Short or Long Articles? Advice Welcomed

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easierwayz

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Hi, I've just set up a website in the pet niche, and it's the first one I've done in a long time. When I used to make sites before (around 8 years ago) the articles that I used to write for the sites were rarely above 1000 words and used to get ranked without much difficulty depending on the niche. However, I've been reading that low word articles no longer rank as easily as they used to.

Can anybody who knows about this tell me if it's correct? What kind of word length should I be looking at for a new site? I'd appreciate any insight into this.
 
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easierwayz said:
Hi, I've just set up a website in the pet niche, and it's the first one I've done in a long time. When I used to make sites before (around 8 years ago) the articles that I used to write for the sites were rarely above 1000 words and used to get ranked without much difficulty depending on the niche. However, I've been reading that low word articles no longer rank as easily as they used to.

Can anybody who knows about this tell me if it's correct? What kind of word length should I be looking at for a new site? I'd appreciate any insight into this.
Click to expand...
Short or long. Both works.
For a content site or blog, use long articles. Its better and you could rank for LSI/ low competition keywords with that.
 
Look at your competition for the kws you want to rank. If the serps are full of short articles, that is what Google want. If it is full of long ones, then that is what Google want.

Analyse the competition and do better.
 
Thank you, because its a new site, I'm targeting low comp keywords. Many of the KWs don't have more than 50 searches a month which I know aren't a lot, but I was thinking more long term by just getting around 10-20 low comp keyword articles ranked before moving up to slightly higher comp keywords.

I don't know if this is the best strategy, what do you think?

If it's ok, I'd just like to give a little info on the site and get your views on it. A friend of mine just started a small local business and needed a website building, so I told her that I would do it for her. It's only a 5-6 page site at the minute like many other small local business websites.

I had done a little research on here and learned that a new site can take months to rank these days (unlike a few years back). However, the site was ranking about 10 days after going live. I realize that it was only ranking in the area that the business is based, and that's what it was meant to do. But I have been wondering if I made the site bigger by adding more content, would the content rank, especially if the content is based on low comp, low traffic keywords.

So the plan is to add 10-20 articles to the site and see where it goes. At the least, it will make the site larger and more helpful to visitors than any of its competitors and at best it might start to rank for keywords outside the area that it is based in.

What do you guys think? Is this something worth following? I'm in no rush to monetize the site, and I was thinking that is something I could 6-12 months further down the road. I'd be grateful for your thoughts, thanks.
 
Hey mate! Whatever you do, just make sure each article stands above 300 words(that's the minimum I go for, and it always works).

The content is not the "KING" of Google. The content is the "King" of your readers. It has to be on point, not long and boring.




easierwayz said:
Hi, I've just set up a website in the pet niche, and it's the first one I've done in a long time. When I used to make sites before (around 8 years ago) the articles that I used to write for the sites were rarely above 1000 words and used to get ranked without much difficulty depending on the niche. However, I've been reading that low word articles no longer rank as easily as they used to.

Can anybody who knows about this tell me if it's correct? What kind of word length should I be looking at for a new site? I'd appreciate any insight into this.
Click to expand...
 
easierwayz said:
Thank you, because its a new site, I'm targeting low comp keywords. Many of the KWs don't have more than 50 searches a month which I know aren't a lot, but I was thinking more long term by just getting around 10-20 low comp keyword articles ranked before moving up to slightly higher comp keywords.

I don't know if this is the best strategy, what do you think?

If it's ok, I'd just like to give a little info on the site and get your views on it. A friend of mine just started a small local business and needed a website building, so I told her that I would do it for her. It's only a 5-6 page site at the minute like many other small local business websites.

I had done a little research on here and learned that a new site can take months to rank these days (unlike a few years back). However, the site was ranking about 10 days after going live. I realize that it was only ranking in the area that the business is based, and that's what it was meant to do. But I have been wondering if I made the site bigger by adding more content, would the content rank, especially if the content is based on low comp, low traffic keywords.

So the plan is to add 10-20 articles to the site and see where it goes. At the least, it will make the site larger and more helpful to visitors than any of its competitors and at best it might start to rank for keywords outside the area that it is based in.

What do you guys think? Is this something worth following? I'm in no rush to monetize the site, and I was thinking that is something I could 6-12 months further down the road. I'd be grateful for your thoughts, thanks.
Click to expand...


I think this depends on the business.

If it is a local widow cleaning company, for example, do you need articles about what cleaning products you use?

