A question that has been haunting many bloggers is whether to publish short or long blog posts, when to go for one or the other, or just simply stick to one. This is one of those questions that cannot be answered by a simple “Go for short” or “Go for long”.
There are multiple factors that will affect the way your posts will be received by your readers in either one of these situations. What can be said right from the start is that your readers’ time is short and precious and this will determine whether they’ll read the post or not.
Common Reader Habits
No matter how long your post is, a reader will most times scan it first, and only after decide if that post is worth reading. This clearly indicates that topic, structure and quality of writing are essential factors that will affect your reader’s choice.
While most readers don’t have a lot of time on their hands and that time is split across many blogs, they’ll most likely prefer a concise post that does not stray from the topic, while still providing good insight and personal opinions.
When to go for short blog posts
If you’re going to post on topics that are current or in the news, it’s most likely that readers will rather read a shorter post since their interest is more concentrated on the news itself and they are likely to want to read more opinions on that news. Be short but don’t be cheap on your words either, for that we have Twitter.
A short post has the advantage of being quickly and easily read, but won’t contribute very much to your statistics in terms of time spent per page. Also, if you’re considering writing short posts, make sure you keep a higher publishing rate. There’s actually no point in publishing 2 paragraphs every week.
Writing long blog posts
Although people don’t usually spend a lot of time on a blog post, they’ll take the time to read a good article, even if it’s longer or even spread across a few pages. As stated earlier, they’ll first scan the post and if you manage to grab their attention, they’ll go back from the start and read the whole article.
Writing long blog posts is suitable for “opinion blogs”. Reviews, tutorials, editorials and guest posts usually require and tend to be longer and more insightful.
Since longer posts require more attention and more time to read, it’s indicated that you structure your post well by making use of paragraphs and subheadings, lists and images to break large blocks of text. Also, providing a good introductory paragraph describing right from the start what your post is all about is helpful in catching your readers’ attention.
A matter of personal choice and identity
Deciding between short and long blog posts is also a matter or personal choice. While some bloggers prefer updating their blogs a few times a day using shorter posts, others like to take a few days to write a longer post, more resourceful and well documented, such being the case of Maki from DoshDosh. This decision also contributes to establishing an identity and unique voice for you blog.
Conclusions
There’s no golden rule about the perfect blog post length. It’s all about your topic(s) and the best way to present your information without cluttering the content or filling it with unnecessary stuff.
Do what you have to do in order to share as much valuable information. Keep you posts short enough not to be boring and long enough to startle the interest. Find the right balance by studying your statistics and why not, by having a friendly, open discussion with your readers.
And now, tell me what’s your choice when it comes to deciding for one or the other and what are your reading habits.