Word Count & SEO: What Content Marketers Need to Consider

If you’ve ever written a blog post or online article, you’ve already asked the question: How long will this last?

In other words, what is the ideal length of web content for SEO purposes?

Depending on the year and source, you may hear that the ideal keyword for SEO is anywhere from 250 to over 2,000 words per piece.

Proponents of low word counts will argue that it’s not the number of words but the quality of the content and the number of backlinks that matter.

Proponents of high word counts claim that very few words will be found in “thin” content in search engines and, therefore, will not rank as high as their verbose counterparts.

So, what is the truth? Does word count really mean that much to search engines? And if so, what is the best length for content pieces?

According to John Mueller of Google, the source of many search engine knowledge, the number of articles is not included in Google’s quality score.

So, that’s it, right? Case closed, the shortest article in Search Engine Journal history proves you don’t need to worry about word count.

Word count isn’t an automatic SEO ranking factor, but it’s still something you need to keep in mind.

Throughout this post, we’ll discuss why it’s important, how the length of your pieces can both indirectly help and hurt your rankings, and give you some tips to help you write pieces that are the perfect length for your needs. .

“Go With 2,000 Words & An Optimized H1”

That’s SEO advice in a nutshell.

But is it best practice, common knowledge, or urban myth?

As mentioned earlier, there is no consensus on the correct word count, but there is a general rule to follow: In general, long-form content tends to outrank short-form content.

If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. Google’s algorithm tries to measure search intent, and long segments help give it a better idea of ​​what your pages are about.

So, bigger is always better, right? not necessarily.

If you’re just rambling on about articles by adding extra sentences, unnecessary hints, and paraphrases or deliberately taking a roundabout way to the point, you’ll turn off readers. And that will hurt your quality scores.

So, each article needs to be as long as it needs to be. Clear as mud, right? Don’t worry about it. We will explain further

It’s Not Content-Length That Ranks An Article – But The Backlinks That Are Correlated With The Length

Yoast conducted a study in 2022 that included information about the relationship between post length and SEO ranking. It determined that the minimum word count depends on the type of page.

As a general rule of thumb, Yoast suggests taxonomy pages (those used to separate content and data) should be 250 words or more, regular posts and pages should be 300 or more, and rock content pages should be sites north of 900 words, and product pages that require 200+ words are much less.

As you can see, there are different types.

Taxonomy and product pages tend to work well with fewer words because they are more specific. And users generally don’t download directly from the search results and instead enter from the top of the website.

For example, if you’re shopping for new kitchen knives, you probably won’t be looking for [Wusthof Performer 8″ Chef’s Knife]. Instead, you’ll be looking for [Wusthof Performer 8″ Chef’s Knife] and download it from Wusthof or the website. general retail.

At the other end of the spectrum, long content is often focused on providing useful information. This, in turn, tends to earn you more backlinks.

Image taken from Ahrefs.com, September 2022

A 2020 study by Ahrefs analyzed nearly 900 million web pages and found a strong positive correlation between word count and the average number of citations.

In another 2020 study, Ahrefs found that 91% of all websites never get organic traffic. And that seems likely because they don’t have any backlinks:

“It looks like 66.31% of the pages don’t have even one link. And 26.29% of the pages have less than three links.”

So, the effect of content length on rankings appears to be a two-step process rather than a “longer, then better” equation.

The path to success looks like this:

It seems that what may be evaluated on a website is not so much about the length of the content itself but more about the number of links the page receives.

Directories, blogs, column pages, and content hubs make the most interesting link targets. Therefore, it is recommended to create the most complete, most interesting, most in-depth content of the website and conduct a wide awareness campaign.

Making it sexy may not even require many words. Instead, it may be a matter of accurate targeting, good images, or detailed market research results.

Answer Search Intent Effectively By Starting Your Article With The Most Important Information

Ahrefs recommendation for content length:

“Don’t shoot for a specific number of keywords – just make sure you cover a topic completely. Whether that’s 500 words or 10,000, the key is to create the best resources available for your target keyword.

In other words, the content should be as long as it needs to give the search bots enough information to determine what it is about and enough to satisfy the user’s queries.

What Does It Take To Satisfy Search Intent?

For many years, SEO professionals have tried to write long content, regardless of usability. This resulted in very long and rambling sections instead of a word count that suited your goals.

It may also encourage Google to push the obvious categories – and provide answers quickly rather than providing a bad user experience in the marathon.

Image from Google search, September 2022

It wasn’t that long ago that the query “how to reduce bounce rate” would return the first page of results discussing the importance of bounce rate in 700 words before revealing the first clue on how to reduce it.

But if we need an introduction to the recovery rate, we would put it on Google. These categories clearly fail the purpose of the search.

Thankfully, Google has gotten smarter, and such returns are less than they used to be, but they should still serve as an invitation to rethink the creation of content and meet the purpose of the search.

I recommend that you turn your style to content – and thus giving value to the user the first second they come to your site.

Turn your SEO article into a newspaper article or executive summary:

Most important information first = Answer the question.

Then delve deeper as the piece progresses, and users are more likely to continue reading.

Second, give users a clear path to conversion and make subsequent clicks.

This applies to your business, revenue, and marketing goals, but also to users who came to the site with a specific purpose. Make it easy for them to find what they need.

Fluffing Hurts The Content Ontology & Thus Your Keyword/Topic Targeting

The main reason why I would like you to think about persuasive search is the content ontology and the hierarchy of keywords and articles.

This is something Google has been considering as well, as thin pages, duplicate content, and keyword cannibalization are all now negatively affecting your SEO results.

Finding the right search intent will also allow you to build a clean web site – making it easier for Googlebot to crawl and index your site.

If we are unconsciously aiming for 2,000 words to write a topic like “apple” (as a best practice), we will quickly realize that most of the writers and the SEO benefits seem to be from say “banana” and “orange” when they run. something to say about the “apple.” They are trying to beat the target word count no matter what it takes.

This separates the keyword targeting of the page – and your ability to hit the target search engine.

Instead of proving to Google that this is the best page about “apple”, we are now confusing users and search engines about the purpose and topic of the content section.

We call it the essence of eating when we talk about “fruit” in general to strengthen our piece about “apples” to beat the word count.

It’s called keyword cannibalization when we confuse Google so much that they don’t know which part to evaluate the question “apple”, which causes them to switch between the two – it hurts your overall ranking performance.

The goal of creating the best “apple” section will determine the length of the content.

How Articles Rank: Satisfying Intent, Appropriate Word Count & Backlinks

If we then keep in mind the page that one of the competitors is currently doing in terms of content length, satisfying the search intent, providing the best response, and inviting users to convert – we have not just created a piece of content that will rank well. itself – We have also created a piece that makes it a great backlink target that will lead to successful rankings.

It’s Time To Move On From Word Count Obsession

In the early days of SEO, ranking high for a keyword generally meant having that keyword or keywords in your content wherever it went. Those days are long gone, and with them are fast and strict requirements for content length.

Yes, this article proves that long term is usually better for SEO purposes, but it’s more circular than you might think. And a high word count alone won’t help you rank higher.

Instead, you need to create quality content with the information they want.

Remember why users are coming to your site; Satisfy their mood and give them what they want.

By doing this, you will also make your content an attractive link for other content creators. And speaking of that, it’s a good idea to do outreach efforts to build the following links and build your site’s credibility in Google’s eyes.

Credit: Crowd/Shutterstock

Images in post #3-5: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

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