Article length 350 or 500 words?

[russ3377]

When writing article to post on a website, does 350 word count or 500 word count articles make a significant difference to search engines?

I know some article directories have word count minimums. I'm not looking to submit to any directories. I'm just posting articles to my website.

So to a search engine, is there a significant difference between 350 or 500 word articles?

Thanks!

[Devon Brown]

There's no difference in word count to the search engines. Keyword density and backlinks matter.

[Matt Morgan]

Use LSI in your articles, rather than keyword stuffed articles.

[russ3377]

What is "LSI"?

Sorry for my ignorance, I'm still a newbie.

[Matt.Lake]

From an SEO point of view, word count doesn't matter. But, as an article writer myself, I think that longer articles are more effective than shorter articles.

500 words is a good amount. Often, I find that if a client wants me to write shorter articles - like 300 or 350 words - then I don't actually have enough space to say all that I want to say... and thus the article isn't as good as it could be.

So, to answer your question, no, word count doesn't affect SEO, but it may well affect the results you experience in another way. I'd say 400 words should be a minimum but 500 words are better.

[theseoguys]

You should be fine with a word count in that range.

[DavidMaddux]

Originally Posted by russ3377

What is "LSI"?

Sorry for my ignorance, I'm still a newbie.

Hey Russ,

Here's an eHow.com link to answer your question: What Is LSI? | eHow.com

There's lots of discussion about it, but there's a quick definition for you.

Best wishes.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by russ3377

does 350 word count or 500 word count articles make a significant difference to search engines?

No, it doesn't. Article length doesn't matter to search engines. It matters a lot to people syndicating articles, so where article directories are concerned it's hugely relevant to the authors, because it determines how many future backlinks, how much future traffic and thereby how many future sales and opt-ins they get from their articles ... but to a search-engine (and for your own purposes, as described, for your own site only), no, not at all.

[LTY83]

I tend to write articles that are 500 words or more.. why? well mostly because I use Isnare to submit and thats their minimum word count requirement - but also because I try to add as much value (not fluff) to the article as possible.

However, when I submit to places like EzineArticles I writer shorter articles, 250 to 300 words - I've found shorter articles on Ezines have a higher CTR

[jsniemeyer]

I kind of disagree with the idea that word count doesn't have anything to do with SEO. I think that if anyone bothered to do a study on it (I haven't either so I am just speculating here) on two web pages with all things being equal except word count ... say 100 words versus 500 ... The 500 word page would probably win out.

With that said I also agree with what LTY83 said and pretty much do the same thing. For most purposes 350 - 500 words is a pretty good range to be in.

On a side note if you are writing content for your own sites and are monetizing through Adsense you should keep in mind that if your site is too "thin" and you start making enough money to trigger a manual review ($100 per day or so I think?) then you might get yourself banned.

Josh

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by LTY83

I've found shorter articles on Ezines have a higher CTR

I've also found that - very much so.

15 months ago I was writing much shorter articles on EZA which had a CTR approaching 40%.

I'm now writing much, much longer articles on EZA which have a CTR of about 17%/18%, but I'm earning far more from them. (Not "because their CTR is lower", of course - for other reasons, but they're other reasons which also resulted in a much lower average CTR.)

I monitor how well I'm doing, and what I need to adjust by the income derived from the articles, not from their CTR's. I find that judging anything by the average CTR can be a huge mistake.

It's not relevant to the question asked in the OP (because the OP specified that his articles are for his own site only) but for anyone interested in the broader subject of article length, this thread and this thread will be particularly interesting.

[hireava]

Well typically there some directories that has a minimum words per articles.. You can just fill that words if 300 or fill it with your keywords of you backlinks. Backlink is the most important.

[russ3377]

Thanks everyone for the insights!

[NicoleBeckett]

The most important thing is to not focus on a length, but focus on your subject instead. Some topics naturally lend themselves to 700, 800, 1,000 words, while others are only interesting for 500. It all depends on what you're writing.

Above all else, you want readers to finish your article and feel like they actually learned something new. If your article is too short, they may get to the end and think 'that's it?". If your article is too long and drawn out, they may never get to the end of it.

Personally, though, I don't write anything under 400 words (unless it's a blog post, and, therefore, lends itself to being shorter and more informal).

