How long do SEO-optimised articles have to be?

27 replies
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I keep hearing that articles should contain great high quality keywords, anchor links of 4-5% density, and at least 550 words. Is this true? I've seen quite a few high ranking websites in specific niches that have very short articles. But the rest of the website that the article is on also has content (eg: sidebar, footer, header, and any other parts of the website). So do other aspects of a website count along with the article in the "amount" of words a webpage has for good SEO and good content?
#articles #long #seooptimised
  • Profile picture of the author heathrowtaxi
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    • Profile picture of the author totalyrecycled12
      The amount of words doesnt realy matter un less you just have a realyy short outline or something then it would not have enough content to make it relevant to the search engines. Usualy 500-700 or more is sufficiant Your article needs to be relevant to your topic(keyword-s)and all of the content has to make sense. It should all be unique content and non repeditive. The rest of your site-the Heading the sub- headings should also be related to the content. if you have side bars etc it should also contain related subject matter.If you have any images make sure that the ALT text relates to the keyword content as well. Try not to use only one key word but use variants ie if your talking about bikes then include things like bicyle riding bike trails,bikeing etc .. Hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author revolusi
    Yes, article in 500-10000 words are recomended
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  • Profile picture of the author Whistlejacket
    A minimum length of 500 words is definitely best in terms of SEO. That said, however, a 1000 word poorly written article will do you more harm than good. The quality of content is increasingly becoming important, so don't neglect that side of things. Rather shorter and of great quality, than longer and of poor quality.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by heathrowtaxi View Post

      Anything in between 700-2000 words are fine and seem appropriate. Like on this site with proper heading tag.
      Spam.





      Originally Posted by totalyrecycled12 View Post

      The amount of words doesnt realy matter un less you just have a realyy short outline or something then it would not have enough content to make it relevant to the search engines. Usualy 500-700 or more is sufficiant...
      Doesn't matter If it's a single sentence, the page will rank.






      Originally Posted by revolusi View Post

      Yes, article in 500-10000 words are recomended
      Clueless.



      Originally Posted by Whistlejacket View Post

      A minimum length of 500 words is definitely best in terms of SEO. That said, however, a 1000 word poorly written article will do you more harm than good. The quality of content is increasingly becoming important, so don't neglect that side of things. Rather shorter and of great quality, than longer and of poor quality.
      Google doesn't have a clue about content quality, bounce rate maybe, but no way on content quality.

      ************************************************** *************************************

      OP, your thread got hit with a bunch of nonsense.

      The amount of text on a page is irrelevant for ranking a page. There's no such thing as keyword density for SEO. Whenever someone mentions keyword density, run the other way.
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        Originally Posted by yukon View Post


        OP, your thread got hit with a bunch of nonsense.
        I think the OP is full of nonsense with a nonsense question.

        Perhaps we should discuss the Op and doing cheap web design
        and SEO services in Canada.

        And Mr. Heathrow taxi, perhaps one has not read google and idiotic
        anchor text in forums ...perhaps one should discuss how long anchor
        text should be.

        Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author geeman12030
    Check the body copy length of the top10 result pages.
    Write quality content and provide more informations than your competitor pages.
    Do not give too much weight for keyword density. It doesn`t matter if your create useful content. Searchengines will know about your topic by checking related term patterns.
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  • Profile picture of the author windrider07
    But if I write a 230 word article and have no idea what to write left, do I bullshit the rest of the article to hit 500 words or stop at 230?
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    • Profile picture of the author totalyrecycled12
      Research your topic find some more relevant or related information from many differant sources on your topic then write it in your own words -- research google-- research books in libary -newspapers magizines interview people in the industry or niche- etc dont copy and paste and always change the structure if referancing from other materials. Hope this helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      If you write about a complex topic, you'll need (in order to be understood) more words than if you write about a simple topic.

      If you've said all you need/have to say about the topic in 230 words, you write 230 words.

      You want to be useful to your future visitor.

      And you want to have future visitors via SEO.

      Speaking without saying anything messes up #1; trying to have a certain keyword density does nothing for SEO but it does waste your time.

      Originally Posted by windrider07 View Post

      But if I write a 230 word article and have no idea what to write left, do I bullshit the rest of the article to hit 500 words or stop at 230?
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  • Profile picture of the author gdccashflow
    An article can optimize within a week to months. On page SEO however can be done instantly as long as you have the following,

    Title Tags
    Meta Tags
    H2, h2, h3 Tags
    Keyword Density
    Alt Tags

    Those are just the basic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ghoster
    As long as it needs to be to get to convey the essential info without fluff. Don't get hung up on 500, 750 or 1000 word requirements. Just write naturally. In fact, after you finish your article you should review it to see how much redundant phrasing you can remove. Also review your keyword usage and see if you can use a few synonyms here and there.




    Google doesn't have a clue about content quality, bounce rate maybe, but no way on content quality.
    Not for long.
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    On the whole, you get what you pay for.

