Why You Need to Optimize Article’s Length on Medium

Does reading time really matter?

Feb 06, 2025

And why do my articles always feel longer than it is? I know how you feel because it was done intentional.

Image Created by Microsoft AI Image Generator (Copilot)

2 minute and 3 minute articles are on demand.

Yes, when you see a 2-minute read it is about or less than 10 words from the system to make it a 3-minute read. This goes the same for my 3-minute article as well, that is why I’m able to fit the entire earnings report into it.

If your shorter article is not fully lengthened to the rear end of each read minute then you are missing out on your earnings as well.

Reading time directly impacts your earnings and how long an article is will impact on whether or not a reader is willing or has the time to read it.

My tactic has always been making it look short but it is fully packed with enough words so nothing goes to waste.

Let’s see if it makes sense to you.

Why you should optimize the length of an article.

Every time I stop writing I look at the word count as I know the length of each minute count on Medium is being sorted.

I know we shouldn’t be focusing on how many words there are but it is now a habit I have, knowing how long an article sets an expectation before reading it. I have to admit that sometimes readers dropped off mid-way or thought they could finish it but they never returned.

That is fine, either the content was not interesting enough or they just didn’t have time to finish it.

Many articles I come across are 2–3 minutes, yet very often it is shorter than expected that is because many do not pay attention to the word count or simply how long their article is going to be.

Sure you can check the word count and have an idea of how long it will be but when it comes to adding more than one image it does get more complex on how many words should you put down.

I have to say, I’m not an expert on putting images in between text to make a appealing, and most of the time I only use 1 main when I type too much.

Normally, I don’t edit anything besides the grammar, but I have to remove, shorten, and or rephrase some in order for it to fit in the minute read or read length I want it to show.

I mean, that is by far the only thing you can control right?

Do you know how to have an optimized read length?

In case you do not know.

1 main image (AI-generated Image size) with 470s words = a 2-minute story
2 images with 420s words also = a 2-minute story

1 main image with 720s words = a 3-minute story
2 images with 670s words = a 3 minute story

I don’t do 1 minute story but it will be a satire if I do.

From here we can see that a normal (horizontal) image will take up around 50 words away for it to go over the next minute counts.

If you are those who like to put more than 2 images then be my guess and let us know how many words you can put, I’m sure many would benefit from it.

When articles are short and extended to the full word count but still show the lowest number of read minutes, we can put more in-depth thoughts and ideas in without making it look like a long essay.

And if I gave you a 4-minute read I must be out of my mind again as it is probably a disguised 5-minute read.

It works the same as under-promise and over-delivery.