Interviewer: “You have to write 1500 words within 1 hr 30 mins”…
I somehow managed to write 450 words. And I got rejected!
As it was my very first interview as a content writer (that too I made a career shift from a proofreader to a writer), so I was sceptical about word count. I thought it was possible to create 1500 words in a given minute.
Then I started my research…
While researching, I got the below answers,
A blog should contain above 2000 words….
It should be around 1000 to 1500 words…
And to the extreme, some said above 3000 words…
But later I realised, that none of the above is the exact count and it purely depends on the specific factors. Okay, what are those? Now, let’s get to know in detail.
Know your audience
It’s not about the word count that attracts your audience, it’s your content that grabs their attention, even if it’s a single line.
If your audience are experts in the topic, they don’t require much detailed context. But if your audience is new to the topic, then go for a detailed explanation. And if you have both types of audiences, then prefer for detailed long-form content.
For example, if you want to write for a client who wants more followers on Social handles, then go for short-form captions as it takes seconds to reach their accounts.
If you’re writing for a health niche, make sure it is detailed and well explained as it is applicable for all kinds of audiences.
SEO
“As per the HubSpot report, the ideal blog post length for SEO should be 2,100-2,400 words, whereas 3,000 words or longer won the most backlinks.”
If your content is SEO-focused, well, then go for long-form content. Backlinks and keywords play a major role in SEO, which means longer content = more links; more links = top ranking.
Make a note here, simply a higher word count alone doesn’t work if your content has zero value. Back in the days, Google prefers only high word count but now search intent is a priority. Quality content is what it all takes. Satisfy the user’s intent and provide the information to win in the SEO game.
Niche
Content length depends on the niche you choose. If you were asked to write about beauty or fashion, you could write in 1500-2000 words or even less than it. But think about finance & tech niches, a maximum of articles require an in-depth guide from start to end. So it might even end up in 4000-5000 words. Because that is necessary to explain it, we can’t predict the word count here.
Conclusion
Content length purely depends upon your audience and the niche you write for.
It may be 500, 1000, 800 or 4500 words, all it takes count on the content, niche, audience, search intent and SEO. Make sure all these factors align before you think about words.
However, if the information you’re trying to convey to your audience is short-form content and you feel it loses focus if it is extended for the sake of the word count, please leave it as it is.
“There is no such ideal content length for a blog”.