As experienced digital marketers, we are often asked: How long should a legal blog post be? We used an example search of “California Homestead Exemption” and found that this answer is the same as the classic attorney answer: it depends. Legal blog writers are often curious as to what the optimal length for their blog content should be. If the content is too short, it won’t be able to provide answers and likely won’t have sufficient keywords to rank highly in Google. But if the content is too long, readers may lose interest or become confused.
Tip: Remember that blog post content should be substantive and useful to the reader and that all blog posts should be optimized for applicable keywords. Achieving these goals varies depending on the complexity of the subject matter and the keywords you are trying to rank for.
Minimum Post Length
There is an overall consensus that legal blog posts should be at least 300 words since this is about the minimum number of words that allow the writer to convey information that will benefit the reader. That being said, this isn’t 8th grade English class, so don’t try to stuff your content with meaningless words just to up the word count. Sometimes a 300 word blog post explains the topic and gets the job done just fine. Use your best judgment when writing a short blog post.
Beware: A short blog post (<300 words) may not be ranked highly by Google for several reasons. First, it may not have the keywords required to rank highly. Second, Google may consider it thin content, thereby ranking it lower than competitors’ longer blog posts. Proceed with caution when writing a short blog post.
Ideal Post Length
Writers should aim for closer to somewhere between a minimum of 600 and 750 words to create an informative blog post that will engage readers, be ranked highly by search engines, and, ultimately, turn into profitable leads. This length has proven to be long enough to build reader confidence in what the writer has to say but not so long as to be intimidating or undigestible for readers.
Long Post Length
There is research suggesting that posts that are 2,500 words or more are ideal for ranking highly in Google, especially in the legal field. Readers turn to legal blogs to learn about complicated legal subjects from a trusted source (attorneys). Blog posts that are longer than 2,500 words establish an attorney’s authority on the subject and build a reader’s confidence in the attorney’s knowledge on that subject.
Additionally, a long blog post allows the writer to dive into different sub categories of the main blog topic. It also allows the writer to create different section headers which further aid Google in understanding and ranking the content. In turn, this naturally allows for more keywords (especially long-tail keywords) and more search engine visibility.
Beware: Blog posts that are meandering, needlessly wordy, or have obvious signs of keyword stuffing do not apply. These will actually have the opposite effect and be negatively ranked by search engines.
Case Study: Homestead Exemption Articles
Just as in law, there is always an exception. Law firm blogs on the newly updated California Homestead Exemption are a fascinating case study on the ranking difference between a short blog post and a long blog post and how they compare against each other.
For example, one law firm (Wadhwani & Shanfeld) has a high ranking blog post entitled “California Homestead Exemption Increases in January 2021”. The content is only 271 words long. However, a competing firm has a similar article on the “California Homestead Exemption” with over 4,500 words. Assuming both law firms are using Google recommended SEO tactics and don’t have disastrous website health concerns, most people would assume that the longer article should rank higher than the 271 word blog post.
But it doesn’t. Rather, in the search for “California Homestead Exemption,” the shorter article outranks the longer blog post. Why is this?
Once site health issues and indexing issues have been ruled out, there are few possible reasons for this. Perhaps the longer article is too long, and readers feel overwhelmed. Maybe the searcher intent is to find a brief overview of the homestead exemption and then leave. Maybe the shorter article breaks the homestead exemption down in a way that is easier to understand. Or maybe the firm that wrote the shorter article has a long history of being an established player in this niche.
Whatever the exact reason, this is a prime example of how we cannot be sure exactly how Google works. Factors such as post age, post content, discoverability, and targeted keywords are contributing factors – but not the only factors. While research on this topic continues, the age old adage still rings true: content is king. If you’re looking for potential clients to find your law firm, follow Google’s recommendations by providing quality content and good things will follow.