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Is Longer Better?

by zuberr
11 replies
I usually write short articles(less than 400 words) for EZA submissions, some do good, some do ok, and some not good at all. My weak point has always been finding the profitable keywords.

Anyways, for a change I decided to write a long article of nearly 1000 words with average competition keywords in the "Water To Gas" niche. In a week, I only got a little less than 200 views, whereas other shorter articles have given better results for similar competition keywords.

Ok, I know I'll skew the results by doing this (doesn't really matter, since I already have another long article under another pen name ), but this is the article in question:
The Complete Guide to Modify Your Car to Run on Water and Gasoline and Boost Fuel Economy

And the other long article under the other pen name is actually doing worst than this, but I won't share it here because I want to test it.

Please share your advice, ideas, anything on how I can improve my rankings for a long article like this one, which in my opinion is a beautiful article (I put so much work in it).

Does the number of words (with quality) really matter??

P.S. I know there are many warriors in the "Water To Gas" niche these days, please feel free to publish the article on your site if you like it, by properly linking to my site ofcourse
#longer
  • Profile picture of the author raj7
    for seo purposes wordcount does matter.
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Oksa
      Here's my question, do people know how many words are in the article before they click on a link to read it? If not, then word count doesn't matter in the least for number of views.

      However, length may effect the number of clicks you get in your resource box. What is the CTR of the article? That's what I normally track. If the CTR is similar, or better, than your other articles then it could be a matter of timing.

      ~Michael
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      "Ich bin en fuego!"
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      • Profile picture of the author Fabian Tan
        1) Add some LSI keywords to your article. This is a new technique I just learned recently, but to be frank, it's nothing new. Go to Google's Keyword tools or use Wordtracker to find relevant keywords. Search for a 'seed keyword' and generate relevant or alternative keywords and use them often in your article. LSI is the way to go these days, not keyword density.

        2) Create links to your article. Your article should act as a link bait. Obviously, the better your article is, the more people are going to link to it and publish it on their blogs, websites etc. There are ways to generate backlinks for your article - you can Squidoo it, post it on Yahoo Answers, forums, social networks, social bookmarking etc

        This is not a foolproof formula, but nothing with regards to search engine optimization is. But if you do this properly, you will get results and you will see your articles getting better search engine rankings and milking more traffic.

        My advice: read up on LSI and back linking. They are a big part of article marketing for SEO purposes.

        Fabian
        Signature
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      • Profile picture of the author David Raybould
        Hi there,

        Yes, Michael's right. The length may not affect the number of views, but it will certainly affect the overrall clickthrough rate.

        Obviously, this is the figure you need to pay attention to, as you need to bring the visitor away from EZA to monetize them, which you can't do until they click your link.

        And if you article is too long and they lose interest half way through, you lose the click, so you lose the money. But your article views may still seem impressive, as you still get credit for the view whether they stay for 3 seconds or 30 minutes.

        Hope that helps...

        David
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        Killer Emails. Cash-spewing VSLs. Turbocharged Landing Pages.

        Whatever you need, my high converting copy puts more money in your pocket. PM for details. 10 years experience and 9 figure revenues.
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        • Profile picture of the author Simon_Sezs
          A longer article with the right keywords will give you more long tails to play with and should get more views as google indexes it...

          ....HOWEVER.....

          You have to ask yourself what the purpose of the article is. Writing long, meandering articles is good for things like adsense on your site because people tend to get bored and click to something else.

          In the case of article directories, that is the last thing you want. You want them to come there, get an incomplete overview and ultimately click through to the link in your bio box. So, at least in my opinion, writing a long article for an article directory is just a exercise in wasting your time. You may be giving someone more answers than you should.
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          • Profile picture of the author tommyp
            Originally Posted by Simon_Sezs View Post

            A longer article with the right keywords will give you more long tails to play with and should get more views as google indexes it...

            ....HOWEVER.....

            You have to ask yourself what the purpose of the article is. Writing long, meandering articles is good for things like adsense on your site because people tend to get bored and click to something else.

