Best word count for affiliate blog articles?

[pennymarketer]

These days I don't do anything less than 1500 words and like someone said above, if your competitors for the keyword have longer articles, make yours longer and better.

 

[SeoProMax]

Best count for article is standard length. With this readers are not bored.

 

[Ainsley_Rodriguez]

500-1000 words, shorter attention span

 

[mizeman]

You´re welcome!

The best free app is the Hemingway Editor App. It uses the Flesch-Kincaid readability score. Make sure to aim for at least 70+.

After that, your best bet is to write in a better casual but nor informal style.

I always mentalize as if i was on a real-life conversation with a next-door neighbor or my friend from college.

But remember, try NOT to make it to informal.

One thing that will help you with this is including bucket brigades and transition words.

Those will greatly help you to make your content more engaging.

As a rule of thumb?

• The intro is probably the most important aspect of your article (besides your headline) - If you can´t engage the reader in by this point they won't have any reason to continue reading. So, i strongly advise you to read and learn as much as possible about how to hook the reader with a killer intro. In my short experience and for what I´ve heard and read, the best way to do this is to tell a story readers might relate to and, for this, the best way to do it is by building a "persona" based on your audience interests, desires, problems, etc., and focus your intro based on these variables.
• Never write paragraphs longer than 2 lines - Keep them short and concise.
• Always write in an active voice instead of passive - I´ve watched lots of videos on youtube about this because this is something i am struggling too and this is the one i liked to best.
• Use sub-headings, bolded/italic/highlighted phrases, and graphic elements to break down the content and avoid offering a long and boring wall of text - Remember, readers, like to just scroll down fast down the article the first time so, adding these will help them get an idea what the article is about and, if they find it interesting, they will read it from the beginning.
• Make sure to structure your articles BEFORE you even start writing - I´ve found the best way to do it is by writing your sub-headings first and then write your articles from there. This will help you keep a "flow" to the content instead of jumping from one idea to the other. This will confuse your reader and it will make your point harder to understand.
• Always end with an irresistible CTA in your conclusions.

I always take into account the top 10 SERP results.

I am currently doing a shit ton of keyword difficulty analysis or competitor analysis for my journey and, to make things easier for me I´ve developed a checklist where i go over 10+ variables.

Stuff like...

• The very first thing i evaluate is whether or not the top 10 SERP result satisfies the user´s search intent. Ahrefs has a feature called SERP POSITION HISTORY that shows a graph that displays the volatility of the results for the top 5 pages. Is the graph shows a high volatile results this tells me Google isn´t quite clear about what are the best results that satisfy the user´s search intent but if on the contrary, you see nothing but straight lines on top, you must be confident the current rankings satisfies Google so you shouldn't steer away from what others are currently doing.
• Monthly search volume and KD score from any SEO tool
• Metrics from a few Google search operators besides the total number of results ("main keyword", allintitle: main keyword and allinurl: main keyword).
• I also calculate the keyword golden ratio (or KGR) for each keyword.
• If there are duplicated domains (different articles for the same topic coming from the same domain)
• Using MozBar i export to a CSV the DA, PA, and Links and make an average for the top 10 results.
• Besides that, i always take into account the number of sites currently ranking in the top 10 results that have less than 10, 5, 3 and 0 links.
• I also take notice of the total number of links and referring domains for the top 5 results.
• I also take notice of some variables for the top 10 results in regards to: # of websites with <10 PA, # of eCommerce stores or marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, etc), # of social media pages (Pinterest, YouTube, etc.), # of Web 2.0s sites, # of Q&A pages (Quora, Reddit, Yahoo Answers, etc), # of Article submission sites (eHow, Enzine, etc), # of SERP features (Ads, People Also Ask, etc).

Then i take a moment to digest all this data and make sure to select the best possible keyword for my business and write as many articles as possible from it.

I don´t go writing from one topic to another unless i have an already established website with some authority and relevance on the topic.

Since i am getting started, i need to build this first and the best way to do it is to take a sub-niche/topic and build 10 to 15 articles about it.

This will help me get as much reputation, authority and relevance on the topic in the eyes of Google and, also, it will make ranking for other related articles a lot easier.


