by Dan Rogers
While signing up for BlogMutt is a simple process, one bit that tends to hold businesses and agencies up is choosing what size of blog post(s) they want to receive each week.
Do you choose 250, 600, 900, or 1,200 words? How long should my blog posts be? What are the important differences among them? Is it simply a case of ‘pay more and get more?’
While we’ve delved into how length plays into SEO in the past, there are other important pieces to keep in mind when making this choice.
To approach this, I’ll explain how I as a writer — or ‘mutt’, as we affectionately call ourselves here — go about tackling each of these different levels, as well as a more general sense of what you can expect the differences to be at each of the four word count tiers.
Short (250+ Words)
The 250-word post (technically 250-599 words in length) has a special place in many of our experienced writers’ hearts. It’s where BlogMutt began, back before the different word count levels became available earlier this year. It’s also the level where most of our clients sit, both because it works, as well as provides the highest chance to have a nice selection of posts to choose from each week.
Expanding on that, what sets the 250-word level apart from the rest is that every writer we have can write these, whether he or she began their professional writing life today or have been writing for decades. For many clients, this allows for more selection, but it also means you’ll have posts submitted by a range of experience levels, and quality will fluctuate.
That doesn’t mean you’ll get bad posts — our staff monitor the quality of posts submitted very well — but it means that you’ll be getting a mix of both good posts and great posts by both the most experienced writers and the green and eager to please. This works for some clients, but for others, it’s a dealbreaker.
Standard (600+ Words)
At the next step — 600 words — not every writer is able to write. The writers that will be submitting at this tier are well versed in how to use BlogMutt’s system and have a good grasp at what quality content looks like, how to utilize the space best, and are more experienced in writing all around.
It also means that the writer is more willing to go out of his or her way to really learn about your business. In contrast, a 250-word post is generally focused on one quick topic, so when research is done, it’s generally a more expedited process from research to completed post. I don’t have to learn an entire industry, but rather one concentrated, small area of an industry.
At 600 words, though, the topic is often much broader, so selecting what to write about is much more important so I don’t run into wall before hitting the required words, or find myself inserting fluff (which is never good for the reader, SEO, or ultimately the client).
Because I’m being paid more for 600+, I’m much more willing to delve into deeper research so I learn more about the client and the industry. I want to ensure I have all the background information I need to produce a quality post, even if I’m not intimately familiar with the subject matter before I opted to write.
In-Depth (900+ Words)
While I firmly believe that all our writers are professionals and great at what they do, the ones that have progressed to the point where they can write 900 words or more for a client are truly the professionals. Experts in what it takes to craft a great post, they are dedicated to learning everything they can about a subject and are far less likely to overlook complex spelling and grammar issues.
I can’t speak for every writer at BlogMutt, but a pretty universal necessity when approaching a 900+ or 1,200+ -word post is a love for the subject, because — to be frank — we’re talking about quite a bit of writing here. If you’re writing that much about a subject that you don’t care about, you may not be able to notice a lower quality — but anyone who reads it certainly will.
BlogMutt knows this barrier, which is why the longer posting options are only available to those writers who are extremely experienced and intimately know the checklist that must be considered before starting such a long post.
This ensures that you, the client, get the best post possible that both clearly expresses the takeaways for your customers and helps tremendously with SEO to help bring in even more customers and site traffic.
Long-Form (1,200+ Words)
Everyone who writes for BlogMutt loves writing, that’s true. However, those that have put in the time to work their way up the ranks to write 1,200 words are absolute heroes. These writers have moved through several stages — a recognition that they enjoy writing, the experience of getting their feet wet in writing for money, various improvements in their craft along the way, and finally, the development of true expertise in content marketing for businesses.
Opting for 1,200-word posts means two very important things. First, it means that those that submit posts really are the best of the best, so you’ll be getting great quality. Second, it means that your queue won’t have as many options. This means quality over quantity, but you can be sure that anyone who is willing to invest the time and effort in providing you a great 1,200-word post is giving it their all.
The Bottom Line
While there are key differences in the word length tiers, at the end of the day, the most important aspect to consider is how long a post your audience/readership is willing to read.
SEO is important, and our goal is assist in boosting your search ranking through blogging, but if the posts aren’t able to keep your readers’ attention, there’s no sense paying for the additional content to go unread.
You can measure how engaged your readers are through analytics available on most blogging platforms (on Google Analytics it’s called ‘Time on Page’), and the post length may need to change as you experiment with what works best for your particular audience.
Comments, if allowed on in your blogging client, are also a great way to gauge interest in the topics covered. Those that are engaged in the article are logically more willing to stick around a couple extra minutes to voice their thoughts, as well as share it to social media — another effective way to track the exposure of your post.
Long or short, BlogMutt’s got you covered!
If you’d like to see some samples at each of the word counts, or some samples in your industries, submit the form below and we’d be happy to send some your way.