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How Long Does It Take To Write A Blog Post? [2020 Update]

I’ve written hundreds of blog posts in my life but sometimes I’ve been thinking of ways to become more productive. How long does it take to write a blog post? I had this question in my mind, every single day.

That’s why, 2 years ago, I decided to start creating some statistics on how much time do I need to create an article and then compare it to what other people do.

how long it takes to write a blog post

Every year blog post length is increasing and that’s why the average time to write a blog post is also increasing.

In my studies, the estimated time to create an article of 2,000 words was 5 hours and 49 minutes and the total number of articles I took into consideration was 350.

According to Orbitmedia.com, the average post takes 3 hours and 57 minutes to write. However, they also did the research for the average post length and this was 1236 words. 

So, if we summarize both studies, we can safely say that 4-6 hours are absolutely needed for a blog post over 1200+ words. 

I honestly believe, though, that writing 1200 or fewer words articles is hurting your website. I have found a clear correlation between blog post length and Google ranking.

But, I want you to understand that this doesn’t happen because Google likes big posts but because Google likes quality and thorough content. This is very important to understand.

You can always make a blog post in 2 or 3 hours but keep this in mind. Is this the best blog post that you can make in order to take the #1 position on Google? If the answer is no, then take your time creating better content, doing more research, doing better SEO, and editing.

How Long Should A Blog Post Be?

According to Backlinko, which is a very well known website for SEO and Google rankings, the average blog post length of the #1 results on Google is 1980 words. That’s why I don’t create many really short posts. I have done some posts around 1500-1700 words long but these posts answer a really niche-specific question and you can’t write much more about it.

Yes, but is length everything? How can someone tell if a blog post should be 2,000 or 4,000 words long?

The answer to this question is, ”it depends!”

99,9% of the time, what I do and what I definitely recommend that you should also do, is analyzing the top 10 results of Google for this specific keyword that you wanna create content for.

Open a Microsft Excel sheet or a piece of paper, if you are more traditional, and write down the word length of every single one of the top 10 results. Then do the maths and find the average. This is what Google thinks is the best number of words that cover the topic adequately.

Usually, I write 5-10%  more content than the average search result. You should also calculate how many images, videos, and infographics your competitors use. Feel free to use 1-3 more visuals than they do.

This is how you should estimate how long your content should be. There is not a fixed number. Each time you write a post, you should make your research. Then create a much better piece of content. Better quality, more visuals, more details, more data.

Google wants to show the best content possible. Sooner or later, better content will rank higher. You can outrank them even if you have far less domain authority because this is only one of the 200+ Google ranking factors.

So, now that we know how long should our post be, it is time to actually create an outline of the post to see how much time we will need to spend on its segment.

Necessary Steps To Write A Good Blog Post

  1. Blog Post Title
  2. Research for the topic
  3. Create the first sentence and your answer paragraph
  4. Create an outline with your H2 subheadings.
  5. Answer your subheadings’ topic
  6. Create the conclusion
  7. Reread and fix grammar mistakes.
  8. Insert Images and Videos.
  9. Optimize your post for search engines (SEO). This can take time and must be done correctly.
  10. Preview your post on desktop, tablet, and mobile.

These are the 10 necessary steps to create a good blog post. As you can see, it is not very easy to create an amazing piece of content, right?

I can summarize all these steps in 3 basic categories.

  • The time you need to make keyword research
  • The time you need to write the blog post.
  • The time you need to optimize the blog post.

Normally, I research keywords for about 10-20 minutes. Then, I research for my topic and my subheadings for around 30 minutes.

Then, I am writing the content for 2 hours and 30 minutes. And finally, I optimize the post for 1-3 hours. This depends on how many images I wanna insert, how many affiliate links the post needs, my internal linking, my post design and edit(bullets. colors, etc), and more.

If the post is 3,000 or more, it can take me even more time to create. Actually, when I was a beginner a pillar post of 4,000 could take me 2-3 days to write.

