Once in a while, I come across an article giving recommendations for the “ideal blog post length” or the “perfect publishing frequency”. While I acknowledge the time it took to put these kinds of articles together, I honestly find them to be really misleading.
From my experience as a digital marketing consultant, I know that the perfect blog post length or publishing frequency doesn’t exist. A lot of personalized factors determine how successful your content is and focusing on these can help you come up with a successful publishing strategy.
How long should a typical blog posts be?
There is a lot of information out there giving prescriptive, specific targets for blog post length. Some recommend making your blog posts not longer than 500 words while others suggest capping them at 1000 words. These recommendations are often accompanied by data backing them up.
I find such information misleading because there are tons of blogs out there focusing on a variety of topics and niches. They all use different keywords to improve their ranking and it would be unrealistic to expect posts about different topics to adhere to the same word count. Some keywords require lots of content to cover while others call for shorter posts, so why restrict yourself to some arbitrary number?
You should instead:
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Pay attention to your keywords and search results.
Look at what is working for you and what isn’t.
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Be innovative in your niche.
You should be willing to try out different blog post lengths to find what works best for your content and keywords.
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Match your business and content goals with searcher goals
. Be clear on what you’re aiming for with your content and see if short/longer posts will meet your goals. Then find out how your target audience reacts to your content i.e. do they prefer shorter or longer posts? Which ones bring more engagement and result in higher conversion?
How often should you publish fresh content?
There’s no standard number either when it comes to how frequently you should publish new content on your blog. While conventional wisdom says that blogs that are frequently updated receive more traffic, how often you publish content is entirely subjective.
Instead of just focusing on raw frequency, try:
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Aligning your goals and content schedule.
Your publishing frequency will depend on what you want to achieve e.g. if you’re building an audience or a subscriber base, regular weekly posts might work for you.
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Being consistent.
Instead of haphazardly churning out new content, come up with a schedule that helps you publish consistently so your subscribers can know what to expect from you.
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Crafting impactful posts that garner attention.
Simply put, focus on the quality, not just the quantity of what you put out. Ensure that you’re coming up with content that drives traffic and increases your conversion rates.
Schedule a free consultation with me today and I’ll help you come up with a content marketing strategy that will breathe new life into your business.