Study says: Shorter Content Earns the Most Backlinks

A recent study finds a positive correlation between backlinks and content with less than 700 words.

Shorter content earns the most backlinks, on average, according to an analysis of thousands of articles.

Fractl analyzed over 5,000 articles to find the most linked-to articles are roughly 695 words in length.

Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/shorter-content-earns-the-most-backlinks-study-says/380267/

HeRBaR said:

A recent study finds a positive correlation between backlinks and content with less than 700 words.

Shorter content earns the most backlinks, on average, according to an analysis of thousands of articles.

Fractl analyzed over 5,000 articles to find the most linked-to articles are roughly 695 words in length.

Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/shorter-content-earns-the-most-backlinks-study-says/380267/

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Thanks for the share! But consider that shorter articles rank lower on google and most seo links are built and not organic.

It's plain wrong. They are using controversial marketing tactics to create some buzz. When is the last time you linked to a short info content from your money sites.

Also from the study:

Here are the top 5 article types based on number of backlinks achieved:

1. How-to article
2. General article
3. List/general article
4. Newsletter
5. Video

It does make sense that there is a distinction between articles more than and less than 1K words. That is interesting.

Hopefully, the articles used didn't have purchased social shares. Haha

I liked the part that talked about the "emotional reaction" to the shared articles. Anger was associated with "Technology" - "Money" - "Sex/Relationships". Surprising to me but I get it.

Its the attention span of the average reader at most, 600 odd words, per page.

Enlightened Orangutan said:

It's plain wrong. They are using controversial marketing tactics to create some buzz. When is the last time you linked to a short info content from your money sites.

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While am yet to read the article, I do agree partly, because shorter content that are straight to the point are easier to read and digest, a site visitor will only share a link if they understood or at least got the idea of the article. Remember that (average)human attention span is just 8 seconds. In a short content this is enough to spike the visitor's interest.

This is just my opinion anyway.

Hm, this is exactly where I am missing something.
I have 2 friends who have wide experience in SEO. One is tend to build content with at least 1000 words. The other guy says that 300 words content is fine but it must be engaging and structured. That second guy is even says that 1000 word content maybe a messy bad thing.

I am stuck

Holdentot_Accfarm said:

Hm, this is exactly where I am missing something.
I have 2 friends who have wide experience in SEO. One is tend to build content with at least 1000 words. The other guy says that 300 words content is fine but it must be engaging and structured. That second guy is even says that 1000 word content maybe a messy bad thing.

I am stuck

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Aim 600w and comfort both

xthefuture said:

Thanks for the share! But consider that shorter articles rank lower on google and most seo links are built and not organic.

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Good point.
I read the article and I'm not sure if they even took that into account.

Can this really be accurate if they automatically assume all links are natural?
We all know that isn't the case.

Remember when 1-800-flowers got busted buying links? lol

I don't think its controversial.

Bloggers write 5,000 word articles for Google, not for readers. As a writer if you want to explain a concept (which is a common reason to link out), you're going to link to the most concise well-written explanation, not a generic article that covers everything about the wider topic.

It used to be the case that long form content ranked better because Google saw a page that covered a topic in greater detail as more authoritative. But I'm pretty sure that's no longer the case. From my experience, Google is able to see that a site covers a topic authoritatively across a number of pages.

I'm not saying don't write 5,000 word articles - there is a place for them (such as product review round-ups).

But there is no longer a need to cover an entire topic on a single page. You can split it and still be authoritative in that topic.

Not only might your short form content attract more links, it'll probably have better user engagement as well.