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2400-word post or 6 400-word posts?

by lovboa Banned
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I'm starting a new website. It's been awhile since I created a new niche website made solely for the purpose of generating and monetizing traffic from search engines.

It's targeting a large, broad niche so I have a LOT of potential articles lined up.

One of my goals with this website is to have the site found by as many keywords as possible. Obviously, I'll be targeting a few main keywords, but in the long run I want long-tail searches to make up for the majority of my traffic.

My question is:

Should I focus my attention on single LARGE information-packed posts?
OR
Should I divide those posts into multiple posts?

Maybe this sounds like an easy answer, but I've been away from the SEO game quite awhile and am feeling lost here.

I know most of you will say create the long, information-packed posts. But what about the benefit of having the long-tail terms as the title of the page?

For instance, rather than have a small section in the long post sub-titled "What are the benefits of Warrior Forum?", would it not be more effective to create a new post titled "What are the benefits of Warrior Forum?" ?

I'd love to hear some input on this. Thanks.
#1500 #300 #post #posts #word
  • Profile picture of the author icemonkey9
    Hi lovboa,

    I guess the answer is, like always, "it depends" so you have to really figure out your niche. If they read 2400 word articles, then more power to you. For SEO I think things top out at 700+ words and in terms of readability/attention span, you would have to have some of the most compelling content around to keep someone for that long.

    I say neither to your 1 2400-word or six 400-word article split. I think three 800-word articles, with the title being a specific keyword phrase in your niche, is the absolute best way to go.
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  • Profile picture of the author khooster1
    There are no actual answer for this question: It is like chicken and egg stuffs..

    For my case, I would rather have 6 x 400 words posts.
    Each post targeting one long tail keyword.
    with inter-site links to each other..

    This is definitely better than having 1 x 2400 words post..
    there is not much link juice for one page.

    Beside this, 2400 words article might be too long for web reading
    these days.. Not effective at all
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by lovboa View Post

    I'm starting a new website. It's been awhile since I created a new niche website made solely for the purpose of generating and monetizing traffic from search engines.

    It's targeting a large, broad niche so I have a LOT of potential articles lined up.

    One of my goals with this website is to have the site found by as many keywords as possible. Obviously, I'll be targeting a few main keywords, but in the long run I want long-tail searches to make up for the majority of my traffic.

    My question is:

    Should I focus my attention on single LARGE information-packed posts?
    OR
    Should I divide those posts into multiple posts?

    Maybe this sounds like an easy answer, but I've been away from the SEO game quite awhile and am feeling lost here.

    I know most of you will say create the long, information-packed posts. But what about the benefit of having the long-tail terms as the title of the page?

    For instance, rather than have a small section in the long post sub-titled "What are the benefits of Warrior Forum?", would it not be more effective to create a new post titled "What are the benefits of Warrior Forum?" ?

    I'd love to hear some input on this. Thanks.
    Since your targeting a broad niche, defiantly break the content up into multiple pages.

    [related link]
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    • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
      I would say neither. Break it up the way it makes the most sense. Posts don't have to all be the same length, and in fact, I've heard that it's better if they're not. Focus on what will be the most helpful to the reader and format it in the way that will best help them consume the information.
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  • Profile picture of the author lovboa
    Banned
    Hi Tina. Of course, all of my articles won't be the same length. 400 and 2400 were just examples. The articles currently range anywhere from 250-600 words.

    Hi Yukon, thanks for the link.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Nobody online wants to read a 2400 word post.

      I assume you want the answer in an SEO related way.

      The more words you add, the more you can mix stuff up.

      Every big site on the net (wikipedia aside) has articles over
      several pages. Most pages require little or no scrolling.
      (Wikipedia is really a bunch of one-page websites)

      What these big sites do, is also offer a little button at the
      end of each page to view the article in its entirety.

      Just as a side note, what on earth are people who are using a tablet
      or smartphone going to do? Get a magnifying glass or be
      so zoomed in they'll just move on?

      More on wikipedia angle: if you have one pages websites,
      make them as long as you wish.

      Instead of a 2400 word article, I'd chop 2000 words off if it
      in a heartbeat. The longest articles I like are ones that fit
      the length of about 2 screen heights, requiring only one scroll down.
      Anymore, man, you've lost your readers in the fog.

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    I don't use articles but the best setup I've seen for user experience + SEO is the way howstuffworks.com did on some of their web pages a few years ago (not sure why they changed to the current page layout), they created a series of pages instead of a mile long page of text, which makes each individual page in the series laser focused on a small part of the overall subject (SEO/multiple relevant internal links) & the pages are easy to read (user experience).

    Here's an example of a series of hurricane pages (2011 wayback).



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  • Profile picture of the author lovboa
    Banned
    Hi Paul. Appreciate your input. Thanks!

    Originally Posted by yukon View Post

    I don't use articles but the best setup I've seen for user experience + SEO is the way howstuffworks.com did on some of their web pages a few years ago (not sure why they changed to the current page layout), they created a series of pages instead of a mile long page of text, which makes each individual page in the series laser focused on a small part of the overall subject (SEO/multiple relevant internal links) & the pages are easy to read (user experience).

    Here's an example of a series of hurricane pages (2011 wayback).
    Awesome! Thanks, Yukon. The way I have it currently set up is: Hurricane would be the Category, and then each page they have listed is set up as a post within that category.

    The way howstuffworks is obviously a better user experience .... now contemplating restructuring site (lol).
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