[thetruth23]

Your articles have to be 423 words exactly!

There's been so much debate on the forum about how many words should be used for articles but the truth is it's not a big deal...

What matters more is quality, value, and uniquness. Don't let anyone tell you any different.

Knowing the purpose of your article also helps!

[discuontlens]

No you can post on your website as many words you can may be of 300 or 1200 it's up to you....

[timpears]

Your article needs to be long enough to get the point across, and hopefully pique their interest enough to get them to click an ad. Yet, not long enough to boar them.

That could be 200 words, and it could be 500 words, and it could be 1,000 words or more. Or, anywhere in between.

[seoindiaforu]

Definitely 500 or more than that!!

[DavidMaddux]

Forgive me if someone else stated this earlier.

I believe ezinearticles.com changed their policies earlier this year to where an article must be over 500 words to be included in their "Most Viewed", "More Related", and "Most Published" categories.

Many article marketing strategies will include this technique for gaining extra views to your articles at EZA.

So, that may be why the number 500 it being tossed around.

Outside of EZA, I don't believe there is a "magic number" for article word count.

These are just my thoughts, heck I could be wrong Lord knows I have been before!

Best wishes.

[gracetog]

Deosn't make much of a difference to search engines. But to people who pickup your article and publish it, it should be over 400, and I would say ideal is 500 or more.

[~kev~]

What is the difference in a 350 and a 500 word article? 150 words - and that is about it.

Some topics can be discussed in 300 words, some 500, some 1,000+. Last night I posted a 1,000 article on my blog - because I felt the topic deserved at least that much attention.

This morning, I made a random 250 word post about a hot topic in the news.

If your topic needs 350 words - use 350 words, if its needs 500 words, use 500 words, if it needs 1,500 words, use 1,500 words.

[dude91]

Originally Posted by Devon Brown

There's no difference in word count to the search engines. Keyword density and backlinks matter.

Second that ! I usually use around 100-250 words !

[FatKidLovesCake]

I prefer larger articles to help give more diversity to the content.

Ya you can do it with shorter ones, but I just prefer longer.

[findall]

unique worlds of your Article matters

[acaforreal1976]

From my experience 350 words per article is okay. You don't want to present your visitors with epistle. The truth is that many visitor do not have the time and patience to read lenthy article. Just make it concise. Virtually all directories accept 350 words even Ezinearticles which is regarded as the top of the directories accept 250 words. So you are good to go.

[all4rex]

The SEO gold rule: more is better.

[hireava]

Or if you really don't time to make a unique own article, you can use some software like MAR or Best Spinner and submit it to FTS.

[Marketing Ignite]

word count does not matter as much as who is linking to you...

[bigK]

A really long article can cover more keywords and is better for the already mentioned LSI. It sounds logical to me that a longer article could carry a little bit more weight in the eyes of the search engines as it probably also contains more useful information. This is just my unconfirmed opinion. But by longer article I assume something over 1000 words. I think 350 or 500 does not make much difference.

[seorocks1]

Article length doesn't matter. What matters is
1. Keyword rich document.
2. Good anchor text backlinks.
3. Relevancy.

I don't even believe the "more is better" so called SEO rule. I have seen 3 sentence article rank higher in few cases.

[vwrite4u]

Having an article which is long enough for the topic is what makes more sense than the actual length.
However, as many people already mentioned, it is the backlinks to your articles, i.e. the pingbacks, which improve the search-engines love for your link more than the length of the content.

[masterseo]

According to me word count to the search engines is not matter. The two thing that matter a lot for search engines are Keyword density and backlinks matter.

[seocruz]

Hi i am new.
article content should be not copy content and different article sites vary its range bt from seo point of view 350 to 420 standard one bt did not have exact idea about Google priority
about word count range?
if anyone can help my to update my information!!

thanks

[mavericace]

Originally Posted by russ3377

When writing article to post on a website, does 350 word count or 500 word count articles make a significant difference to search engines?

I know some article directories have word count minimums. I'm not looking to submit to any directories. I'm just posting articles to my website.

So to a search engine, is there a significant difference between 350 or 500 word articles?

Thanks!

the longer the better, SE bots love's to read.

[SEO Expert Nepal]

500 words is better for a website.