No need to go beyond the top 10.

In fact, i heavily focus more on the top 5 and 3.

Why?

Because the vast majority of all the organic traffic is concentrated in the top 5 results.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

This is the most comprehensive post I've ever read on that topic. Thank you for that.
By the wat, how do you treat to the SERP results, if you have Amazon or Ebay in them?

 

[Roger Marquez]

This is the most comprehensive post I've ever read on that topic. Thank you for that.

You´re welcome, happy you found it useful.

By the wat, how do you treat to the SERP results, if you have Amazon or Ebay in them?

Based on what i read on an article on GotchSEO´s blog in regards to determine how difficulty/easy would it be to rank in the top 10 of Google for a particular keyword you should focus on taking notes of the following elements on the SERP results...

• A low number of authoritative websites currently ranking - Mostly check their DA but, most importantly, their PA. What metric? This is something only you can answer and it greatly depends on the authority of your own website. If it is a brand new website, then i would recommend aiming for results with at least 3 to 5 pages with a <10-15 PA.
• A large number of eCommerce websites and/or product pages from marketplaces like Amazon and eBay - The more you see of these the easier would it be for you to outrank them.
• A Large number of social media pages - Again, the more pages you see from a post from Pinterest and such, the easier it will be for you to outrank them.
• A Large number of Web 2.0 sites.
• A Large number of Q&A platforms - Pages like Quora, Reddit, Yahoo Answers, etc.
• A large number of article submission websites - Sites like Enzine, Github, iSnare, MyArticle, etc.
• A Low number of Google search features - Like feature snippets, Also Asks, etc.

Also, you need to analyze the other top-ranking pages that don´t fall into any of these categories for factors like...

• How well are their content optimized for SEO?
• Is their content relevant to the search query?

Answering these 2 questions is crucial in order to determine whether or not we can compete for a spot in the top 10 of Google.

Determining relevancy and analyzing SERP history are huge steps i take into consideration when analyzing a keyword difficulty and Ahrefs has a couple of features that greatly help with this.

This should give you a pretty damn good idea of how competitive or hard/easy would it be to rank in the top 10 for any particular keyword given those results in the SERP.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

 

[mizeman]

You´re welcome, happy you found it useful.

Based on what i read on an article on GotchSEO´s blog in regards to determine how difficulty/easy would it be to rank in the top 10 of Google for a particular keyword you should focus on taking notes of the following elements on the SERP results...

• A low number of authoritative websites currently ranking - Mostly check their DA but, most importantly, their PA. What metric? This is something only you can answer and it greatly depends on the authority of your own website. If it is a brand new website, then i would recommend aiming for results with at least 3 to 5 pages with a <10-15 PA.
• A large number of eCommerce websites and/or product pages from marketplaces like Amazon and eBay - The more you see of these the easier would it be for you to outrank them.
• A Large number of social media pages - Again, the more pages you see from a post from Pinterest and such, the easier it will be for you to outrank them.
• A Large number of Web 2.0 sites.
• A Large number of Q&A platforms - Pages like Quora, Reddit, Yahoo Answers, etc.
• A large number of article submission websites - Sites like Enzine, Github, iSnare, MyArticle, etc.
• A Low number of Google search features - Like feature snippets, Also Asks, etc.

Also, you need to analyze the other top-ranking pages that don´t fall into any of these categories for factors like...

• How well are their content optimized for SEO?
• Is their content relevant to the search query?

Answering these 2 questions is crucial in order to determine whether or not we can compete for a spot in the top 10 of Google.

Determining relevancy and analyzing SERP history are huge steps i take into consideration when analyzing a keyword difficulty and Ahrefs has a couple of features that greatly help with this.

This should give you a pretty damn good idea of how competitive or hard/easy would it be to rank in the top 10 for any particular keyword given those results in the SERP.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

Wow. Thank you for that explanation

 

[Blue Pen Articles]

1500 words and above is good. Show data (facts) and make sure that it sounds natural.

 

[HustleTong]

800-1200w is a sweet spot for affiliate content. You shouldn't keep it too long nor short to balance bounce rate.