600-800 seems to be a pretty good sweet spot. If it's the same quality, sure, 1200 could be better than 600, but there are many factors - namely on-page and off-page SEO for the individual post. I'd say make sure not to use filler - focus on good content and make sure it reads properly and is grammatically correct.

I think it depends on many other factors because I have several sites on page one of google without long posts.

I think quality it key and as always, I think the best thing to do is get most, if not all of your targeted traffic from some way other than SEO.

My average has been closer to the 800-900 range as it has been working better for me. I was doing the 500-600 range before but my results have been better with something closer to 900. It varies for everyone.

What matters is whether what you write appeals to your audience.

Tell your story using as many words as you need to tell the story, and no more.

The key to your success will not be how the search engines count words, but how many of your readers want to read what you have written and how many of them recommend what you have written to others.

Yes, it matters...BIG TIME!!! Forget about thin, poor quality 250-500 words content. Those days are over! Post Panda, Google prefers much longer, more in-depth, quality content. Focus on meatier, more informative content...minimum 750 words or longer. Also, if you write articles for syndication, quality publishers prefer longer content as well.

Create quality, meatier content consistently, and eventually you will reap the benefits of your efforts.

David Jackson

There are so many variables involved here that you can't make a hard and fast rule about the length of your content.

I think the length matters only if it matters to your readers. Depends on the nature of your blog and the type of people who visit it, or who you want to attract.

Also, some subjects require more in-depth coverage than others.

Personally, I prefer to have a mix of different types of posts on the blogs I read. AND, I need to have it easily scannable. 1200 words of solid text is worthless compared to a concise, easy to read 350 words.

If you always keep your reader in mind when you write, then you shouldn't be worrying about length. Far better to worry about whether your reader is engaging with the content and getting something out of it

Best,

Sharyn

I've been thinking the same thing as you guys have been saying about SEO and only needing as many words as to say what you're trying to say.

I own several well ranking websites with posts that are around 500 words and I've recently been experimenting with another website where the posts are all at least 1,200 words. People stay on the site that has 1,200 words longer . . . but as far as search engine love and conversion, my sites with 500 word posts are doing a lot better.

I just remember that after the Panda update a lot of people were talking about how longer content was important to Google. As per the results of my websites, that doesn't seem to be the case. :-/ So, I was curious as to what other people have experienced.

I agree. It also makes writing them a lot more enjoyable when you don't have to conform to a certain number of words.

The articles at webpronews.com are much shorter than what's suggested in the WSO's you read, and wepbronews.com pulls in traffic that's numbered in the hundreds of thousands (per month). So the advice from those who recommend testing and focusing on quality over quantity seems to be on target (at least, verifiable with a sample).

I find that 400 words has been working pretty well for me.

I stick to the standard on-page factors:
1. 1% keyword density => keyword must be in first and last paragraph

2. keyword is anchored to link to another post

3. keyword H1 tagged or just bolded, underlined and italicized.

4. image alt tag with keyword

seems to work pretty well for low competition keywords to rank on 1st page.

Remember that established sites with reputation can use shorter articles with less words and MEAT.
They are being ranked on History as much as new content quality.

If your looking to start a new site I would use the longer article then as you get some reputation you can cut down on the text.

There will always be times when a 100 word article does better than a 1,000 word one Its a dynamic industry we are in and sometimes funny things happen.

If your struggling then combine 2 articles on a similar topic and put them together, If they flow together you have your 1,000+ words without Fluff.

Oda

Does google count words like a, and, am, is,are?

Honestly, I personally believe that length is irrelevant. Content should be written for people that spans a length appropriate for thorough coverage of that particular subject matter.

The deeper the subject, then more coverage may be required...depending on what angle it is being covered from.

People all think that content has to be long because we're all internet marketers and we all see really long sales pages and we all think that this is some type of "empirically tested" and "data driven" phenomenon. Maybe. Maybe not.

Write about a product you believe in and be honest and write for people and consider those people to be intelligent because they are...for the most part...and because you KNOW that the product will solve their problem.

I can't really add to Bill's excellent reply above (post #6).

Are you asking whether it matters from an SEO perspective, or what?

I tend to write articles/posts around 1,000-1,200 words, myself, and some longer than that - but that's nothing to do with SEO at all: they just get far more widely syndicated than my shorter ones, so they attract far more targeted traffic, opt-ins and customers - and that's how I earn money. Just my perspective.

I was always taught that "Google loves content" so I would say more content would be better, depending on what you are trying to do, whether its boost traffic, make a sale, get google page rank etc.

It depends on the subject matter.

There are some niches that are best served by articles 1000-1500 words and there are others that can have posts as short as 150 words.

