Minimum Number Of Words In An Article?

Hi guys!

I consider myself a bit-above-average SEO expert! But I still want to know how many words are required, minimum, to get Google consider it as a complete article? I am very lazy so I don't want to give G anything more than it requires, but I promise those few words will still be useful to all my good readers.

Some say you need 150 words, some say 250, and some say at least 350~400. If I just want to write 50~75 words, are they sufficient for SEO a web page? I will see that those words will still take care of density, KWs, LSI, readability factor, helping my readers, etc.

To give you an example: A single case of FAQ on each page (eg., 75 words of FAQ - point #1 on one page, 50 words of FAQ: point #2 on another.... will it still be sufficient for SEO? No, that's not what I am going to do though... my plans are much simpler!
(The above para is 54 words).

It may sound silly/stupid but I still need to know the correct answer. So please help this lazy bro!

Thanks!

(BTW, the above effort took a lot of wind out of me!)

I would say 400/500 words. That 's what everyone wants.

IMO 250 words is the minimum that you should be going for - this gets me good results. Depends whether you're writing for the Search Engines or for people As the last poster said, 400/500 words is good for people - shouldn't be any more unless you're writing a feature.

what about 50words small article and then added 400 extra unique content a bit related to the niche and at few places having that keyword- but that 400extra words would be in garbage english- would it be good then for Seo?

All the content must be related for better results.

300+ words. Keep in mind you'll want to use the keyword you're going for about 3 times in each article. Underlining one, bolding one, and using italics on another. That shows Google that those words are important within that content. Also Google LOVES content, you'll get what you put in. I'd never in my wildest dreams think of doing an SEO'd article with less than 300 words. I try to keep in the 500-600 range.

Another question related to the words - what about the Keyword Density for the keyword/phrase you are targeting?

What kind of figure should this be?

1% min / 2-3% max

toxtom said:

1% min / 2-3% max

Click to expand...

Ok thanks for that.

I guess 15 times in a 500 word article, sounds like a good maximum to me too.

what about 50words small article and then added 400 extra unique content a bit related to the niche and at few places having that keyword- but that 400extra words would be in garbage english- would it be good then for Seo?

toxtom said:

what about 50words small article and then added 400 extra unique content a bit related to the niche and at few places having that keyword- but that 400extra words would be in garbage english- would it be good then for Seo?

Click to expand...

Well what I'm doing is writing unique articles for the big boys, such as Ezine, Squidoo, Go Articles etc, and spinning these unique articles for backlink purposes only. So I guess, how much it makes sense doesn't matter too much for these spun articles as the aim isn't for people to read them and head straight to the unique article, it's simply for link juice.

The question is, would your 400 extra words, be duplicate content?

I prefer 250-300 words with some related decent image or video to it. Not many of my readers like to read boring text-only stories.

I've been testing blog posts lately and am finding that 500 words is decent, 750 is great, and over 1200 you will find Google loves you long time GI.

Tiny posts = no authority and no expert rating qualities. Long posts are exactly the opposite.

I'd rather put up 10 pages of 1200 words per page than 50 pages of 250 words per page anyday.

Do all the major Web 2.0 such as EZA, Go Articles, Squidoo allow 1200 words?

Hi friends,

Thanks all for the precious inputs. The reason I asked about the minimum words is because:

I am a writer and already have written 500+ articles on a great niche topic for a top site in the last 18 months. Already most of those articles have ranked very very high in G... About 80~100+ have been seating in the top position for quite a while now, and quite a few are on the 1st page for various highly competitive keywords. Now I want to become an affiliate of the same company which has excellent services and products and pays 20% comm on sales.

If I am able to produce good SEO articles (which I am capable) with MINIMUM words -- the best words written for readers and also for SEO purpose (-- again I am very sure that I can do), and then link to those services and products, I can enhance not just my earnings, but also will be able to do the conversion effortlessly. I know 150 words will be quite sufficient to achieve that, but anything less than 150 words would mean I can have more effect in less time.

While this project (min words) is quite easy for me as I know my niche inside-out (almost), I want it done quickly. I do not outsource, hence I will need to write everything... but I know what's clicking in the niche and how to convert... The articles already written on the other site and their products and services are great, so I just need the least number of words to send most my traffic to those pages.

For this purpose, I am also planning to use multiple websites, minimum efforts, and maximum impact (of course, on-page, off-page SEO will be done -- I am just concerned about the number of words). There are other projects in the pipeline and that will need more time, more words, more SEO efforts ...

The main aim is to get my sites in top G positions with min words, and sit there. I have my own articles written for the other site there as competition, and I know how to beat them, even with a new site. Just, I want to do it in minimum words possible. (Of course I can write efficient lengthier words, but this project is to find the shortcut and really test G that might come handy in the future.)

Thanks again, and keep your views coming! I am also trying this new angle on the sidelines presently, but any experience from you will confirm my own findings.

God bless!


P.S.: Yes of course, I agree that 350~500 words is the best range to achieve everything, but I really want to test G if the same effect can be achieved with less words -- 50~75. If that can be done, then it will open new horizons, new windows, new opportunities!

There's a great book called Google Best Practices Guide by Jerry West. I remember that he mentioned a survey of a huge number of No. 1 ranking pages (and sites) in the SERPS for a large variety of keywords and keyword phrases. The content varied in size and nature, as is to be expected, but the overall average was around 600 words.

Based on this, in my view you tip the SERP ranking odds in your favor if you shoot for say 550-650 words.

As far as keyword density goes, I believe it is best to use the keyword in the title, description, first and last paragraph, and optionally another time or two in the middle. Use Google's keyword tool to look up the targeted keyword. Google tells you right there what other keywords it thinks are related, so choose 4 or 5 of them and include them once each in the content. That should do it for basic Google values.

Obviously this is flexible depending on the content (after all, we are writing for humans), but I believe a plan in this ballpark gives the best shot at long term ranking.

You can do an article with 150 words in it and it will rank in Google.

I am in the ultra competitive world of personal finance and a lot of my blog posts are just 150 words. there is a lot of content on my site though....2000+ pages and over 400 posts so maybe that helps.

Stumickel said:

As far as keyword density goes, I believe it is best to use the keyword in the title, description, first and last paragraph, and optionally another time or two in the middle. Use Google's keyword tool to look up the targeted keyword. Google tells you right there what other keywords it thinks are related, so choose 4 or 5 of them and include them once each in the content. That should do it for basic Google values.

Click to expand...

An interesting theory and it sounds sensible to me.

I use a similar kind of thinking when writing landing pages for my Google Adwords websites.

I have a way how to get unique content for any niche-keyword I want but the content is garbage in terms of english however it still talks about the theme!
Can I Just write small 50words long articles EXATLY about that keyword and for each article add that content with giberish english so it's 500 words unique content but because google would take only first 30words from the article to show in results no one would see before they haven't entered my website that that content sucks + I would enter somewhere between the lines of that extra content my main keyword few times in places where it fits and it should have perfect density unique content- would that be enough to rank in google?

Thanks!