Is It Possible For Beginners To Write Blog Posts As Fast As Experienced Bloggers?

pocket watch

We have set an average time in which a blog post is written. I have done my research, other people have made their research however, everyone is different.

Let me explain.

Average time of 6 hours per 2,000 word blog post for me, can definitely be 12 hours for someone else. When you are a beginner, everything seems vague.

Is this keyword worth writing? Is the competition low enough? Is my blog post long enough? Are my fonts big enough? How do I insert this or that? Are these images good enough? Should I pay for images? Are these images royalty free? And I can keep writing until tomorrow.

These are just some questions that most of us had when we were starting.

Beginner bloggers and marketers, in general, do have many questions and they face obstacles every single day. These questions may delay their progress. And guess what. This is absolutely normal!

A blog post that now takes me 4-5 hours, back in the day, it used to take me 1 day to write because I didn’t know some things and I was searching, I was asking for them, etc.

Don’t feel sad because you can’t finish your blog post fast enough! As time goes on, the process will be more automated and the time required will be decreasing. Obviously, you wanna finish your blog post fast because you want to use your time more effectively but this is not very important especially at the beginning.

Take your time, produce the best quality piece of content you possibly can, and then move on to the next one and repeat and repeat.

Everything in life takes effort and time to master.

Is It All About Word Count?

hand pointing on screen of laptop

This is a very important question that I have to answer. Most people think that Google wants big articles but this is only a superficial reading.

Google wants to provide users with the best content possible. This has nothing to do with word count. If you have a 1500-word blog post which is amazing and I have a 2000-word blog post which is full of fluff guess whose article will be higher in Google’s rankings.

Google likes quality. One element of quality is thoroughness. Thoroughness can be described as a detailed version of the topic and not just more useless text but most importantly better research and topic analysis that gives the reader all the necessary information in a nice and pleasant way for their eyes.

User experience is one of the most important elements of success when it comes to Google rankings. It would be nice to tell you that User Experience is only a fast, mobile-friendly website. But, it would be a lie.

User experience is way more complicated. A fast website is a great sign for Google but there is also more stuff to be discussed.

Huge blocks of text, without images and videos, can hurt your website and your articles, no matter how good your information and how long your article is. Repeat my words here. It is important to understand this.

But, why I keep telling you about the length of your articles when you just want to find out how much time do you need?

You guess right.

Length matters! And it is not exactly what you are thinking of!

A 1500-word article can be written much faster than a 3,500-word article and this happens because in a short article you will insert fewer images, you will have less optimization to do, less text obviously, fewer affiliate links, less internal and external linking, fewer tags, etc. 

All in all, bigger articles tend to do better on Google rankings. That’s why I write the majority of my articles over 2,000 words. However, you do need small articles. Don’t write everything over 4,000 words and you think that you will definitely rank.

Create some small articles around 1700-2000 to test the waters in your niche. These articles should answer a very specific question and that’s why they are so small. Keyword competition will probably be low for very specific niche questions.

Always check your competititors’ articles.

  • If they have lengthy articles and they have great domain authority, choose another keyword.
  • If they have great domain authority but small and bad articles, try to create a much better article.
  • If there are only, for example, 5/10 websites with an exact match title for a keyword then this is your chance. If there is volume, go for it.

Minimum Word Count

Some people ask me this question very often. People are bored writing this is obvious in my eyes!

Some studies including Yoast’s study say that articles should be over 300 to rank on Google. But, if you want my advice this is absolutely the bare minimum, and 99,9% you won’t ever rank with 300 words.

Do you want to learn more about ranking? Read How Long Does It Take To Get Organic Traffic To Your Website?

I would at least make a 1400 word article. Come on. It is not tough. An introduction with a little bit of your story, 3-4 subheadings, and the conclusion. It is not so difficult …Trust me.

1400 words are the bare minimum for a topic with zero competition. If 2 of the top 10 websites are relevant in the top 10, go for a 1400-word blog post and you will be ok if you optimize it and put images and stuff. Don’t skip optimization, though.

Everything matters.