Bear in mind that all articles are content but not all content is articles.

If you've got something else (such as amazing photographs or listings of every kind of nut, bolt and screw) that will get people linking to your site then you don't need 1000 word articles on top.

Bear in mind also, that some subjects are best served by longer articles and others by shorter articles. For example, a page that deftly and briefly explains how something usually considered complicated works will be more popular that a similar pages containing a 3000 word article. But for some types of review, for certain products, 500 words just won't be enough.

Final thought. Take SEO, some websites offer very brief articles and others offer very indepth long articles (such as SEOmoz) on the subject. Depending on what I'm after, both serve my need. And more importantly... depending on what someone else is after I will give them a link to one or the other.

Obviously you're talking with respect to Google and therefore SEO.

The notion about writing for the reader isn't always applicable, in fact it's erroneous in certain situations. I may have a website where I'm not reviewing anything, or telling stories or anything quite so 'lengthy'.
I may have a website where images sell the product, coupled with perhaps one or two succinct comments about the product, any more text could hurt my conversions.
The amount of text on the page is not critical. What comes from longer text is the possibility of getting found on a wider range of search terms. (Look up LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing).

With many longer texts there are far more 'throw away' words that Google ignores anyway. Strip all of those away and what's left can often look like a well constructed description using only 75 words or so.

You can get 50 or 75 word pages indexed for a single search term just as easily as 1200 word texts. The article writers are used to weaving and crafting lots of words together to try and lure people down a path to take some action at the end of it. A single image with one line of texts can often provide the same end result.
Enough of "just write for the visitors" which usually comes with an inferred 'more words are better' - what you need to do is employ the best strategy to make the sale.

I tend to get bored of anything over 1500 words unless it's special.

Ever seen David D's email list? (Eban Pagan)?

His emails are very long. Daily, most of them are long. They are like mini sales pages themselves.

He does LONG content, and he does well.

I still believe that longer content can be good. Worry less about whether or not someone can see your link at the end (or in between), than if they actually can maintain their interest in your words, to get to a conversion point anyway.

If you think about it, many sales pages are long (leaving out capture pages or video sales pages)...and people still scroll all the way down to buy...

If they do it on a blatant sales page, they can do it anywhere if the writing is good enough for the audience.

I have pages anywhere from about 30 words (with a video and/or images) to over 8500. Since Google can and does change at will, a variety will ensure you'll always have something Google will like.

Completely agree with Bill in regards to writing as much as you need to.

Looking at your competitors for a keyword can be of use along with general testing, but I don't see how it can provide any empirical results.

Testing this sort of thing is difficult because there are so many variables, sure some sites can rank with just a couple of words, but I'm pretty sure Google still puts a higher focus on off page SEO than on page SEO anyway so it's quite possible these sites have some off page factors contributing to their ranking or some other on page factors like internal linking structure, domain age, exact match domain name etc.

How people can give a definitive answer to the length in which is best is beyond me.

Then again SEO is steeped in a lot of myth these days.

Most of the reviews and articles we place on our sites are 300-500 words. Generally not much longer than that. Our sites do very well.

I make all my posts around 350 words and they all rank pretty well, I think the only things that really matter is that your content is relative to your keyword and having really good onpage Seo for that specific keyword.

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This thread got me thinking about this so I started looking at the other 8 sites that share page one of google with my 2 sites for each niche to see how the content was on those sites and some were just long sales pages others where site with articles about 200-300 words each but a lot of them.

So I would suggest each person look at the top 10 sites in Google for their keywords and see for themselves what is ranking highly in their niche right now.

The number of words should not be your focus but the quality of those words. once your content is apealing to your audience they will read it and return for more.

Write for people first. The ones who tell others about your content and share things on social networks and with their friends are the ones who'll do the most for your rankings in Google + building your business.

Long posts are great, but not everyone reads them all the way through, depends on the information given and the style of writing for me at least.

Short posts are great b/c they're quick reads... and you can still plug-in your keywords.

Seth Godin posts a short post every morning and his readers love it. Even his books are quick reads.

From experience I can tell you that quality is always king. So many people will fill a 1000 word blog post with nothing but fluff and no real content, I prefer to get to the point and be content-rich in as few words as possible... For me that is usually 600-1000, but at the end of it I've given lots of great info.

Focusing on the quality is far superior than the quantity, Google has made that quite clear over and over again - so that's where focus should be.

Its always best to write quality content that will genuinely help your visitors. If your really serious and want to go all the way and deliver the best possible experience then study your top 10 in your niche and go over and beyond to offer the best.

I think longer content look more serious than shorter ones...

I think it depends on the content and not on the number of characters

Yeah longer content is better. It's all perception. Alot of my sales have come from articles that are 500 words or longer.

