Writing a real estate blog post - how many words are necessary?
I have written a few 2000 word posts, they were a waste of my time since my readers ignored them or said that they were bookmarking them to read later.
I am convinced that people in Active Rain would like to read posts that are between 50-100 words.
Every one is pressed for time and the quicker that they can read them the better.
Remember when the gurus said a web page or blog post needed to be 200 words in order for Google to pay attention?
Then do you remember when that increased to 400?
And now, although he does mention some high ranking sites with few words and many photos, Neil Patel recommends writing 2,000 to 3,000 words. He says that not only gives the page a higher ranking, it results in more comments.
But... I wonder.
Neil writes about a topic that is far different from real estate.
He's teaching his readers how to do some complicated things to create revenue from their websites. His topics almost require a great number of words in order to convey his message. People don't browse through his messages, they study them.
Since our content is of a different nature, do his thoughts apply?
Google aside, my question is whether the people who read blog posts like yours and mine really want to spend the time to read 2,000 or 3,000 words.
Maybe in thinking the answer is no, I'm projecting my own preferences and habits to those who read my posts - and yours.
Maybe I've just (partially) read too many long posts that were filled with fluff to plump up the word count. Instead of reading, I'm skimming - looking to see if the writer is going to get to the point pretty soon.
You may know that I write a lot of agent bios. Most are in the 400 word range. Some are a little longer or a little shorter, depending upon how much information the agent provides. Some clients say that's too long - they don't believe their prospects will actually read more than about 150 words.
We do know that layout counts...
When a piece is arranged with plenty of white space, subheads, bullet points, and graphics, it's easier to read more. I don't know why all that space makes it seem like less work, but it does. (I also don't know why reading a novel doesn't feel like work, even though the only white space is the break between paragraphs.)
I seriously doubt that I'll ever start writing 2,000 word blog posts.
Am I making a big mistake? What do you think?
Do YOU write 2,000 word posts?
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
marte@copybymarte.com
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