One of the questions that is bound to come up in the blogging taster course I’m teaching later this week is: how long should a blog post be? (I know it’s bound to come up, because I’m going to ask it!)

The perhaps unsatisfying answer is: it depends. In 2015 I published a link to an infographic called The Perfect Blog Post. The graphic stated categorically that the ideal length is 1600 words. But I don’t agree with that at all. The questions you need to ask, and answer, are:

1. What’s the aim of this blog post?

2. Who is it targetted at?

3. What’s the minimum viable length required to achieve its objectives?

For example, if I come across an interesting-looking online conference, perhaps all I need to do is write a blog post letting people know about it, and providing a link. Readers can look for themselves if it appeals to them. In that scenario, maybe I need only 25 words or so.

On the other hand, if you want to develop quite a detailed argument about something, perhaps 1600 words isn’t nearly enough. Crispin Weston, for example, used to write blog posts that were sometimes 12,000 or 15,000 words long.

The benefits of writing “short”

As another example of the first scenario, consider this. One of the things I have done when I’ve gone to a conference/exhibition lasting several days, and which I’m going to attend each day, is write a short blog post at the end of each day (apart from the final one) about things to look out for if you’re intending to go there yourself. Think about it: I’ve left the house at, say 7:30 am. I’ve been in noise and air conditioning all day long, travelled back in the rush hour at 6pm, arrived home at 7pm. By the time I’ve had a shower, changed my clothes and had something to eat, do I really want to sit down and write several hundred words? Of course not. I just want to write: “If you’re going to this conference tomorrow, do try and look at the products on stand A32. They’re great for kids in junior school.”

Now think about it from the reader’s point of view. They’re rushing out of their house at 7:30am. They may not be able to get a good signal on the train. Do they want to read an essay? No! They just want to know: is there anything I should try and look at in the few hours I’m there? They can read the blog post, make a quick note of the stand number, and better plan their day accordingly.

Going back to the advantages for me, as the writer, think of what I’ve achieved:

• I’ve written something potentially useful for the people who read my blog.

• I’ve “told” Google that my blog is active — Google doesn’t like moribund websites or blogs where nothing changes for long periods.

• I’ve reminded my regular readers that I’m still active in this community.

• I’ve given people a reason to keep visiting my blog. Maybe they visited yesterday, or even this morning, and then when they “call again” they see it’s been updated. If that doesn’t happen for days or weeks, eventually they’ll stop coming. Why would they?

And I’ve achieved all this for perhaps 15 minutes’ work. IT’s a win-win situation, without a doubt. There are definite benefits in writing “short”. See also my review of short form creative writing.

The benefits of writing “long”

So what about the other extreme, of 10 - 15,000 words? For the writer, there’s a lot to be said for taking the time and space to develop an argument in some depth. It also helps to establish your expertise in a given area. For the reader, it’s great to be able to sit down with a cup of tea and a notebook and really get stuck into an interesting argument.

The middle ground

Most blog posts, of course, fall somewhere between these two extremes. My own tend to be around 500 to 700 words long.

What’s right for you at any particular moment comes back to answering the questions posed at the start of this article.