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Hi,

Honestly, I try to make 1,200 word blogs. However, I agree with the other posts here that it does not matter whether you write a long post or not. As long as you provide great content and it engages people to read your blog, it's the most important thing rather than how the search engines count words. You don't want to compromise the quality of your articles just because you inserted unimportant topics just to make it 1,200 words. Just say what you want to say - no more and no less. However, I find to give quality articles that are most often longer than 500 words.

Best,
Nick

When you read something the try to find out the exact thing it wants to convey! Panda doesn't said long content in terms of word count but was because users and readers could understand more. I never wrote or posted more than 500 words of content ever, I used to do 300-500 and its till now working because I tend to interact with the user though keeping the professional standard. Keyword density too should be looked upon if you are linking, or the use of word as repetition could be risky.

I don't think length really gives you an edge unless the content is unique/valuable/insightful. I wouldn't get too caught up with how long each blog post is. Having said that though, I have come across a few bloggers who suggest updating more frequently if your posts aren't very long. Do whatever you can manage -- you can always try mixing things up by posting both longer and shorter posts (you could use shorter posts as a small introduction to a more in-depth post about whatever your focus is).

My tests suggest 450 to 800 words is optimal for the average internet user. Closer to 450 if you're selling something, closer to 800 if you're not.

I have a post on my blog that is around 500 words, and it is the most visited page. I dont understand why it's not even close to my best article. But people enjoy it "big brother is watching you" it's about the computer log books in 18 wheelers.

I have atleast 1000 to 2000 words per article. I use bolded sub-topics and bulletted lists so that someone not having much time can just skim through fast without getting bored.

Actually Yes.

You know, The best strategy is to have 3 posts without excerpt with 1200 or 2000 word each. This will sum up at 6000 word and is considered High quality as you can insert a lot more Images, Bold tag, H1 tags and many more things.

Sometimes i dont read if the article is too long.

Search engines love lengthy content, they will give better rankings for your content pages on Google.

Now, people also trust you more if you write a longer sales page or email promotion, or just teach them via blogs or email, or whatever.

It needs to be easily readable easy for the eye. But you must have your own specific style how you write. Just because you have written a large block of valuable content doesn't mean people will be interested in it.

You need to make bullet points, divide the content into short paragraphs, add images, add links maybe, include metaphors, weird words, etc. Grab them by their eyeballs.

Especially true in today's internet marketing world.

-Ray

I don't focus on the length of my posts at all.

When I write about a topic or product I keep writing until i'm satisfied with the content. Does not matter to me if that's 300 or 1000 words.

Some topics/products require more information than others.

Apart from some excellent points made about the length by people in this thread, I have found that the website layout, font size and the organization of article (bullet points, using numbers, subheadings, pictures, videos etc can hugely increase the time spent on site) makes a HUGE difference.

In other words, you can the exact same piece of content on two different websites and have completely different results.

This is another reason why you should always publish your article on your website first since you have complete control over it and can test and tweak your website to see what works and what doesn't work.

Longer content is better,untarget longtail keyword rank 1st page more easily

I think longer article are better for search engines but it does not necessary translate into better sales/conversions.

Most people don't have the time to read 1000+ words especially if you are adding more boring crap just for the sake getting more content. If someone spends like 30 minutes reading each article by the time they reached the affiliate site they won't have anything else to read!

I usually try to stay between 800 to 1000 words for pages I want to get clicks and put my longer articles like information articles on other parts of the website to get more unique content.

That is just my thoughts on it.

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As a professional writer with years of SEO writing experience, I agree that 500+ is a good jumping off point. However, I work with many clients that are having success with 250 word articles.

Most of my blog post doesn't go low at 500 words, and works well for me.

I am not native English so I write 300 words, it is enough to have a good containt, It also recommended by senior blogger. a article 1200 words is the best. in my blog I post all of article consist of more than 1000-2000 words. But, I do not write that articles, I bought from Plr article , then I rewrite or edit again 30-40 % to become unique.

I think it depends on what kind of blog it is. If it's technical than shorter just looks like you phoned it in or it's a puff piece. If it's something for everyone than you'd want it shorter because people don't want to take the time to read long technical posts.

After working in an SEO firm for about a year and studying these sorts of finite details, I have discovered that, yes, longer content is better, period.

The reality is, Google pays significant preference towards large sites. Large sites typically have videos, social media, and of course, 1000+ words of content. Hitting the 1000 word mark is pretty big and we usually request our clients maintain that minimum on any page they design.

Makes it way easier to rank.

Long text is better as it gives you more opportunities to "close" the sale.