            In the case of article directories, that is the last thing you want. You want them to come there, get an incomplete overview and ultimately click through to the link in your bio box. So, at least in my opinion, writing a long article for an article directory is just a exercise in wasting your time. You may be giving someone more answers than you should.
            I totally agree with this, plus I have noticed that many times shorter articles have ranked better than longer articles I have submitted even with keywords with similar search results. The more information you give upfront the less people may feel they need you anymore. A lot of times a shorter article can be better and you don't want to bore someone with a long drawn out article, which will not work to draw them to your sites unless they are highly targeted and interested in the topic PLUS you have a very compelling article that keeps them reading until the end. Don't forget that even highly targeted visitors can have short attention spans. You want to capture their attention by getting into relevant information they are looking for as soon as possible, get their interest and get them to your site.

            You may want articles that offer good advice/information but at the same time are like a cliffhanger where if the reader wants to know more they will need to visit your site and that's what you tell them to do in your resource box.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tuzic
    Banned
    Hi,

    Focus on your CTR & put backlinks in your article relevant to content.

    As long as there is quality in the length of the article then this is great, as some of the best articles i have read online have definitly been long.
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    • Profile picture of the author zuberr
      The CTR of the article is pretty good in my opinion, around 25%.

      And yes, like Fabian mentioned I have use the LSI keywords
      technique. That is, I didn't focus on just one or two keywords
      for the whole article, but it also has other keywords of the niche
      spread throughout.

      There are a few links pointing to the article from the RSS, but I
      believe I should join some related forums and link to the article
      for more backlinks.

      So, will the article catch up with time? The article is obviously
      indexed, EZA articles get indexed in a day. But I suppose it won't
      instantly rank for the LSI keywords right?
      Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author Dick Doe
    Originally Posted by zuberr View Post

    I usually write short articles(less than 400 words) for EZA submissions, some do good, some do ok, and some not good at all. My weak point has always been finding the profitable keywords.

    Anyways, for a change I decided to write a long article of nearly 1000 words with average competition keywords in the "Water To Gas" niche. In a week, I only got a little less than 200 views, whereas other shorter articles have given better results for similar competition keywords.

    Ok, I know I'll skew the results by doing this (doesn't really matter, since I already have another long article under another pen name ), but this is the article in question:
    The Complete Guide to Modify Your Car to Run on Water and Gasoline and Boost Fuel Economy

    And the other long article under the other pen name is actually doing worst than this, but I won't share it here because I want to test it.

    Please share your advice, ideas, anything on how I can improve my rankings for a long article like this one, which in my opinion is a beautiful article (I put so much work in it).

    Does the number of words (with quality) really matter??

    P.S. I know there are many warriors in the "Water To Gas" niche these days, please feel free to publish the article on your site if you like it, by properly linking to my site ofcourse
    I usually limit my articles between 400-500 words. Anything less and I won't be able to educate the readers fully. Also, short articles don't rank too well in Google, because with a short article, you have limited opportunity to use multiple variations of your primary keyword.

    However, I don't write articles as long as 1,000 words. Most people simply don't have patience to read such long articles. They will read half-way, feel bored or tired, and then leave!
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    • Profile picture of the author zuberr
      The reason I'm writing a long article is because I'm hoping
      to build trust with my readers. I'm not writing an article
      filled with nonsense, but in fact each paragraph talks about
      an important point. I'm obviously not giving the whole information
      away, because I want them to buy the book.

      About the attention span, I think for an average person
      the attention span is like 15 minutes, more than enough
      to read the whole article if they are actually interested in
      the topic.

      And thirdly, if they get bored reading and want to click
      away, they could be clicking in the link in my resource
      box to get the core information. Like I mentioned, the
      article has a CTR of about 25%.

      Do you guys think that with time, the article will show up
      high on the ranking?? Or the "effectiveness" of the article
      tend to go down with time??
      Signature
      [START TODAY] A Simple Method I Developed Back In 2007 To Build A Real Evergreen Business Online (And It Still Works In 2016)
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      • Profile picture of the author Simon_Sezs
        Originally Posted by zuberr View Post


        About the attention span, I think for an average person
        the attention span is like 15 minutes, more than enough
        to read the whole article if they are actually interested in
        the topic.
        Geesh, if that is the average, then I am way below it. I might give up on a website if it loads slow, never mind trying to read through a long article.
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