Yoast SEO and list length

Stuffedegg · May 6, 2019

Hi everyone.

What do you do if your list in WordPress is longer than the recommended 300 words? I am in the middle of writing a list with explanations of all of the points, but I am already at ~500 words and not finished yet.
My options as I see them are:

Use H4/5 tags as list headers. - I can only see this would be bad for SEO?

Write the list with no explanations and add them as a separate section. - This is going to look odd as my list really requires explanations as you are going through it.

Write my list and ignore Yoast. - This goes against the idea of Yoast does it not?

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks.

akshayp83 · May 7, 2019

you can't ignore yoast it helps us to optimize blog but still you can try ignoring and check results.

Stuffedegg · May 7, 2019

akshayp83 said:
you can't ignore yoast it helps us to optimize blog but still you can try ignoring and check results.

Thank you. But what would you suggest in this case then?

Kaushal Dhawan · May 7, 2019

The third option which you have written i.e. 'ignore Yoast and write' is good, because if you have a list which you are writing and it is more then the recommended 300 words, there is no problem in listing your points, it is not like that it will reduce your SEO strength. If you are focusing on other points while writing then there is no problem in listing.

Stuffedegg · May 7, 2019

Kaushal Dhawan said:
The third option which you have written i.e. 'ignore Yoast and write' is good, because if you have a list which you are writing and it is more then the recommended 300 words, there is no problem in listing your points, it is not like that it will reduce your SEO strength. If you are focusing on other points while writing then there is no problem in listing.

Thank you. I have now separated it with an h3 tag. Didn't really want to do that though. Do you still agree with your point if you know that it is only an 18 point list? It has to have explanations for each point. That is what makes it such a large section.

Dark Sky · May 7, 2019

Stuffedegg said:
Thank you. I have now separated it with an h3 tag. Didn't really want to do that though. Do you still agree with your point if you know that it is only an 18 point list? It has to have explanations for each point. That is what makes it such a large section.

Do not write content for search engines, write it for your readers. Yoast just gives guidelines. If you follow yoast exactly for every article then you wont rank. I guarentee you. I have tried it. You need to copy what the people have written in the top search results because that is what google has favoured out of all the 1000s of articles. E.G if the top 10 search results are ecommerce shops, you aint ranking an article, because google has figured out that people want the ecommerce shops for that search query. If another keyword shows top 10 results with short quick articles, then again, google favours that.

You need to drill this into your head, usually whatever is in the top 10 SERPS is what google wants. I don't find many keywords in my niches where there is volatility with the top 10 rankings. If there is then it suggests google is still looking for the perfect content for that search query, whether the content be reviews, online shops, blogs, listicles ect.

Stuffedegg · May 7, 2019

Dark Sky said:
Do not write content for search engines, write it for your readers. Yoast just gives guidelines. If you follow yoast exactly for every article then you wont rank. I guarentee you. I have tried it. You need to copy what the people have written in the top search results because that is what google has favoured out of all the 1000s of articles. E.G if the top 10 search results are ecommerce shops, you aint ranking an article, because google has figured out that people want the ecommerce shops for that search query. If another keyword shows top 10 results with short quick articles, then again, google favours that.

You need to drill this into your head, usually whatever is in the top 10 SERPS is what google wants. I don't find many keywords in my niches where there is volatility with the top 10 rankings. If there is then it suggests google is still looking for the perfect content for that search query, whether the content be reviews, online shops, blogs, listicles ect.

Thanks. I don't think I have ever looked at it like that. I usually try to just give more informative content than the others. I get excited when the top SERPS are short because they are easier to write more content for. Perhaps thats one of my issues.

Dark Sky · May 7, 2019

Stuffedegg said:
Thanks. I don't think I have ever looked at it like that. I usually try to just give more informative content than the others. I get excited when the top SERPS are short because they are easier to write more content for. Perhaps thats one of my issues.

You do have to use some common sense though aswell. E.g if the top 10 in serps have short articles, but their rankings are extremely volatile, it means google does not like short content and you need to improve on what they did to gain a stable position.

Yoast SEO and list length

Stuffedegg

Power Member

akshayp83

Elite Member

Stuffedegg

Power Member

Kaushal Dhawan

Newbie

Stuffedegg

Power Member

Dark Sky

Banned - leaving fake reviews.

Stuffedegg

Power Member

Dark Sky

Banned - leaving fake reviews.

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