How long is too long when you are writing a blog post? Can a blog post become too long and uninteresting? Do you need to write more to make sure that you get the message across?

Some times when you are writing, whether it be a blog post or an article, then to get through the full amount of detail that you need is going to take a lot of writing. You could be writing a very detailed post about a complicated subject, but does it really need to run to several thousand words?

Why write one post, when you can write two?
If a post is going to be long winded, then why not split it down? Two posts, three posts, maybe more? Start with a high level overview that describes everything in summary and then links to the all important detail posts that look at just one area and cover it in detail. Although, even some of these can link to further detailed posts.

This way instead of getting one post that describes your content in detail, you have a series of well organised posts that link together and guide readers to where they want to be. But at what point do you start this? When is enough ‘enough’ and when is too much too much?

When is “too much”?
Many article sites like to work on a guide line of around 400 – 500 words per article as a minimum. These guidelines that the different sites work to aren’t randomly issued – they are worked out from experience. They have worked out that readers and search engines like articles that are that size. Much smaller and they become worthless – the search engines might not cache them, they are not focussed on a topic and the reader does not get out of it what they want.

So let’s flip this around. If 400 – 500 words is a good minimum and it is better to split information into a high level overview and a more detailed series, then if your writing is getting in to the order of 800 – 1000 words then it is time to split it down. Split it down into 2 different articles and even write a third that overviews the whole and acts as an overview.

A step further
I would go even further than this and say that if a post hits the 600 – 800 words mark then it is possible to split this successfully as I have already described – by the time each part has an introduction and summary and maybe a lead into the other half, then you have the suggested post size of 400+ words.

When is too much “too much”?
To me, it is anything over around the 500 word mark. Odd posts will exceed this point, but not too often. Keep the posts short, keep them organised, keep your readers interested and use shorter posts to guide them around your blog.