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what should be the minimum number of word for a article?

by FaisalKhan
18 replies
what should be the minimum number of word for a article?

Is it 100, 200, 300,400?

Thanks
Faisal
#article #minimum #number #word
  • Profile picture of the author Joseph G Spiteri
    You will here a lot of people saying that 400 to 500 word articles are fine.
    I'm not so sure i personally think you should be aiming for 800 to 1000 words
    but that's just me i could be wrong.
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    • Profile picture of the author sidcandid
      The number of words in an article depends on two factors:

      i) Personal preference

      ii) The purpose of the article

      Personal Preference: Some people want their articles to provide detailed information and prefer them to be 800-1000 words or even more. Some people focus on providing brief but focused information through their articles so for them articles in the range of 400-500 word work just fine.

      Purpose of Article
      The purpose of an article can also play a role in determining its length. Whether you want to use it as a website content, for backlinking purposes etc will determine how many words the article should be of.
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  • Profile picture of the author GMD
    Banned
    Originally Posted by FaisalKhan View Post

    what should be the minimum number of word for a article?

    Is it 100, 200, 300,400?

    Thanks
    Faisal
    First, your answer depends on to whom you are writing? Are you writing for a person or are you writing for the search engines?

    Generally, if you're looking for the major search engines to consider something an "article" you'll want to stick with a MINIMUM of 250 words -- though 500 words or more of quality content will get you gold.

    T0 expand upon that, it also helps if you mention your keyword(s) in your article at least three (3) times. It looks more "natural" to mention your keywords a number of times in a 250, 500, or more article doesn't it? Some people even swear by bolding, underlining, or putting a keyword in italics so that the search engines recognize that those words are important within your article (and will thus rank higher for your keyword(s)).

    But one rule that stays static: create original, quality content that requires no more, nor less than what's required to make your point and provide value to your reader (and your friendly neighborhood search engine spider) and you will NEVER go wrong.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andy B
    As others have said, really depends on the purpose of the article.

    If you're talking about SEO articles I'd aim for a minimum of 700 words and 1,000 would be a good mark to hit

    It all depends on what you're doing with the article and the niche, (you would find it hard to write 1,000 word articles on certain subjects)
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    • Profile picture of the author Ord Allenbea
      Anything under 500 is considered a blog post and not an article. You should focus on creating articles that are very informative and reach at least 700 words. One reason why you would want longer articles is because you can re-purpose those articles easier for other uses.

      For example a 900 word article gives me the ability to post that article on my site and then split the article into 3 mini articles. I can take these 3 mini articles and post 1 on multiply, 1 on livejournal, and 1 on jamespot. This way these social media sites have similar content but not the same.

      I do this for readers and not some duplicate content myth.
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  • Profile picture of the author promisem
    It depends on the topic and what you want to accomplish. Some articles are short because everything can be said in a small amount of space.

    If your primary goal is SEO, then the longer the better. Long articles contain more potential keywords and generate more authority.
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  • Profile picture of the author TBInternetMarketing
    If I'm trying to rank the page I will aim for at least 750 words.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by FaisalKhan View Post

    what should be the minimum number of word for a article?
    It depends what you're using it for.

    If you want articles only for "SEO purposes" and their main purpose is "to attach backlinks to them", then they should be as short as you can get away with, because that activity's pretty much a complete waste of time anyway, and the less time you waste, the better.

    If you want them to attract readers who might become customers ("targeted traffic"), and you want them to be published in front of those people, then around 900 -1,200 words has been good for me.

    It's very, very striking to me, every time this subject's discussed here (and that's often), that all the professional article marketers whom I know to be successful, experienced and well-established always give figures over about 800, and some of them as high as 1,300/1,400/1,500.

    Of course, all those people aren't using article marketing for "SEO" but for targeted traffic.

    So, what you see some people say isn't quite true: sometimes length does matter.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Okay, no one else has said it, so I guess it's up to me...

      Your article should be like a woman's skirt. Long enough to cover what needs to be covered and short enough to still be interesting. :p

      That's actually not far off the mark if you take into account that women have skirts of varying styles, colors and lengths to suit what they want to accomplish.
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      • Profile picture of the author Aussie_Al
        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

        Okay, no one else has said it, so I guess it's up to me...

        Your article should be like a woman's skirt. Long enough to cover what needs to be covered and short enough to still be interesting. :p

        That's actually not far off the mark if you take into account that women have skirts of varying styles, colors and lengths to suit what they want to accomplish.
        hahha John - thats too funny
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        • Profile picture of the author nellterry
          Yea... I'm in the 1000+ camp. I have many clients who only want 500, and that's fine. However, the stuff I do for my sites, I would stick to longer.

          And, like others, I think 500 words of quality content is FAR better than 1000 words of dribble. So it really depends on context..
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      • Profile picture of the author Tiffiney Cowan
        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

        Okay, no one else has said it, so I guess it's up to me...

        Your article should be like a woman's skirt. Long enough to cover what needs to be covered and short enough to still be interesting. :p
        Too funny John! I think you're right. Focusing on what we're trying to communicate and doing so effectively is more important than some prescribed word count.
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  • Profile picture of the author TopClass
    Well that depends on whom you are writing for, if you are writing for seo purposes 250 words should be enough.
    If you are writing quality content it is generally 500+ words.
    So first decide for what purpose you are writing the article.
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  • Profile picture of the author solado
    My websites I aim for 1000+... dont get mixed up with numbers though, quality content is far more important than a poor article. I would rather have a 500 word article that reads well than a 1000 word article thats unreadable or bland.
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  • Profile picture of the author IJR112
    I've always heard 400 is the standard minimum for an article, whether it's for your own site or for an article submission site.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Coutts
    Originally Posted by FaisalKhan View Post

    what should be the minimum number of word for a article?
    One.

    Less than that, you're #%$!@#.

    :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author Rose Anderson
    I love John's answer

    I rarely get orders for 400 word articles anymore. Most clients order from 600 - 1000.

    As others have already said, for syndication even longer articles are better. But they must be informative and engaging enough to keep the reader interested until the end. Don't try to turn a 400 word article into a 1,000 word article by pumping it full of filler and repeating the same thing over and over...and over.

    Rose
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    I use to believe in a 500 word minimum. Well, not anymore. Fact is, there is no min. Google looks at who links to you. Writing long articles eats up your TIME, and please remember that time is money. Keep it short and sweet - get to the point right away. There is no special advantage to very long copy.
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