This bit of blogging advice has two parts to it but both deal with the length of blog posts. Now, people often visit blogs looking for quick tidbits of information. So as a blogger, you’ll attract more viewers if you give them what they want. This is why my first part of this advice is
– try to keep your posts short.
Now I know everyone wants to hit the minimum word count that will make the search indexers happy, generally about 250 words. And that’s fine. As long as you have at least 250 words worth of content. Remember, there’s nothing wrong with writing a short update on something that regular blog followers might find interesting. But even if your blog is indexed by the best searches out there, it doesn’t mean that more is better. A good rule to follow is
– if a post is over 750 words consider splitting it in two.
But that doesn’t always work. Sometimes you have to tackle a topic or provide information that goes on for longer than 500 words or a 1000 words. But there really isn’t a good place to stop the post and leave the reader feeling like they’ve read a complete topic. That’s where the preview option on your blog can come in handy.
– the preview option shows a small amount of text and lets the reader decide if they want to read more.
Why is this good? Well, a reader might open your blog and see that post that goes forever and decide they need to find the information in a shorter post. But a preview just gives them enough information to tease them and lure them end. When the preview ends, they still won’t feel as if they’ve finished the topic, but rather than needing to follow the blog to a second post, all they have to do is click a button to read more. So use the “preview” or “read more” setting on your blog to keep your readers involved.