Now, for a low competition keyword that 8/10 website are just on topic with average domain authority of 30+ I would never go with 1400. No matter what they have I would try to make my post a really good 2,500-word or more article to grab a top 10 position for sure.

Then, if my article is very well optimized for Google’s snippet, I might win the #1 position with the snippet.

How Can I Write A Blog Post Faster?

man taking notes sitting at table

The only way to write a blog post faster is to practice writing over and over again. There is no magic button.

But, if you want my strategy and what I do to write a post as fast as I can, here it is.

  • Keyword Research through Google autosuggest, Ubersuggest and Answer the public. I write every keyword down.
  • I create my headline with my focus keyword in it.
  • I create my first sentence and my optimized paragraph for Google snippet
  • I go back to keyword analysis and choose 4-5 subheadings. I put my focus keyword in 1 of them(at least)
  • Then I start the introduction and then I fill the text under the subheadings.
  • Finally, I make a conclusion which is easy.
  • Then, for optimization, I am doing all kinds of stuff. I have a full article on it that you can find it here.
  • Images, text, keywords, tags, description, internal linking, etc the basic On-Page SEO is mandatory.
  • Then, I reread the text.
  • Finally, I leave it as it is and do something else. After some hours I reread it one more time and hit publish. This gives me a fresh look to find some more mistakes.

Actually, this is my full routine. I can do this really fast or really slow if I am lazy. But the most important thing, I want you to remember is to have a plan. Make an outline and go for it. Don’t mess around. By the way, the subheadings’ creation saves a lot of time.

Another trick you can test is speaking to writing. Speak and let the computer write it for you. Then take the text, format it, and go from there. Sometimes, when I really feel lazy, I do this. (Ye, I am not an alien. I am a human being too and sometimes I feel down, but I always do the work)

Is It A Good Idea To Hire Ghost Writers For The Blog Posts?

If this is your main focus, do this yourself in the beginning. When you start growing, you can outsource some blog posts.

Keep in mind that ghostwriters will never provide a piece of content better than yours. They don’t care for your website more than you do, right? You will have to fix their mistakes and put images, do the SEO and of course, pay them.

It is not a good idea to outsource writing from the very beginning. Do it yourself because if you outsource it, you won’t know if they provide good quality or no. Make the first 100 articles yourself and then continue writing but also outsource some articles.

You will definitely need to train the writers to learn to write the way you want. This is always a painful process for me.

It would be amazing if they could create articles like mine but this is far from reality. Usually, I give them something really easy. A 1700-2000-word blog post for something easy. I do the pillar articles myself.

But, this is my opinion and my strategy you can do whatever you like, I am just sharing my experiences with you.

Final Words How Long Does It Take To Write A Blog Post?

There is not a set timeline on writing a blog post. Some people do it faster and others take their time.

The most important thing is to provide amazing content. If this takes you a day or two it’s ok. Backlinko’s Brian Dean said in one of his videos that he creates a new piece of content every 6-8 weeks.

But this piece of content is amazing. It is something like a 10,000 words blog post with full analysis, case study, real data, 80+ images, etc.

Don’t mess with time.

Create a plan. I gave you mine. Follow the process. Each time you will do it faster.

I know you love numbers. A 2,000-word blog post should be done in 4-6 hours at the very least and only if you know the topic really well. If you need to do research it might take much more.

For some blog posts that I have created, it took me almost a whole day. Sometimes, I create images when I can’t find nice images and I also do some more advanced stuff but this is not what you should do.

You should start with the keyword analysis then you will write the post and finally you will edit it and that’s really it. If it takes 4-6 or 20 hours, who cares?

Be the best if you wanna rank. I will write this again. Be the best if you wanna rank. It is the most important thing you should remember.

Also, ghostwriters will never replace you. First of all, if you hire a ghostwriter from the very beginning you won’t know to teach him how to create the article.

You should never hire ghostwriters from the start. Hire them when you have already established your business and only if it is needed. (if you have 5 websites, it would be impossible to write everything yourself)

That’s it for today’s topic. I really hope I covered everything you would like to know about it.

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