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Opinions on Maximum Length of a Paragraph

by irawr Banned
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Talking about trying to make the content as "user friendly" as possible. This isn't a technical SEO discussion.

What do you think the maximum paragraph length should be for content we want to spread around on social media?

Like 1 long sentence, 2 medium sentences, or 3 short sentences?

If you look at 'Death ray' could be used at Heathrow to shut down flying drones | London | News | London Evening Standard

They do one sentence per paragraph. Is that the "new standard?"

I usually make the paragraphs a bit longer then that, but I'm wondering if I'm getting smoked here.

Mr Dean seems to be doing that as well. Sometimes he'll put two short sentences into a paragraph.

PS: my high school English teacher is rolling over in their grave.

Edit: After looking around the web, man I feel behind the times here, I'm still using 2 and 3 sentence paragraphs.

I guess the attention level of average internet surfers has been reduced to the point where an "oldschool" normal 5 sentence paragraph being broken down into 5 paragraphs with a heading and at least one visual element, such as a quote, or image is now the "standard."

If attention spans get any lower then what's next, 10 words per slideshow / video.
#length #maximum #opinions #paragraph #whitehat
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by irawr View Post

    Talking about trying to make the content as "user friendly" as possible. This isn't a technical SEO discussion.

    What do you think the maximum paragraph length should be for content we want to spread around on social media? Like 1 long sentence, 2 medium sentences, or 3 short sentences?

    If you look at 'Death ray' could be used at Heathrow to shut down flying drones | London | News | London Evening Standard

    They do one sentence per paragraph. Is that the "new standard?"

    I usually make the paragraphs a bit longer then that, but I'm wondering if I'm getting smoked here.

    PS: my high school English teacher is rolling over in their grave.


    This actually does have something to do with SEO. I posted about grouping content in small chunks a while back, I can't remember If it was here on WF or on Mike Friedman's forum.

    1) If you don't have a meta description tag on your webpage Google looks for small chunks of text that are as relevant as possible to the search query to use for the SERP description. If Google has to piece together a SERP description because your relevant text is spread out over an entire money page Google will use ellipsis (text ... text ... text) in the SERP description which is confusing for traffic & looks like shit.

    2) If your goal is to optimize for a SERP schema box Google does the same type of scrape on the money page where they pull small chunks of text to fill in the schema box bullet list, one small chunk of money page text per each schema box bullet.

    The example/link you posted reminds me of the earthquake bot that post on the LA Times.
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    • Profile picture of the author irawr
      Banned
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      This actually does have something to do with SEO. I posted about grouping content in small chunks a while back, I can't remember If it was here on WF or on Mike Friedman's forum.

      1) If you don't have a meta description tag on your webpage Google looks for small chunks of text that are as relevant as possible to the search query to use for the SERP description. If Google has to piece together a SERP description because your relevant text is spread out over an entire money page Google will use ellipsis (text ... text ... text) in the SERP description which is confusing for traffic & looks like shit.

      2) If your goal is to optimize for a SERP schema box Google does the same type of scrape on the money page where they pull small chunks of text to fill in the schema box bullet list, one small chunk of money page text per each schema box bullet.

      The example/link you posted reminds me of the earthquake bot that post on the LA Times.
      That's not quite what I meant, but I can see why it's better for technical SEO.

      It definitely gives Google a lot more structure if you use the h tags correctly.

      People still fill the meta description out? ... I usually see people just throwing the first couple sentences of their content into the meta description. If it's filled out at all.

      Meta Keywords are like, every non-stop word in the title tag.

      This is from observing media sites, where you kinda figure they consulted with an agency about this, I'm not looking at the source of "Bobs Make Money Online Blog."
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  • Profile picture of the author jdjenkins
    I don't think in terms of number of sentences. The paragraph spacing is to aid clarity, so I would just space text out to help it look more readable.

    Even if the subject hasn't changed, it does help to break up large blocks of text.

    Spacing can also be used for emphasis. Like short sentences!
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    • Profile picture of the author irawr
      Banned
      Originally Posted by jdjenkins View Post

      I don't think in terms of number of sentences. The paragraph spacing is to aid clarity, so I would just space text out to help it look more readable.

      Even if the subject hasn't changed, it does help to break up large blocks of text.

