300 words? 800? 1,600? What is the SEO “sweet spot” to make sure your blog post ranks high in search results?

Questioning the relationship between the length of a blog post and search result ranking implies that Google sets a minimum word count for blogs. Yet, no such standard actually exists.

Let Search Intent Be Your Guide

Knowing how long your content should be depends strongly on what is typical for the industry you are writing for, and what fulfills the intent of the search query.

Does the intent behind a keyword require long-form content to answer? If so, write long-form content. But, maybe, the intent is better answered in less text and more images.

If that’s the case, then optimizing your images for SEO and reducing the number of words on your page is the best answer.

Quality over quantity

Too many people put too much of an emphasis on the average word length for articles and the misunderstood importance of having more than a certain number of words on each page to rank well.

Sure, it’s important to have some substance (and length) to the piece, but it’s not worth publishing a 2,500-word redundant review of a movie talking about the main character’s bad hair and foul language four different ways throughout the entirety of the content.

Give users what they want regardless of how many words it takes to say it.

Don’t just focus on written page copy

Even a great video should be accompanied by well-written text that explains the video, it’s concept and goals, and any other resources that may improve the content to better help the user.

Some content is easier to digest in the written word. But other content is more suited to visual and needs imagery or video. Sometimes, audio files will be the best type of rich media.

When you use visual or audio content, be sure to accompany it with written content that can connect the dots and make sense of everything on the page, as well as help users find your content.

Short conclusion

If you’re worried about hitting an ideal blog post length for SEO, then you’re missing the point entirely.

Your goal should be to supply the best, most useful (and optimized) version of content for your target audience that matches their intent.