It's an often asked question among those who create content on the web.

Theories abound. Seems like everyone is looking for the "magic pill" that will, somehow, propel them to stardom... or-- at the very least-- help one of their articles go viral.

Alas, in my 20-odd years of writing on the web, I have never found a secret. Although many have written ostensibly "expert" opinions about article lengths, I've never found any of them very convincing.

Does Length Even Matter?

Sure, length matters if your editor tells you to write an 800-word article... but beyond that?

Some argue that "about 500 words" is all you get before people slip into the dreaded TL;DR ("too long; didn't read) territory. Some older wisdom claimed that the bulk of your article had to be "above the fold" (i.e. visible on the landing page) but that's a fallacy, given that most modern web sites only let you see an image before scrolling to the written content. 

Lots of statistics and reports have been generated, looking at article length and page reads... and time spent on a page. 

Even so, all I've ever been able to deduce is that "it depends."

Thoughts about "Quality" Content

I guess I should add that I view the question through my own lens of perception, which is that I wish to create good quality content. 

Whereas that means different things to different people, there's usually a common thread that quality content "adds to" the reader's web experience, and there is a "positive takeaway" when the reader leaves the page.

So those who simply try to create "word soup" in order to get some page views would not be counted in this context. The 377,293rd iteration of "Cell phones can be useful" really doesn't add anything to the universe... aside from a little clutter. Makes me ask the question "Does this even have a reason for EXISTING, aside from serving as click bait?" 

In case you can't tell, I don't like click bait. 

It makes me want to stick red-hot pokers under their creator's fingernails.

The "Right Length" is However Long It Takes!

The "right and best length" for ANY web content is "however long it takes you to clearly and fully make your point." 

It has very little to do with length. 

Think about it.

Our own Steemit contributor @mynameisbrian creates consistently high quality content... that amount to little more than a cartoon and a few words. They are "the right length."

If you're writing Haiku, the length of a Haiku is "the right length."

If you're part of the "100-word Fiction challenge," it's pretty obvious what "the right length" is.

On the other hand, if you're writing an in depth report on modern crop rotation in South-East Asia, you probably need 10,000 words. Maybe more. Then that's "the right length."

So stop worrying about "length" and focus on telling your story or sharing your content in a manner that "feels complete," whether that's 100 words or 10,000. 

Stop worrying about people declaring-- as a broad generality-- that blog posts "should" be a certain length. Finish the post, check your work, make sure you're not repeating yourself... and PUBLISH.

As an unrelated point of reference, my most read blog post recently passed 64,000 views in its multi-year history. It's 3700 words long...

A few words about the TL;DR thing

"Too long" can definitely be "a thing" for a number of reasons-- maybe you were looking for the "Cliff's Notes" version of some information, maybe you are in a hurry, maybe you're reading an article about something that really doesn't interest you.

Too long-- in your opinion-- doesn't make the article "bad." 

It just means you don't care, or have a short little span of attention, or you're making it your mission to read and rate 500 articles today and LONG ONES ARE DELAYING YOU!

Again, that doesn't make the article "low quality," and going all negative on it makes little sense.

In fact, it's about as meaningless as those people who write negative reviews on Amazon, giving a product a 1-star review because the shipper took three weeks to deliver it, even though it was the best power saw they've ever had. 

Think before you click!

How about YOU? Do you ever worry about "length" when creating content? Do you think there's a right length for articles, aside from "when it is complete?" Share your thoughts with a comment!

(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)