This does not mean that you need to wait until the end of your long text to "close", you can close immediately and then try a few more closes throughout the long text.

I usually write articles somewhere between 500-1500 words. Really depends on the content really. You want it to get the point across but in a format people can read and understand.

what about on sales pages? is it better to have a longer or short one?

For me pages with more than 500 words always ranked better than those with 400 or less words. In fact all my pages with more than 1000 words are standing tall in search engines while others with less than 500 words keeps dancing.

But I feel it might depend on content because all of my websites follow review style.

I think there are so many variables that go into this: the age of the site, the frequency of the postings, whether or not the posts are search engine optimized, and how much off page SEO work you plan on putting in.

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It depends actually.

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I always think about the website visitors first. Would the people visiting my blog want 300 word posts or would they want 1,000 word posts?

For example, in the games niche 300 words is good and even 150 words is good enough. I've tried 1,000 words and the responses I get are all "tldr" (too long, didn't read) or "if I wanted to read I book I wouldn't be online playing games!" Lol!

So yeah, longer is not always better.

Yikes. Is anyone getting an image in their mind from this whole conversation - and the mention of WSOs talking about needing longer articles - of site after site on the net filling up with 1,500 word articles with 300 words of actual information and 1,200 words of filler fluff? I might just end up going back to libraries. LOL.

I'd say 600 would be safe. Embed an image or a video. Google loves them.

You guys are so focused on marketing (in a good way) that it seems sometimes you get caught up in optimal stats, keyword density, the formula for words to ranking ratios.

Take a step back as a regular Joe for a minute and think about what you are likely to skip or stay on as far as content. While some of you may have success with 150 words worth of content, if I'm a regular dude who is looking for something through a search engine and see 6 sentences, odds are that isn't going to help me and I'll be looking at other results.

Kurt, without quoting your extensive post, I think you have some fascinating ideas when it comes to putting massive amounts of related info on one page to see what happens from bookmarked visits.

Along with that, some of the phrases you use stick out, like "personally reviewed and hand selected", "personally curated", etc. While you may not be "writing for people" as usually discussed in these threads, you are indeed considering them in selecting your content.

Even if the page is "just for you", last time I looked, you are a 'people', no? And unless you are way outside the norm, what you find relevant, important and useful will also be relevant, important and useful to others.

I think that in the long run, your results and how you choose to interpret them will answer your questions about formatting, page breaks, and so on...

We may not always see eye to eye on things, but I always come away happy for the exchange.

ah the age old question, "does size really matter? obviously you get many answers to that question. I think there are so many variables that the safest path is to write slightly larger articles 600-1000 words of really engaging content and also think about getting some non-seo traffic as well so you are no only dependent on the whims of Google

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I think what matters is the content you say not the number of the words.

If the content is useful or wonderful, I don't care the how many words it have.

I'm more likely to read a long article than watch a long video.

If the author is interesting but starts to waffle a bit then I can speed up until I'm skimming the text.

Any video over 10mins longs - unless it's a fantastic video - and I start jumping ahead. If the point I jump to doesn't immediately make sense (and it usually doesn't) I just switch off.

I don't know if it is nervousness on behalf of the presenter or an unwillingness to script and rehearse but most (non-professional) videos drone on a bit.

I think what you're really getting at is dose it matter to Google how longer content as an to answer that I must say yes and no. There was a stir when Google started punishing sites like twitter chacha for having excerpt type content .

So as long as you have good valuable content. You should be fine with any sort of content quantity because one day you may have 10 paragraphs worth of things to say in the next just one.

Articles with 500-600 words are good enough depending on the gravity of the content. Some people also prefer 1200 words per article under several factors. What matter about writing articles, especially for website you should able to put the keywords in the proper place for SEO purposes.

In my opinion..
Longer or fewer words, it just doesn't matter.
Put yourself on the visitor's skin, what would you like to read? Do you want longer and sometimes boring articles? Do you want concise information gathered in a small article?

This is done just by testing. Always provide value in your blog posts, it's preferable to make a 500 word article with "killer-content" (sorry Kim for borrowing your phrase hehe), than a 1200 word article filled with garbage just to make it look longer and more professional.

Just my two cents, you should do some tests and check your visitors response.
Regards!

at least close to 1,200 words? That's quite a job there, my friend.

And definitely, a boring one to read..

Never more than 1,000 you will lose your reader. But Google does like LONGER content because it shows that you put a lot of effort into it and that suggests quality. The google algorithms know how to pick out quality.

I do not think you have to write a novel, but it does have to be kick ass high quality content. That is what people are after.

And also you want to give tips, that can help people for free. If you can help people for free, there is more chance they will come and give you money for more help. its simple mathematics there.