There was a time when 500 words was a respectable blog post length. But blogging has evolved and the trend has been for posts to continue getting longer. Neil Patel reports that posts with 1,500 words or more have better SEO, social sharing and engagement rates than those under 1,500 words. And when considering SEO, Google's top results are posts with 2,350-2,500 words.
Big-league blogs post 3-5 times per day, which means that those at the top of the blogging spectrum publish between 4,500-15,000 words per day. Even if that's not your aim, but you're looking to write and post more, then you might need a little help getting there.
Here are some tips to increase your blogging output without losing quality:
Do your research-
Pretty much every writer who has ever lived has one common word of advice that they dole out to budding writers: "Read." The same is true with blogging. Study other blogs for style, content, sources, variety of topics and general inspiration. The more you see of the blogging world, the better you'll understand it and be able to take some of those top techniques and make them your own. By studying other blogs, you find out what other bloggers are writing. But you also have to know what people are reading.
Sources like LinkedIn Pulse, Google Trends, Twitter and Quora are excellent places to find out what topics are getting traffic.
Give your readers some variety-
Variety not only gives faithful readers a wider spectrum of topics to read about, it can also help improve your search rankings. The higher your word count, the greater the variety of words you'll be including. That variety will make you show up in more often Google searches. Besides keeping your readers from getting bored, you'll be attracting new readers with a greater variety of words and topics.
Create a template-
Thinking about how you're going to present your information can take up a lot of time. That's why coming up with an article template can help you write more. Think about it: if all you have to do is flesh out an outline that you already have in your mind, it can take a lot of the pressure off. It not only saves time in coming up with a structure, but the familiar format can even help the words flow more easily as you write. It can look something like this:
Introduction-introduce the topic and explain why it's important to the intended audience
Example 1- include stats, quotes and links
Example 2- include stats, quotes and links
Example 3 - include stats, quotes and links
Conclusion- review the information presented in the article
Write more every day-
When it comes down to it, the secret to writing more is...writing more. Joanna Penn wrote a novel a year for three years in a row, but bemoaned the fact that she wasn't in league yet with authors like Nora Roberts/ J.D. Robb who produce a book every 45 days. If you're writing every day already, consider writing more every day. Some suggestions on making this happen:
- Define your desired daily word count and calculate how much how much time you need to reach it each day
- Make a calendar that you can see (such as a big calendar posted over your desk- something you can't hide from) and mark your daily word count on it
- Read advice from authors like Stephen King, Anne Rice and Michael Crichton who share the secret of how they make their daily word counts
Does it provide value?
As you're outlining ideas for your post, keep in mind the point of your blog, which is to provide value to your readers. Your posts should benefit your readers by teaching them something and sharing credible information (more on that later). Make sure that your posts are dense with usable information that accurately identifies a pain point and provides specific steps on how to solve the problem.
Are your sources credible?
Make sure you do the research to find an original post or study and that your quotes and statistics come from credible sources. In some cases, though not all, it's also important that the research you use be recent. What good is it, after all, to quote a study on blogging from 2008 when blogging culture has evolved so drastically since then? The information would be out of date. Ensure that your stats reflect an up-to-date picture of your topic.
Get better at editing-
Using an editing tool makes sense when you're writing a lot of content. It takes some of the burden off the writer to self-edit. Grammarly will help you filter out any mistakes. The Hemingway app will help you simplify your text and avoid adverbs. The Readability Test Tool will help you determine if your post will appeal to the average reader.
Hint: Use top editing tools: 6 Automatic Editing Tools That Will Make Your Writing Super Clean Consider outsource: Write My Essay | 100% Original Content - Bid4PapersA word about headlines-
If you're going to dedicate time to write knock-out content, then you really need to give attention to your headlines to make sure your efforts aren't in vain. Headlines are essential to getting readers to click through to your article so spend some time getting them right. Short headlines tend to get more likes and shares with those with 8-12 words in length getting the most Twitter shares and those with 12-14 words getting the most Facebook likes.
Placing the keyword in the beginning of the headline also helps up the odds that you'll get the attention of readers looking for the information you're offering.
Over To You
Bloggers can increase their blogging productivity without losing quality by doing their research, providing more variety, creating a template, simply writing more every day, using credible sources, employing editing tools, and perfecting their headlines.
Any other top ideas for bloggers? Leave a comment below.
