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Too Lengthy Page?

by Kiril S
14 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi, what do you guys think about pages that contain more than 2,000 words? Do you think google will penalize those kinds of pages? Separation is not an option.
#lengthy #page
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Google does not penalize in that sense.

    But a page that long is not a good visitor experience.

    Why isn't separation an option? You can only make one
    page?

    I guess we'll call it the macro-mini-site.

    Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author Kiril S
      Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

      Google does not penalize in that sense.

      But a page that long is not a good visitor experience.

      Why isn't separation an option? You can only make one
      page?

      I guess we'll call it the macro-mini-site.

      Paul
      Macro-mini-site, good one

      I'm actually making a huge site, and one of my pages is constituted of around 2k words, but with a glossary linking to different parts of the page. Of course I'll be adding many other pages as well.

      So I guess my visitors' experience will not be that bad. I'm thinking if I ever visited such site, I would be greatly attracted to it since it'll feel like a wiki. Getting into your visitors' shoes at its best.
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  • Profile picture of the author sputnik
    Why should Google penalize a page with lots of content? Content is what they want!

    Just make sure you break it into chapters with sub headlines. This creates a good user experience which makes people stay on the page longer. And people staying on the page in turn will improve your stats (bounce rate, time on site etc.) which again help you rank better.

    Look at all these wikipedia pages - they all have thousands of words.
    But they have sub chapters and images.
    Also if your page has lots of content chances of people bookmarking them or linking to them also increase.
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  • Profile picture of the author UMS
    Since the Google Panda update, Google appear to favour longer content, ie: >1000 words.

    From a visitor perspective, just make sure the text isn't too dense. Break it up with plenty of paragraphs, headings and graphics.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Kiril S View Post

    Hi, what do you guys think about pages that contain more than 2,000 words? Do you think google will penalize those kinds of pages? Separation is not an option.
    You could easily get multiple SERP listings from a 2000 word article, If you break that article into 5-6 pages & proper internal keyword linking.

    Your short changing yourself having 2k words on a single page.

    As an example, look at the site howstuffworks, they split every article up into multiple pages. This one article "How Hurricanes Work" is 7 short pages of text (screenshot #1).

    Also see the multiple Google SERP listings (screenshot #2) they created by splitting up that single article into 7 laser targeted related pages of content.

    They own the first page for that keyword phrase (How Hurricanes Work).

    Use the force...




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

      You could easily get multiple SERP listings from a 2000 word article, If you break that article into 5-6 pages & proper internal keyword linking.

      Your short changing yourself having 2k words on a single page.

      As an example, look at the site howstuffworks, they split every article up into multiple pages. This one article "How Hurricanes Work" is 7 short pages of text (screenshot #1).

      Also see the multiple Google SERP listings (screenshot #2) they created by splitting up that single article into 7 laser targeted related pages of content.

      They own the first page for that keyword phrase (How Hurricanes Work).

      Use the force...




      1





      2
      This is what you want to do.
      You might think that 2,000 words on a page is neato, but it really does make for a rough user experience.
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        See Yukon gave the lengthy answer, which is why he outthanks me.
        (Well, that and the fact that he has been making friends while I make
        enemies)

        Splitting long articles up is the way the big boys do it. Either that
        or do 5 shorter articles, subheadings as Yukon has brilliantly shown.

        What I see is about a page or two of scroll. That is, one complete
        scroll down. Anymore and the page and reader lose focus.

        On your main index page, you give a summary of what the site is about.
        Okay, for me, it's mainly fluff. Just a rehash of stuff with keywords.

        And as far as short content, I know Yukon would agree it has nothing
        to do with an article being too short. People sometimes put "junk" and
        "short content" as the same meaning.

        Your homepage should not have anywhere near that much content.

        You might think it helps SEO, but in reality the page meaning is blurred.
        Google would love a homepage much shorter, and focused. By trying to
        target so many keywords and phrases on one page, you end up targeting
        none.

        Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author Kiril S
    @yukou this is a great idea, but I think I'll do this to my other pages.

    The 2,000 words page is actually my homepage, that's why I want to keep it as much resourced as possible.

    It's only an introduction to the whole subject, explaning briefly every part of it so the user familiarizes himself with the subject. Then, I'll be adding specific pages to each parts mentioned in the homepage.

    I also feel that Google might reward me for my homepage to be full of useful content, interlinked by itself (the glossary) and interlinked to other pages.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jacob Cuculiza
    2k is no problem imo when it comes to google.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kiril S
    @paulgl
    I haven't outthanked you, but now I just did. Your sarcastic behavior is not appreciated.

    "Just a rehash of stuff with keywords." How can you say it's rehash if you haven't even seen my site. So quick to judge. And a summary isn't always fluff, maybe for you it is as you say, but I don't mind subtracting one person from my list.

    My real goal for my site is to help people, and not to help my SEO, and I believe a good summary on a subject beforehand is a great way of learning the subject.
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    • Profile picture of the author Carl Brown
      paulgl is the simon Cowell of this forum. He says what need to be said and what people who know better would like to say but lack the courage.

      2,000 words is a lot for a single page. Something like that should be broken up into several articles or pages.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    A little more info. about the hurricane page I posted above.

    That same article ranks at the bottom of page #1 for the keyword hurricanes (plural).

    http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=hurricanes

    Also note the seo for the internal links/URLs for those 7 pages in that hurricane article.

    1) hxxp://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/hurricane.htm
    2) hxxp://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/hurricane1.htm
    3) hxxp://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/hurricane2.htm
    4) hxxp://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/hurricane3.htm
    5) etc...
    • 7 keyword URLs that are almost the same path.
    • Each URL includes related keyword anchor-text internal links, to connect the entire article/pages.
    That combo. creates multiple SERP listings with ease.
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  • Profile picture of the author warrich
    I don't think a long page would stand up to a penalty by Google, it would just bore the users who somehow clicked to get on that page. You should really try to keep down the word count on the page and at the same time keep it interesting so that the users won't just click away from it. Break it down by adding suitable headings. If it is really necessary to have a large number of words on a page then make sure the content is properly formatted.
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  • Profile picture of the author dreamer31
    If your content is unique and copyscape passed that I find great for SEO. But, I must agree with "paulgl" that is not good for visitor experience. Most readers will not stay this long at your site and read all 2000 words.
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