Firstly though, here are my answers to some common FAQs about 500 word blog posts.

How long does it take to write 500 words?

You might first be wondering, how long does it take to write 500 words?  Well the answer is, how long is a piece of string?

It really depends on so many factors.  How fast you write, how fast you type, how much research you need to do, whether you can write straight from your head… and so on.

There are numerous factors to take into consideration so there’s no set answer.  I can sometimes write a 500 word blog post in as little as 30 minutes if it’s directly from my head, the words keep flowing and I don’t need to do any research.

Add in researching and the words not flowing, then it can take me 1-2 hours.

How long should my blog post be?

Again, there is no definitive answer, but Google apparently likes long form blog posts in most instances.  There have been lots of studies looking at page one results of blog posts on Google and many of them are long - around 2000 words. 

If you are writing an informative blog post that answers all of the readers’ questions and they don’t need to go elsewhere to find any more answers, then Google favours these types of blog posts.

But, at the same time, your blog post should only be as long as it needs to be.

You shouldn’t waffle on or keep repeating yourself if you have nothing more to say.  For example, a blog post on how to build a garden shed will go into a lot of detail and can easily be 2000+ words long, but a blog post about how to tie a shoe lace is going to naturally be much shorter.  And Google knows this.

I’ve read lots of advice saying that Google won’t even look at articles that are less than 300 words and ideally they should be at least 500 words to stand a chance of ranking.

I always aim for a minimum of 500 words and for most blog articles I find this an easy-to-digest and quick-to-read length that keeps people’s attention.  I'll share how you can quickly write 500 word articles below.

Blog post length calculator

There's a really handy tool online that lets you know how long your blog post should be, before you even start writing it.  This blog post length calculator at usetopic.com lets you enter some keywords, or even your blog title and it tells you how long a blog post you should write.

It's based on the top ranking articles for the keywords you enter and it even shows the top search engine results along with their word count.

How many pages is 500 words?

This is the answer that shocks most people.  I think 500 words sounds like a lot to most people at first, but it’s not really too much at all.  I type in Word using a size 11 Calibri font and 500 words is one side of A4.  In fact, I just hit 500 words in the previous sentence!

When you realise 500 words is only one typed side of A4 then it becomes more achievable, even for those who not writers at heart.

If it's still daunting, then you don't always have to write your own content.  Once you have a blog or website off the ground and making money (if that's your aim) then you can start outsourcing the content to others.  There are loads of essay writing websites that allow you to express your content idea/title and one of their writers will research and write the article for you.  This leaves you to simply edit the article.  To find some of the best rated essay writing websites check out review site scamfighter.net which tests them, rates them and lets you leave your own feedback on them too.  It can be a quick way of getting content for your website if you can find a reliable and well-written content writing site. 

Related:

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·         Click here for loads of helpful blogging tips

How to write a blog post fast!

So now you know 500 words isn’t too much to write, you still might wonder how you’re going to fill an entire side of A4 with your blog post idea.

I guess to me a side of A4 is really easy to fill with words as I love to write blog posts and I often write much longer articles with ease.  Perhaps I just have a lot to say!

For others, a whole side of A4 can still be quite daunting.

If you still find the prospect of writing such content daunting then you can always enlist the help of content or essay writing services to write your content for you.  Other options are to ask other bloggers to write guest posts on your blog.  But if you find 500 words really hard to write, then perhaps blogging and writing content isn't right for you!  Maybe social media where you can share shorter content would be better. 

If you want to speed up your content writing then here are my top tips on how to write content fast:

Talk to your readers

When writing your first blog post, especially if it’s for a business blog, you might automatically revert to a school essay or university assignment style of writing.  This is usually very formal and factual.  You might try to use lots of descriptive words or words that sound impressive with the help of a thesaurus!

My advice is to totally scrap this writing style.  Instead talk to your readers in a more conversational tone and with your own personality.  You will find it much quicker to write in your own voice rather than trying to sound overly professional. 

People love blog articles because they are less informal and easy to read.  They like to hear the writer’s personality shine through, especially if it’s a personal blog.

Once you start writing as though you are talking to your audience in a conversation, you will find it so much faster to write.

Bringing your own experiences into the blog posts, even if they are ultimately a how to guide or informative post with lots of facts, can also help to make the blog post writing faster.

Have a beginning, middle and end

Writing a chunk of text that is 500 words long can seem long, but not if you break it down into sections.  Most blog posts start with an introduction to draw the reader in and explain what the blog post is about.  They also end with a short conclusion.  If you write a few sentences for your introduction and conclusion at around 100 words each, then you’ve already got 200 words!

Then you just need to fill the middle with 300 words.

Breaking a blog post down like this makes it a lot more manageable than trying to write a block of text.  It’s also easier for your reader to digest.

Use a listicle format

If the middle block of 300 words still seems like too much text then write in a listicle format.  This is my favourite way of writing blog posts and it’s how I usually structure every blog post on my blogs!

Not only does it break a blog post up with headings and make it easy for a reader to skim to find a relevant part, or less boring than reading a block of text, but it makes it sooooo much easier to write.

So, write your introduction, your conclusion and then come up with three or so headings for the middle of your blog post.

Maybe change your blog post title to 3 ways to… or 4 tips for… to make your blog post even easier to write.

Once you have your headings then you simply need to write the relevant content for each and it only needs to be a few sentences for each one.

For example:

• Introduction (100 words)
• Heading 1 (100 words)
• Heading 2 (100 words)
• Heading 3 (100 words)
• Conclusion (100 words)

Boom!  500 words!

As you can now see, by breaking the blog post up into sections it’s so much easier to write.  Thinking of each part as 100 words or just a few sentences seems less overwhelming that writing a block of 500 words.

If you’ve been putting off writing a blog post because it seems like too many words, give the advice above a go.

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