one, I would not necessarily rip into a giant diatribe or research-based essay of sorts. I guess the context of each individual writing venture asks different things of us at different times.

7 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

If you're going to write a very long post, it also helps to put a summary part where you list the most important points in bullets, so that those who don't have as much time will still take time to read your blog.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I think when it comes to blogs or articles, you should write as many words as it takes to get your point across and make your point known within the subject you're discussing. Lately, more bloggers are trying to keep their pieces from being too lengthy. A wise decision, as people still read blogs but their attention spans are a lot shorter than they used to be.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

JoeMilford

Judas2018,
It seems that this is the general rule, and formula is a ration of "one's point" to "adequate length of content"--I agree with this. Writing is weird in that I just "get this feeling" when the work itself, or the individual piece itself, is done. I am not sure if this is just instinct or if it is something conditioned in me due to all of the reading I have done over the years, but it really is kind of a strange thing if you think about it. When people expound upon a piece I have finished, i often see new paths I could have taken with the content, so in many ways, no subject is EVER finished!

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I normally lay out my points I want to get across before I pen a piece or article. Then after maybe 3 or 4 paragraphs, if I've implemented and made those points, I usually throw in a few closing remarks before I wrap it up. Better to be short and sweet, instead of going too long.

7 years ago

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tiffiecute

tiffiecute

For that, it would be very subjective since some can be very talkative in writing while some express quite short and precise. There are different kinds of writing styles, topics to input and not to mention the attitude and mood of writers.

And since you are the blog owner, by means you have all the right to input how many words you want. But generally speaking, readers do not want to dwell huge amount of time with a certain article. They want to get the information in a more precise and straight to the point way. Well, we do not have all the time in the world and there are a lot of things to do aside from reading.

7 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

It really depends in the complexity of your subject. If it's a simple subject then probably a short one will do. But if it's a complicated subject then you may have to write a longer blog. When it comes to word count, I think that 200-300 words is enough. Sometimes writing a very long blog isn't really good because a lot of first time readers would opt for short compositions.

6 years ago

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JonathanS98

JonathanS98

First, like everyone else is suggesting, there's no definitive answer to this. Everyone blogs for different reasons and have various goals to achieve as an online writer. Ultimately, however, it's truly up to you to determine how long you feel your articles should be.

Personally, I write articles for my forum that are detailed and have some length to them. It also depends on the topic, but usually, I'll write at least 4-6 paragraphs per article, which estimates to roughly to 450-800 words. From what I've researched, detailed articles that include key SEO words, tend to do well on search engines like Google. Even though their algorithm's to rank websites are constantly changing, the basic idea is that the most relevant, reliable, and detailed content gets pushed to the top.

But these are my personal goals (to build a forum and increase the website ranking). Regarding your question, you need to determine what type of blogging articles you're looking to write, along with how detailed you'd like them to be.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

I have always done long film reviews or lengthy ones. But our society is becoming more and more short on attention span. It's gotten to the point where people now push our articles with about 3 sentences and a Youtube video at the bottom. So I think while you may want to pen a long article or editorial - in this current online environment - that might actually lose you readers.

7 years ago

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mar06

mar06

As many as you can sir as long as you are satisfy to w.hat you have made. But it is better if you do lot of words to your blog to convince those other people who read about your blog and make this satisfy of what the have read.

7 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

But what qualifies as a lot of words, is the question? Also some people can say a lot in a few words, while others need a ton of words to say just as much.

7 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

I tend to agree, people are tired of reading lengthy posts which can be summed up in a paragraph. Gone are the times where people has a lot of time to spend on reading. Just keep it short and easy to understand. It's always best not to exceed 500 words which can be considered as a page already. Because fewer people would be able to read it.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

When writing blog articles it's best to write between 200-350 words per article. In my opinion writing longer blog articles can sometimes work against your blog because normally readers want something a bit short and sweet.

6 years ago

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