Thread: What is Optimal Word Count for Articles and Content?

Originally Posted by texashiker

My opinion, and this is the standard that I have set for myself, 400 - 600 words is good.

The 400-600 words are the best return on investment and for SEO purposes in my opinion.

Will mentioned that the 400 word articles really don't give that much information. In what he described as the "general dumbing of the web"

Originally Posted by texashiker

Its easier to break that 1,000 word article into 2 - 500 word articles, give them different titles, different tags, interlink them, and leave a slightly larger footprint in the search engines.

Long articles between 1000-5000 words are a great way to build authority with the users. Publishing longer articles can be recommended for a business selling a high end product or service.

The long articles are also great to capture long tail keywords. Especially when the articles are written in natural language.

I would have to say that about 500 is the average but no matter what the word count is if the content provided is no good then there isn't much left to do. For instance I had this "writer" jot me an article on weight loss and not only was I unable to make sense of what he wrote but he wrote one big ass block of text that would scare the hell of any reader.... I would have been much better of with just a well written 150 word excerpt

Originally Posted by JamesKl

I would have to say that about 500 is the average but no matter what the word count is if the content provided is no good then there isn't much left to do. For instance I had this "writer" jot me an article on weight loss and not only was I unable to make sense of what he wrote but he wrote one big ass block of text that would scare the hell of any reader.... I would have been much better of with just a well written 150 word excerpt

The quality is important. The poorly written content is going to just aggravate the reader and they are going to hit the back button. The 150 excerpts are bad in that your goal is to get the reader to click. The well written excerpt will keep them on the page long enough to notice the ads.

I don't think someone wants to spend his time only to read 1000 words article... I usually use 300 words articles and the SEO performance is not bad on google.co.id

Honestly if you are talking of SEO, I have noticed that my 400-600 words article got well indexed in SE's than the shorter ones. However if you are talking of visitors, I think long articles do keep them glued but they have to be very well written. Also, long articles generate more comments and hence discussion.

If you observe more deeply and bring adsense into picture, it's obvious that articles with more comments have more CTR. So I would say, if you can maintain the quality in all the articles, it isn't bad to keep them long for SEO as well as monetary purposes

Originally Posted by geraeldo

I don't think someone wants to spend his time only to read 1000 words article... I usually use 300 words articles and the SEO performance is not bad on google.co.id

It depends on the nature of the articles. Perhaps for a summary or a tech review 300 words is enough. However, for some subject matter the reader is looking for in depth resources. If everything was out there on the web, there wouldn't be any need to buy books.


[quote=amol_cool;108988]Honestly if you are talking of SEO, I have noticed that my 400-600 words article got well indexed in SE's than the shorter ones.

The longer articles when written in natural language will have more possibility to generate long tail keyword phrases.

Originally Posted by amol_cool

However if you are talking of visitors, I think long articles do keep them glued but they have to be very well written. Also, long articles generate more comments and hence discussion.

If you observe more deeply and bring adsense into picture, it's obvious that articles with more comments have more CTR. So I would say, if you can maintain the quality in all the articles, it isn't bad to keep them long for SEO as well as monetary purposes

A longer resource article is more likely to get bookmarked by the reader and get return visits. People that are researching a topic are more likely to click on ads.

I agree with Bogart.

I ask in general that my articles have between 700 ~ 1000 words, my summaries have around 350 words.

The most important thing is an interesting subject, then a subject that people are looking for is much better

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

The most important thing is an interesting subject, then a subject that people are looking for is much better

A good place to look for keywords is the Google auto suggest and
Searches related to (at the bottom of the page)

At the least Google drives traffic to these keywords.

400-500 words is usually a good rule of thumb. If articles are too short, readers don't feel like they got any new, valuable information.

If you're going to make an article really long (like 1,000 words), it better contain amazing information and be incredibly compelling. Internet searchers have really short attention spans, and long content could make them zone out and click the 'back' button.

If you've got articles that are really long, why not cut them in half and publish 2 articles?

I personally like 400-500 well written and well paragraphed articles. This way I am able to provide substantial information without too much work and easily readable. IMO no point having a chunk of text no one can read.