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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Google doesn't have a clue about content quality, bounce rate maybe, but no way on content quality
      Originally Posted by Ghoster View Post

      Not for long.
      Great, another SEO futurist.

      Will we ever get flying cars?
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      • Profile picture of the author Ghoster
        Originally Posted by yukon View Post

        Great, another SEO futurist.

        Will we ever get flying cars?
        The evolution of technology meets Google's need to provide value to human users. It's not rocket science. The Flesch readability scale is a good place to start. A score between 60-70 is good for non-technical Web content.

        Granted, someone who does SEO for a living may naturally resist the idea of changes that would make their job harder. But these changes come nonetheless, and often.
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        • Profile picture of the author yukon
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Ghoster View Post

          The evolution of technology meets Google's need to provide value to human users. It's not rocket science. The Flesch readability scale is a good place to start. A score between 60-70 is good for non-technical Web content.

          Granted, someone who does SEO for a living may naturally resist the idea of changes that would make their job harder. But these changes come nonetheless, and often.
          Now we have a baseline percentage for something that doesn't exist for SEO.

          The Reading Level you see on Google SERPs does not rank pages (it's fluff). All that's doing is grouping easy to read words & complicated words, which doesn't matter for a ranked page.

          Google doesn't know squat about quality content, Google knows things like bounce rate, links & text, but text doesn't have to be quality from an SEO POV, text is optimized (on ranked pages).

          A webpage with Lorem Ipsum filler text can be ranked. Google offers to translate the ranked Lorem Ipsum page (lol). How's that for quality content?
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          • Profile picture of the author totalyrecycled12
            [QUOTE=yukon;9815986]Spam.







            Doesn't matter If it's a single sentence, the page will rank.

            Originally Posted by totalyrecycled12
            The amount of words doesnt realy matter un less you just have a realyy short outline or something then it would not have enough content to make it relevant to the search engines. Usualy 500-700 or more is sufficiant...[Quote from my previous message ]
            I was not trying to be spammy mabee i should have rephrased my answer i was trying to point out that the article would need to be long enough and of good quality with out stuffing the article with the same key word and that he should make it interesting for readers. If an article is crap then people will click straight off the page if it is good they may stay there for a while reading then that indicates to the search engines that the contet could be relevant to the search and give it a better ranking .
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
    Originally Posted by windrider07 View Post

    I keep hearing that articles should contain great high quality keywords, anchor links of 4-5% density, and at least 550 words. Is this true? I've seen quite a few high ranking websites in specific niches that have very short articles. But the rest of the website that the article is on also has content (eg: sidebar, footer, header, and any other parts of the website). So do other aspects of a website count along with the article in the "amount" of words a webpage has for good SEO and good content?
    4.5% keyword density is way over the top for any piece of content meant for humans. 550 words is a bogus benchmark for quality.
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  • Profile picture of the author creed1994
    Write what your users want, be it a 100 words or a 1000. The user should find it interesting, that's it.
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  • Profile picture of the author purplegiraffe
    I have to agree with the posters that say there is no magic number. I've tried to use 2000 word plus articles (optimized) along with my usual 500 word pieces. The longer articles have never outperformed the shorter ones. The main thing is just to get content up there and not worry about it so much.
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  • Profile picture of the author windrider07
    interesting discussion. what's your guys's criteria or strategy when doing on-page SEO optimisation on an article?

    Google doesn't know squat about quality content, Google knows things like bounce rate, links & text, but text doesn't have to be quality from an SEO POV, text is optimized (on ranked pages).
    bounce rate can be seen in google analytics. Regarding links and text, could you elaborate more on that? what's google's rules about links and text?
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  • Profile picture of the author jkgultimate
    You can rank a completely spun 500 word article if you wanted to with no problems.

    HOWEVER, you conversion rate will suck and will have high bounce rate.

    Google doesn't know the difference between a good article or bad article if they both are not duplicate content and have over 500 words.

    Ranking is just - Back links from different domains and a natural looking anchor text profile.
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  • Profile picture of the author ahmansoor
    Should be at least more than 350 words and you should not exceed 1000 in normal circumstances , unless your article is highly research and add great value to the readers.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulch65
    I've has 200 word pages rank and 1000 word pages not rank.

    It depends on how competitive the KW is.

    I'd advise at least 600 words especially if you're doing client work to show you're actually putting in a shift!
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  • Profile picture of the author ClaudeMonet
    I always try to write at least 750 words. You will find enough to write, if you do your research carefully.
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      For all the people who give a specific word number, why not tell us why you've come up with that number?

      Have you tested 250 words vs 350 vs 450 vs 750 vs 1000 and found out that 750 performs the best?

      If not, why give specific numbers?
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
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  • Profile picture of the author gordongecko
    Hello,

    SEO optimized articles means your articles should be fresh and unique as well.
    You needs to use good and informative contents in your blog.
    And the article should be minimum 250 words to 1000 words in good.
    Writing less than 250 words is not informative for a topic or 1000 words will be more!
    It may people feel boring...

    Thanks.
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