What is the ideal online content length? Today, all marketers in various industries struggle to find a solution for this problem. Sadly, the only answer that people get is “It depends on the type of content”.
Though the length of the content depends on various factors such as audience engagement and industry norms, “It depends on the type of content” is not an actionable advice. You do need to follow some guidelines while producing content, despite the audience and industry it is targeted for.
Without wasting any time, let us discuss the ideal length for various types of online content.
How long should various types of online content be?
Explainer articles
Such articles are the backbone of your business website. Explainer articles provide full information about your company’s products/services, strategies etc. Generally, explainer articles consist of 1500-2000 words. I know it’s a lot of words but there is a reason behind it. These articles are also known as long form articles and they are SEO friendly. That means they come at the top of the search engine results. According to a study by SerplQ, the average length of the top 10 results in search engine results was around 2000 words. In fact, the average number one ranked page had 2416 words. So, if you want to top the list of search engine results, make sure that your article has at least 2000 words.
Blogs
A blog is basically a column where you can write about various events and topics. It is a great addition to your website as it can be updated regularly. Your blog posts can be shared in your email newsletters and your social accounts such as Facebook, Instagram etc. According to a research by Medium, the ideal length of a blog post takes visitors 7 minutes to read. That works out to be around 1400-1750 words, as an average person reads 200-250 words per minute. Blogs are never meant to be as lengthy as explainer articles. Visitors are not looking for a huge information, rather a simple read. Blogs are the only type of online content which is commonly used by the people
10x content
This is the longest type of content. As the term suggests, it is 10 times superior as compared to the other types of content. Such content involves more than 2500 words. You should carefully choose topics for the 10x content as you have to completely inform your readers about that particular topic. 10x content involves the use of text, videos, and other multimedia so as to make that content as reader friendly as possible.
Videos
Everyone likes to watch videos. Videos provide a lot of information in a limited period of time. Instead of writing an article of 1000 words it’s better to make a video for it and give your brand a voice. According to a study by Wistia, it was proven that shorter the video, the more likely users are to watch the entire video. So, the ideal length of a video should be less than 1 minute. Try to create first 10 seconds of your videos interesting and after that keep the video brief to get more views. According to Wistia video analytics, 82% of viewers watch videos whose duration is less than 30 seconds.
Case studies
Case studies give a practical picture of how your products/services influence your customers. It is very difficult to know the exact length of a case study. Case studies give the real life picture of a particular instance and there is no way that you can exclude some important information from it. So, it doesn’t matter how long your case study is, as long as it includes all the relevant information for your viewers.
So, make sure to remember these guidelines when producing content for your business. Was this article beneficial for you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.