Word Count & SEO: Considerations for Content Marketers
Does your SEO take the length of your content into account? How much of a worry should word count be? Get the solutions to these and other questions.
You’ve probably wondered how long to make a blog post or online article if you’ve ever written one.
What is the ideal length of online content for SEO purposes, in other words?
You may have heard that the recommended word count for SEO is between 250 and more than 2,000 words per item, depending on the year and the source.
The quality of the material and the quantity of backlinks, not the word count, according to proponents of smaller word counts, are what is really important.
High word counts proponents assert that material with too few words will be rated as “thin” by search engines and won’t rank as highly as content with more words.
What then is the reality? Do search engines really care how many words are used? If so, what is the ideal length for content pieces?
The quantity of articles is not taken into account in Google’s quality ratings, according to John Mueller of Google, the source from which so much knowledge about search engines emanates.
So, I guess that’s all. Case closed; the smallest article in Search Engine Journal’s history has proven that word counts are unnecessary.
Choose 2,000 words and an optimized H1 instead.
That may be summed up as SEO advice.
But is it a well-known fact, a prevalent belief, or an urban legend?
Although there is no agreement on the ideal word count, there is a basic guideline to follow: In general, long-form material performs better than shorter content.
Considered carefully, this makes a lot of sense. Longer pieces assist Google’s algorithm in better understanding the content of your page since it strives to determine search intent.
Therefore, it follows that bigger is always better, right? No, not always.
Readers will get disinterested if you just fill out articles with excessive words, pointless adjectives, and adverbs, or if you purposefully take a detour around the main idea. Consequently, your quality scores will suffer.
Each item must thus be as lengthy as necessary. So simple as mud, right? Not to worry. We’ll go into further detail.
An article’s ranking is determined by its backlinks rather than its content length.
In 2022, Yoast conducted a study that contained data on the relationship between post length and SEO ranking. It was shown that the minimal word needed varies on the kind of page.
As you can see, that’s a lot of variation.
Pages on taxonomies and products typically function well with fewer words since they are so precise. Additionally, people typically access them through pages higher on the website rather than straight from search results.
For instance, you probably aren’t looking for [Wusthof Performer 8″ Chef’s Knife] if you’re looking for a new set of kitchen knives. Instead, you’ll use the overall Wusthof or merchant page to search for [Good Chef’s Knife] and then dig down.
On the longer end of the scale, informational material is typically more concentrated. This ultimately results in gaining more backlinks.
What Is Required To Fulfill Search Intent?
SEO experts have been attempting to generate lengthier content for many years, at the expense of usability. Instead of the word count that is pertinent to your aims, this resulted in fluffed-up, extremely extended articles.
It could also have motivated Google to promote highlighted snippets, which provide answers right away rather than putting users through a frustrating scrolling experience.
Not long ago, a search for “how to lower bounce rate” would get page one results that spent 700 words discussing the significance of bounce rate before offering the first piece of advice on how to do so.
However, we would have Googled bounce rate if we had required a primer. These items obviously don’t meet search purpose.
Thankfully, Google has improved and these kinds of results are less frequent now, but they should still be a reminder to reconsider content production and satisfy search intent.
I advise flipping your content organization on its head so that the user receives the value as soon as they land on your website.
Go into further information as the article progresses, and users who are interested in details keep reading.
Second, provide users with a direct path to conversion and subsequent clicks.
This is important for your company’s income, marketing, and commercial objectives as well as for the website visitors who arrived there with certain intentions. Make sure they can easily discover what they require.
This may consist of:
learn more about related articles via links.
Request a whitepaper or how-to manual.
Purchase the product.
Fluffing Affects Your Keyword/Topic Targeting and the Content Ontology
The hierarchy between keywords and articles and content ontology are the major factors I want you to consider while thinking about meeting search intent.
You may create a clean website architecture and make it simpler for Googlebot to crawl and index your site if you get search intent right.
If we strive blindly for 2,000 words to write about a subject like “apples” (as per best-case practice), we will immediately learn that most authors and SEO experts frequently discuss “bananas” and “oranges” when they run out of things to say about “apples.” Whatever it takes, they are attempting to reach their desired word count.
This weakens a page’s ability to target specific keywords and match search intent.
We are now misleading visitors and the search engine about the goal and topic of the content item, which defeats the aim of demonstrating to Google that this is the finest page for “apples.”
When we discuss about “fruits” in general to forcibly prolong our essay about “apples” to achieve the desired word count, we call this content cannibalization.
When we confuse Google to the point where it is unsure of which component to rank for the phrase “apples,” it is known as keyword cannibalization and it hurts your overall ranking performance.
One article per term (cluster), such as “apple/apples,” for example.
Observe how your items relate to one another (ontology or content hierarchy). On that parent page/category page, everything about “fruits” in general is covered.
Make it obvious to readers and search engines what the single theme or subject of each piece is: Talk exclusively about “apples” in the “apple” section.
The length of the material will depend on the objective of producing the finest piece of information about “apples.”
Article Ranking Factors: Satisfying Intent, Proper Word Count, and Backlinks
We have not only created a piece of content that will rank well on its own, but also a piece that makes a great backlink target that will lead to successful rankings if we keep in mind what page one competitor are currently doing in terms of content length, satisfying the search intent, providing the best answer, and inviting users to convert.
It’s Time to Stop Worrying About Word Count
In the early days of SEO, getting high rankings for a keyword typically involved stuffing that term or phrase everywhere it might be found in your text. The strict guidelines for content length are no longer in effect; those times are long gone.
Yes, this article makes the claim that lengthier content is frequently better for SEO, but not for the obvious reason you may expect. Additionally, having more words won’t raise your ranking by itself.
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