If it is a larger, more widespread business, you may need that content to fully show what the company is about.

Furthermore, do you need it to rank in more parts of the world, or will that attract traffic that will be of no use, as they won't travel to clean windows?
 
Long article with minimum 1000 words is good for SEO (we are all know content is the king) but for short article if your keyword competition is easy-medium you could still use short article (400 words minimum), and of course can save costs, to be used in other optimizations such as link building for low to medium competition :)
 
Hey, Stuffedegg
The website is about dog walking. So my thoughts are to do a bunch of informative articles based around dog care/training without any affiliate links for at least 6 months.
 
Creating an article that will engage with your audience Is more important than legenth.
I would say that 700w is enough.
 
Hi, Kanza, GainTheImpossibl, thanks for your replies. I was looking at between 1000-2000 words per article. GainTheImpossibl are you saying that 500-750 word articles are still viable for a site today?
 
GainTheImpossible said:
Hey mate! Whatever you do, just make sure each article stands above 300 words(that's the minimum I go for, and it always works).

The content is not the "KING" of Google. The content is the "King" of your readers. It has to be on point, not long and boring.
Click to expand...

I noticed this the other day.

I saw a series of top 10 results there were 500-800 words (all pretty :poop: in terms of content) but the guys who have done 2k words ++ are on page 2 onwards and their content is significantly better. One website had 5,000 words on the topic and was incredibly insightful but they were on page 9 :anyway:. By the way the niche is ultra competitive.

easierwayz said:
Hi, Kanza, GainTheImpossibl, thanks for your replies. I was looking at between 1000-2000 words per article. GainTheImpossibl are you saying that 500-750 word articles are still viable for a site today?
Click to expand...

Yes, for certain.
 
As I said: The visitor decides your importance. That's why Google doesn't care about us. It cares where it sends the reader. If it sends it to you and the reader takes his time by reading, Google knows you're sharing good content(Only then you're going to gain some more visibility).

Optimizing for your users is more important than having the old G on your mind. ;)

An article is viable from 300 words(Tested this personally). It depends on your niche(If your niche requires long-ass articles, you just have to, but I doubt that long=better.) It's more likely: On Point Article = The best.

Just use your brain cells for a sec. GL!



easierwayz said:
Hi, Kanza, GainTheImpossibl, thanks for your replies. I was looking at between 1000-2000 words per article. GainTheImpossibl are you saying that 500-750 word articles are still viable for a site today?
Click to expand...
 
Thanks IG Professor, that will save me a lot of time and work.
 
Appreciate all your thoughts, thank you.
 
easierwayz said:
Hey, Stuffedegg
The website is about dog walking. So my thoughts are to do a bunch of informative articles based around dog care/training without any affiliate links for at least 6 months.
Click to expand...
This sounds good, it will show that the person has knowledge. Just remember to base the articles around dog walking.

"How to treat a bee sting on a dog while walking around area x" sort of things. (Made it up, you get the point).
 
If the theory of 300 or 400 words and more works in SEO. Then why do sites like TheAwesomer which receives more than 700000 visitors / month and whose articles rarely exceed 150 words are so well ranked on very competitive keywords?
 
No need to worry about the length of the content. Just try to cover all the things in an article that people looking for. I mean if your site is about Dog walking then, write an article related to dog walking and use lsi keywords.
 
Generally speaking more should perform better, keep in mind words are not everything and do not forget to have images across your article and the most important: value.
 
Short or long content doesn't matter, it needs to be optimized for your visitors. Either way, you need to optimize your content keeping SEO + visitors in mind.

Long content works best for high competitive keywords. Try analyzing any keyword that has high competition, you'll see that most authority sites have words >1k or even more, or you'll even see sites <1k words ranking in that specific keyword. It all depends on how Google sees your site, and decides that your content is probably the best for this specific keyword. Let's just say that if a high authority site like Buzzfeed makes some crappy low quality post targeting a specific keyword, it might rank instantly.

I personally think short content works best for low competitive keywords, but when it comes to ones that have medium-high competition; I would prefer a long yet qualitative content.

Seeing that your site is brand new, don't go hardcore on it. Keep posting content, update your site daily, and try to gain social media traffic instead of depending on organic traffic as you may not instantly rank for any keyword yet; even if you do, it will probably be in position 20 - 100.
 
Monitor top results in SERPs. Target a list of kws they're ranking for and preferably, work on articles of similar wordcount.
 
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