A Guide to Average and Standard Article Length

How long is an article? A worthy question to ask when you want to write purposeful articles that would maximize impact.

There is no golden number for the length of an “ideal” article. However, this article provides details of how long your content should be to appeal to your audience.

Let’s delve a little deeper.

The length of a typical article depends on the complexity of the topic and the purpose of the content.

For example, articles about art history tend to be much longer than those about the health benefits of a specific type of superfood. Pieces on financial news are typically shorter, as are articles about celebrity gossip.

It is essential to know what goals your content aims to achieve. Is it to educate people? Improve sales? Or drive traffic on Search Engines? Your content goals will determine how lengthy it will be. However, the average blog post has a word count of 1,500 words.

No matter the length of your article, quality should always precede quantity. Your content needs to convince your readers that it is worth their time. It must be helpful and valuable to them.

So, the question should be, how long should an article be to achieve its goals? People will not spend time on a piece that isn’t valuable to them.

If you’re concerned about hitting a blog post length ideal for SEO, you miss the point entirely. There should be a goal to provide the best (and optimized) version of your content for the intended audience. Your audience will appreciate this, and your online analytics will reflect it.

There is a consensus that articles should be no more than 4,000 words; otherwise, readability suffers. The optimal length is generally thought to be around 2,000–4,000 words; about 1,000–2,000 words for an online blog. But articles of all lengths have potential benefits and drawbacks. If you have a very long article, you’ll have fewer readers.

Length can be a difficult concept to wrap your head around as there are so many variables that determine the length of an article. When in doubt, ask yourself this question: what is the article’s goal? The right length for a piece of content depends on the topic. For example, if it’s a quick list of the best deals in your favorite store, you would probably only have a few essential items.

Tips for Article Length

The following valuable tips should guide you in writing an article.

• A highly informative article is around 10,000 words.
• An introductory article is between 300 and 500 words.
• Individual blog post ranges from 330 to 5,581 words.
• An article aimed at increasing social media shares is between 3,000 to 10,000 words.
• An e-book or a guide ranges between 3,000 words and above.
• Articles targeted for SEO have an ideal length of 2,100-2,400 words. Google stands firm that word count isn’t an essential ranking factor.
• A blog post intended to generate leads has an ideal length of 2,500 words.

When writing an article, a rule of thumb is to aim for 500 to 800 words. The reader might get bored reading about the same subject, so try to create more dynamic ideas.

Check out the Ink Free Tool online to determine the correct length for your article. The tool suggests the appropriate length according to your topic.

It does this based on an analysis of top-ranked content on that specific topic. It also helps you analyze the quality of your content or blog post.

There is no ‘perfect length’ for an article. However, it would help if you don’t commit yourself to a word count that is either too low or too high.

To determine how long is an article that is good enough, consider the structure of the post, your audience, and the topic. The guidelines in this article will help you choose the appropriate length for your article.