All things equal are longer articles better than shorter?

[bokeboke]

I've been creating some content for my money site and very often find my articles being over 1000 even sometimes 2000 words. I'm wondering if I should cut these up into 1000 word parts or just keep them the length that they are. In terms of SEO once you get an article longer than 1000 words is or any benefit to more words?

 

[jon_xx_x]

Who knows what they want, but I'm sure if you have some high quality articles that are 1000+ words it will more likely benefit you than hurt you.

 

[Peter Ngo]

More wordcount usually means you have higher chance of hitting more long tails. So usually, even if i target 2-3 words kw, i will try to think of a longer title with 7-8 words.

 

[SteveWaller]

I did an experiment where I combined two articles that were closely related into one. I took the page that was more broad in it's title and URL and simply added the content from the other page to it. I then created an internal anchor to the part of the page where I copied this other article.

I then did a 301 redirect of the secondary page to this internal anchor.

Judging by my analytics, it has eventually led to greater overall traffic for the one page than for the the two separately. When I search for the keywords most closely related to the secondary page, my main page now ranks higher than the secondary page ever did and the internal anchor shows if people want to skip directly to this part of the page.

But, saying this, the higher rankings have not meant as much extra traffic as I thought. I put this down to the fact that the page title does not contain these secondary keywords and the internal anchor simply doesn't attract the eye as much. But overall there has been an increase in my traffic so I guess I should call it a success.

In my case, then, having one big page (just under 2,500 words) has been beneficial. And judging by some of the other popular articles on this site (some over 5,000 words long), the longer articles tend to attract more traffic.

 

[touchingheart]

1000 word averages look a lot better than 2000+ word articles.

 

[contentdarknight]

Optimum word count for articles is 500 to 1000.

 

[Commoner]

Yes and No.

Assuming ceteris paribus, if you write a 10,000 words article full of nonsense and a 700 words article of top-notch grade, you know the answer, no?

Write Well Buddy,
Commoner

 

[growthtargets]

Difficult to tell as it depends upon niches. But I do believe longer articles would carry more authority and weight, especially if content is not repetitive but high quality. For SEO however, it would be best to optimize pages for different keywords instead of just putting everything into a single article.

 

[SteveWaller]

1000 word averages look a lot better than 2000+ word articles.

Why? What reasoning are you using there?

Optimum word count for articles is 500 to 1000.

Who told you this? Matt Cutts?

For SEO however, it would be best to optimize pages for different keywords instead of just putting everything into a single article.

And you're sure of this are you? You've tested it for yourself?

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As usual, too many members are posting random pieces of "advice" that they have neither tested nor have any proof of. OP would do well to ignore some of these answers in my humble opinion.

 

[wizard04]

What I personally have noticed, That article of between 500-700 words are ranking on the top places.
I guess google don't like very long articles, probably they are looking for tot he point articles with less BS.

 

[Aty]

Yes, definitely. I would try to keep all articles at 1000 words or above.

 

[mistachewy]

Back in the day, a 500 word article would be enough for you to start ranking. But now, google seems to favor longer articles that have substance. If you are putting our articles that are jibberish or don't serve any purpose, it doesn't matter how long it is because google will just ignore it.

I just started building up a few authority sites. Each article I post on them I try to get at least 1000+ words and I have been seeing some pretty good results. I have been able to rank pretty high on some of the keywords even with only having 1 link to the article.

 

[Avaron Leonhart]

What if I have a recipe site? I really don't think I can write a recipe around 2000 words, so I think it still depends on the overall quality of your content.

I personally like to read articles less than 1500 words because sometimes the author just keeps repeating the same thing with different sentences

 

[Hawkster]

With respect..............you didn't provide any proof either. You dont know that people didn't do any 'testing'. Besides people are giving their opinions based on what they think/know. And it seems no ones knows the true answer, including you.

As usual, too many members are posting random pieces of "advice" that they have neither tested nor have any proof of. OP would do well to ignore some of these answers in my humble opinion.

 

[lightningblitz]

In my opinion, just my opinion, I always prefer to vary my content length. Anything that looks scripted or robotic may flag in google, and some topics would naturally require a different length for articles.

I learned long ago, if I can cover a topic in 300 words, do it, if it takes 1000, very well. Although what google likes may vary, what readers like is concise information which is still enjoyable. Being more verbose often leads to people spacing out.

 

[Avaron Leonhart]

In my opinion, just my opinion, I always prefer to vary my content length. Anything that looks scripted or robotic may flag in google, and some topics would naturally require a different length for articles.

I learned long ago, if I can cover a topic in 300 words, do it, if it takes 1000, very well. Although what google likes may vary, what readers like is concise information which is still enjoyable. Being more verbose often leads to people spacing out.

Totally agree! It's not practical to write a recipe around 2000 words like I said before, and you just need to focus on your audience not the length of articles

 

[infoasian]

There is no univesal answer to this question. As a general rule you would need to add media to your text. Beyond that: in my experience a mega article about "The five best products for Cleaning laptop screens" will normally rank better than 5 small articles with each one describing one product, only.

 

[SteveWaller]

With respect..............you didn't provide any proof either. You dont know that people didn't do any 'testing'. Besides people are giving their opinions based on what they think/know. And it seems no ones knows the true answer, including you.

While I didn't post screenshots of my stats or give links to the site in question, I did provide anecdotal evidence of an instance where I combined two shorter posts into one longer post that led to an overall increase in traffic.

True, I don't know for sure that other members haven't done testing of their own, so I retract that statement and their opinions are equally as valid and possible as mine - I just like members to give some sort of reason why their opinions are the way they are rather than just post something for the hell of it.

 

[Kav13]

I can tell you this: Google is smart. It has too many algorithms and it gets constant feedback from its users.
I have some long articles in my site that I believe help build authority, yet my most visited page is an article with less than 1000 words but with truly original ideas.

 

[jollyman]

Usually 600 -1000 words article is more than enough for good sharing. Its not about how many words in the article. Its about how it will engage with the topic/relevant, social signals etc..