      Spacing can also be used for emphasis. Like short sentences!
      Right but, usually I'm trying to group related information into a paragraph, and then I break it up if it goes beyond say 3 sentences.

      For example:

      Terror suspect whose flight certificate was linked to Saudis one of Gitmo's most dangerous | Fox News

      And yeah, it looks kind of bad side by side with the other site.

      Talking about (Fox News)

      Revelations last week that Al Sharbi’s flight training certificate, tucked into a Saudi Arabian Embassy envelope, had been found in 2003 among a trove of documents buried in Pakistan following his arrest there, raised fresh questions about the Kingdom’s possible involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Although Al Sharbi, who trained with several of the 9/11 hijackers at an Arizona flight school, did not take part in the attacks, he is seen as one of the most lethal and committed terrorists held at the military base.
      vs (CNN)
      Revelations last week that Al Sharbi’s flight training certificate, tucked into a Saudi Arabian Embassy envelope, had been found in 2003 among a trove of documents buried in Pakistan following his arrest there, raised fresh questions about the Kingdom’s possible involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

      Although Al Sharbi, who trained with several of the 9/11 hijackers at an Arizona flight school, did not take part in the attacks, he is seen as one of the most lethal and committed terrorists held at the military base.
      vs (Brian Dean)
      Did Saudi Arabian Train Al Sharbi?

      1. Revelations last week that Al Sharbi’s flight training certificate.

      2. It was tucked into a Saudi Arabian Embassy envelope.

      3. Opportunities.

      4. It had been found in 2003 among a trove of documents buried in Pakistan following his arrest there.

      5. It raised fresh questions about the Kingdom’s possible involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

      Actionable.


      Al Sharbi trained with several of the 9/11 hijackers at an Arizona flight school.

      He did not take part in the attacks.

      Here's how:

      He is seen as one of the most lethal and committed terrorists held at the military base.

      Powerful.


      The result?

      A 111.37% increase in organic traffic to that page.

      Pretty cool, right?
      Not the best images for that, I didn't want to spend too much time with that... And I can't use CSS to align it.

      Edit: To create the "Brain Dean" version, I actually referenced http://backlinko.com/seo-techniques

      I got tired of trying to scroll through the page and I looked at the sidebar and I was only about 20% of the way down the page.

      Who ever the person who decided to implement the page down keyboard button functionality into web browsers, thank you.
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  • Profile picture of the author MattXL
    Hi irawr,

    Shorter paragraphs (one or two sentences max) improves visitor retention, time on site, bounce rate page views, etc. All of those things contribute to good SEO.

    What's also just as important is the width of the paragraph. Ideally you want something about 50-60 characters across:

    Readability: the Optimal Line Length - Articles - Baymard Institute

    I know this wasn't part of your question, but you might consider increasing the spacing between lines and letters. That will improve readability as well. You can do all of that with something called Easy Google Fonts if you're on Wordpress:

    https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-google-fonts/

    If you're coding yourself, here's a good tutorial:

    CSS line-height property

    For other CMS platforms like Joomla or Drupal, just Google "change line spacing (name of CMS)" and it'll take you through the process of changing that.

    Best,
    Matt
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  • Profile picture of the author Tmill
    Originally Posted by irawr View Post

    Talking about trying to make the content as "user friendly" as possible. This isn't a technical SEO discussion.

    What do you think the maximum paragraph length should be for content we want to spread around on social media?

    Like 1 long sentence, 2 medium sentences, or 3 short sentences?

    If you look at 'Death ray' could be used at Heathrow to shut down flying drones | London | News | London Evening Standard

    They do one sentence per paragraph. Is that the "new standard?"

    I usually make the paragraphs a bit longer then that, but I'm wondering if I'm getting smoked here.

    Mr Dean seems to be doing that as well. Sometimes he'll put two short sentences into a paragraph.

    PS: my high school English teacher is rolling over in their grave.

    Edit: After looking around the web, man I feel behind the times here, I'm still using 2 and 3 sentence paragraphs.

    I guess the attention level of average internet surfers has been reduced to the point where an "oldschool" normal 5 sentence paragraph being broken down into 5 paragraphs with a heading and at least one visual element, such as a quote, or image is now the "standard."

    If attention spans get any lower then what's next, 10 words per slideshow / video.

    I like how you use 1 sentence paragraphs as you ask about it hahaha
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