How long should a blog post be?

Word counts mean more once you turn them into reading time. This table uses 238 words a minute, the average silent reading speed for English non-fiction in Marc Brysbaert's 2019 review of 190 studies. The minutes are our arithmetic, rounded. Readers in a hurry, on a phone, or reading in a second language will be slower.

• Average length has stopped growing. Orbit Media measured about 800 words in 2014, a peak of 1,427 in 2023 and 1,312 in 2026.
• The same survey puts the average time to write a post at 3 hours 20 minutes. A longer post costs more of your week, so it has to earn its length.
• Ranges you see quoted elsewhere, like 1,500 to 2,500 words, describe what some ranking pages happen to be, not a rule Google applies.

Google has answered this directly, twice. In its guide to creating helpful content, one of the questions it suggests you ask yourself is whether you are writing to a particular word count because you heard Google prefers one. Its answer: "No, we don't."

Its SEO Starter Guide goes further. In a list of things it believes you shouldn't focus on, it says that the length of the content alone doesn't matter for ranking, that there is no magical word count target, minimum or maximum, and that using more keywords doesn't give you more chances to show up.

So why do long posts so often rank? Usually because the topic needed the length: a full guide to a complex question covers more of what people want to know. Length is a side effect of being thorough, not the cause. Padding a short answer to reach 1,500 words gives Google nothing new and gives your reader more to scroll past.

The same goes for AI answers like ChatGPT: what they quote is a clear, specific answer, not a long page. See how to write articles that AI search can use.

Decide the length after you know what the post has to answer, not before. These steps take about ten minutes and work for any business.

1. Write the question the post answers as a customer would type it, for example "how much does a dental crown cost in Leeds". One post, one question. Our post ideas for local businesses are a good place to find them.
2. Search it on Google and open the first three to five results. Don't count their words. Note what each one covers, which questions they all answer and what none of them answers.
3. Write the answer in the first two or three sentences, with the key number or fact. Someone who stops reading there should still leave with what they came for.
4. Add only what the reader needs next: the price range, what it depends on, how long it takes, what to bring, when to call you. Each section should answer a question a customer has actually asked you.
5. Stop when the question is answered. Then cut every sentence that would not be missed: the opening that repeats the title, the summary that repeats the post.
6. Count the words at the end, out of curiosity. Whatever the number is, that is the right length for this post.

Most of your readers will not read every word, whatever the length. Jakob Nielsen's analysis of web usage data found that on an average page visit, people have time to read at most 28% of the words, and probably closer to 20%. They scan the headings, read the start of paragraphs and look for their answer.

That changes how to write a long post more than whether to write one. A 1,500-word post that is easy to scan can serve someone better than 600 words in one block.

• Put the answer at the top. The reader who only reads one paragraph should get it.
• Write headings as questions or plain statements, so the headings alone tell the story.
• Keep paragraphs short: two to four sentences each, which matters most on a phone.
• Use a table for prices, times or options. It is easier to read than a paragraph full of numbers.
• Link to your other posts instead of repeating them. A short post plus a link to a deeper one beats one long post that tries to cover everything.
• Check a draft with the free SEO article analyzer, which shows readability, long sentences and reading time.

Word count can't tell you this. These signs can, and once a post has been live for a few weeks, the Performance report in Google Search Console adds three more.

• Too short: a customer would still have to call you to ask the obvious next question, like the price, the duration or what happens first.
• Too short: the page says nothing the results above it don't already say, so there is no reason for Google to show it.
• Too long: the answer only arrives after several paragraphs of background.
• Too long: two sections answer different questions for different people. Split them into two posts and link one to the other.
• Too long: you added sections only because other pages have them, not because your customers ask about them.

If you have three hours a week, you can write one long post or two or three shorter ones. For most local businesses, several focused posts, each answering one real question, cover more of what customers search for than one long post covering everything at once. Read how often to publish for the other half of this decision.

Consistency matters more than either. A blog that publishes a useful 700-word answer every week for a year gives Google and customers more to work with than three long guides and then silence. If you are still setting up, start with how to create a blog for your business. If you are thinking of paying someone, longer posts cost more, so compare options with what a business blog costs.

No length or schedule decides where a post appears in Google. What they can do is make each post more useful to the person searching, which is what Google says its systems look for.