Does my article have to be longer than the competitors?

llama77

llama77

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I am writing an article that only has one other article competing on google. His article is about 1900 words where mine has 1400. I can tell by the way he wrote that he does not have any experience in the niche where I do. His site also is just a general site where mine is niche-specific. My question is does my content have to be equal to or longer than his to rank or can I still rank with a shorter article that i believe is better
 
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First, it doesn't matter what you believe. Sadly, a bot is the judge here
Second, No, you don't have to write longer articles.. If both of you in the top ranks, then users metrics will be the judge. How they interact with both of your articles will tell who will be the winner

So, right now, if you feel your article answers all the questions related to the keyword you are targeting (which I highly doubt), then you don't need to add more content.

Or, you can look for questions related to the keyword and answer them in really long article, which google will reward you with a lot of traffic from Long Tail Keywords
 
No, it doesn’t. Unless you believe in Neil Patel and Brian Dean.
A better article doesn’t mean a longer article.
 
You can rank better than him with 300-500 words article. Just find great backlinks that points to your post.

But usually longer articles (with some images, videos.. and other cool stuff) receive more natural backlinks.

Don't focus too much on words count, focus on backlinks and quality content (quantity isnt = quality)
 
If your article is better, you bounce rate will be lower and it will outrank. 1900 vs 1400 words is not huge so don't worry about that. UX is more important.
 
Hi, @https://www.blackhatworld.com/members/llama77.1107165/. It technically helps if yours is a long-form article because you can use as many keywords or LSI terms as possible.

However, it's not only about the length of your content that can make you overtake your competitor's article in terms of ranking on SERPs.

There are many factors to consider.
1. Has your article been shared on social media more than your competitor?
2. Is your article mobile-friendly and your competitor's not?
3. Does your site have a well-formatted sitemap and your competitor doesn't?
4. Does your site load faster than your competitor?

The list goes on and on, and that's just technical SEO.
 
Better you can try with shorter article. If your first article was top rank then the users matrics will be judge. In that case it will be problem in your ranking. Try with shorter article with in the word count of 300-500 and try to find the good backlinks. Share your article in social media.
 
For me, it does matter. Google is a robot and it doesn't know what article is better, it might know what is user experience on a website but it won't tell what is more valueable. Word count is a metric, it might think "Hey, this page has 500 words more so he knows more about the topic, I'll put it a position higher".
 
hiepdn said:
No, it doesn’t. Unless you believe in Neil Patel and Brian Dean.
A better article doesn’t mean a longer article.
Click to expand...

I 100% agree. As long as it solves the user's problem it can be 5 lines of text.
 
Its not necessary to have more words to rank higher.
Check other factors like:
1.Improve your page loading speed
2.Start blogging
3.Use outbound links
4.Optimize your site for mobile devices
5.Encourage sharing on social media






 
The answer is NO.

Writing a bigger article won't help you in any away. The article should be more meaning and provide more value as compared to the other article. Based on what you said, that the other guy doesn't have much experience in the niche, you have an edge here if you put it little effort directed in right direction.

Few things you can do to get a better result are:
- Improve the readership of your article
- Make it more visually appealing and fast loading
- Promote it using SM
- Build Some Links Directing towards your article

Just try to generate more visitors for your article, and over the period of time, Mr.Bot will realize that your article is helping more users compared to the other guy so he needs to make a replacement.
 
ContentWriter said:
However, it's not only about the length of your content that can make you overtake your competitor's article in terms of ranking on SERPs.
Click to expand...
Agreed with @ContentWriter , length of an article is not the only factor but there are many aspects related to it for the article to rank as mentioned above.
 
like others said, the answer is no.... however, your article should a bit bigger than the average of the top 10 sites for your keyword

take a quick look at this https://www.keywordsheaven.com/on-page-tool/ and see how you are doing against the top 10 for your primary keyword. pay special attention to number of times your keyword is mentioned in <p> tag.
 
llama77 said:
I am writing an article that only has one other article competing on google. His article is about 1900 words where mine has 1400. I can tell by the way he wrote that he does not have any experience in the niche where I do. His site also is just a general site where mine is niche-specific. My question is does my content have to be equal to or longer than his to rank or can I still rank with a shorter article that i believe is better
Click to expand...


NO.

I used this as an example the other day to review a keyword. Check out the wordcounts listed.




NodyGuy KW.png



Secondly are you meaning for the content to rank or convert?

Kyle Roof ran a series of experiments where he ranked for content using Lorem Ipsum. Which although helps rankings, isn't going to ever convert into anything.
 
MisterF said:
NO.

I used this as an example the other day to review a keyword. Check out the wordcounts listed.




View attachment 124625


Secondly are you meaning for the content to rank or convert?

Kyle Roof ran a series of experiments where he ranked for content using Lorem Ipsum. Which although helps rankings, isn't going to ever convert into anything.
Click to expand...
Great example really puts it into perspective!
What tool are you using here
 
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