If the goal of your blog post is to rank better on Google, then a good mark to aim for is 1,000 words or more. This is something I’ve been doing for years on all my blogs and seeing results from. But I’d be lying to you if I said this is the only factor that determines your results. It isn’t, and in fact, it’s one of many:
Here is what determines your blog posts ranking on Google:
- It’s word count.
- It’s loading speed (faster is obviously better).
- It’s mobile usability (if it shows up properly on mobile devices).
- It’s quality of content and longer content isn’t always better, sometimes shorter content does better.
- The bounce rates and user feedback of the readers who read your blog post.
These are generally some of the most important Google ranking factors to keep in mind and if you consider the value of the other factors aside from word count, then word count itself isn’t really the deciding factor.
Yet still, when people ask me what to aim for, 1,000 is still the number to aim for.
Supporting evidence on why blog post word counts should be over 1,000 words:
1) Whenever I do keyword research or look up information on Google…
If there are any blogs/sites that appear on the 1st page, they are, at least 90% (and more) of the time long posts, in many cases, way over 1,000.
You should do this type of research yourself. If you’re a marketer, do keyword research on a niche topic, but then also cross reference the KW’s by entering them on Google and seeing which websites show up highest and how much content they have on their articles.
You will see that a sizable majority of them are over a 1,000 words.
2) If you think less content still ranks high, look at article directories.
Another experiment you can do (and I’ve done it many times) is look up any type of search term and see if any popular article directories show up. Odds are the answer is no.
If you’re and old enough marketer like me, you’ll know there was a time when article directories were all the rage in SEO and their limits for the amount you could write was at least 250 words, but in the process, rank very, very high.
So obviously, anyone who knew this information certainly used it, including me and there were many who abused the crap out of it by pitching tons and tons of bad products for little work.
Long story short (here’s the longer version about article directories), this came to an end. The general rule I have come to believe in SEO is that most of the time, longer content provides better info, vs short content providing less quality information.
And that just didn’t happen on article directories, plus, they turned into content farms which was a whole other connecting reason they are no longer seen as being authoritative by Google.
Anyway, the end of the story here is that if you do Google searches, see if any of the old article directory sites pop up as the results: Ezinearticles, Hubpages, ArticleBase, ect…
With the exception of places like eHow.com, odds are the old directories which were once SEO “havens” will not longer show up.
One of the conclusions I made is that by having very low standards for content creation, they attracted abuse and actual low quality writers and that ended up muddying the directory itself.
3) High quality content is one of the main deciding factors.
It’s part of the ranking factor list Google has and it always has been. Usually 1,000 words is enough content to get high quality content out for people. A few 100 words RARELY does that job and several 1,000 words typically bore people who read it.
4) It isn’t just 1 or a few articles that need to be of big length, it’s the overall site itself.
If you could rank one site with just a few long articles, then micro niche sites with just 1 page of content would still work, but they don’t. Now it’s about writing numerous articles with good content across the board, and I’m talking dozens AT LEAST.
In some cases, word count does not = better rankings. Here’s evidence for that:
1) There are exceptions of websites I’ve personally seen which have way fewer than a 1,000 words but ranked high.
I did a recent lookup on a keyword that was “ginger DHT” (it has to do with hair growth) and got a really horrible site on the 1st page result which was clearly either not written by a fluent English speaking person or it was spun by some kind of software, yet it ranked on the 1st page of Google.
Or on a more personal example, I had one of my older websites come out of the bowels of no traffic land and suddenly start getting 100’s of visits daily.
So we have 2 contrary examples to work with. Why did they happen? Well:
2) Keyword competition plays a large role as to why certain blogs rank higher or lower.
Consider a crappy blog post like the one I just mentioned. If there is little competition for it, then even if the blog post has less than the 1k mark, it can still show up higher for that specific term.
Or consider my personal example with the old site whose content suddenly got traffic. This happened because a new diet method began trending for which I wrote a blog post on long ago (not 1,000 words) and because there was NO competition for this keyword, my old site suddenly got that approval from Google, 1st page rankings for the keyword and this ended up making me $5,000. Here is the micro niche case study that explains this.
But understand that this is a RARITY.
You simply CANNOT rely on these exceptions and expect to build a high traffic blog off it because as I said above, the majority of cases prove more content ranks better. The one here, for a lack of a better term, is an anomaly.
3) Comments, shares and bounce rates also affect the position they occupy on Google.
Suppose someone writes a 700 word article and that article gets shared, commented on a lot and bounce rates are also pretty low.
Now compare it to a person who write over a 1,000 on theirs, but the information is such that it doesn’t get shared or commented on. Which will Google prefer?
Well in my opinion, at first, it’ll be the longer article, provided the info is decent. But as time goes on and the 700 version gets more comments and the other things I mentioned, it’ll eventually overtake the 1,000 word one because the content will rise higher due to the comments and by seeing better bounce rates and more shares (as well as comments), Google will see this article as a higher quality vs the other and possibly rank it better too.
However, there is also another factor which deserves it’s own point:
4) Website authority. It counts, a lot!
The authority a blog has with Google is almost like a VIP pass to higher rankings (all about website authority), but it is only achieved over a long period of time when the blog has earned it’s place on the higher positions of the search engine.
If it reaches that point, then it can see faster and higher rankings far more often and even overtake content that may be “better” or longer from other competing sites.
But here’s the thing (spoiler): Authority is gained, in part by longer posts, comments, bounce rates, and shares. In other words, it all works together.
5) One of Google’s top dude’s said word count doesn’t matter.
A guy named John Mu was asked about this on Twitter and here was his reply:
Be careful with this one because people can exaggerate this point and end up writing too little content in the process, but yes, this is a fact that one of Google’s top people has said.
BUT notice that he said to write for users. He means writing high quality content. That has ALWAYS been the top priority.
Instead of balancing all these pros and cons, do this:
1) If you are seeking good ranking results, at least at first, aim to write blog posts that span beyond 1,000 word count.
If you have to write more because you feel it’s necessary, do it. I’ve written posts that go beyond 3-4k words.
It is still a safe bet to assume that longer posts are seen as something that’s better in Google’s eyes in my experience and this especially plays a big role if you have a new blog that has not yet reached it’s authority “pass” with Google.
2) Always aim to provide as much information in whatever you write about.
This is because there is so much emphasis on making readers happy, so that they’ll share, comment and do more with your blog (like return to it), which again are all factors that still help you in SEO.
3) In cases where you do paid advertising, and/or have an established blog (authority) which has a great following on social media:
Then you can write less on new blogs and have your followers fill in the rest of the content “space” with their comments and thoughts. But even then, the more you write, especially to a crowd which will love it, the better it is for you, the better it will be for Google and the better it’ll be for your business.
Hi Vitaliy,
Yes, I too noticed that posts that rank on the first page of Google have at least 2 things going for them:
1 – Domain/Page Authority – I use Moz Bar to check their level.
2 – Page length of 1,000+ words with QUALITY content.
Look at posts on the 3rd or 4th page of Google and you will still find sites with great DA/PA but much less than 1,000 words, usually lots of affiliate links too. Or the posts have more than 1,000 words but are very poor quality.
As far as ranking a post on page 1, that isn’t always the key to success. Some of my keywords rank my post on page 1 because of little competition, 1,000+ good quality content, but I don’t get any traffic. Why? Because there is no traffic looking for that keyword! When you do KW research make sure traffic is >100.
Great article, thanks.
Ed
Nice points Ed. Yes it is true that ranking on the first page doesn’t always bring in traffic, but the key is indeed to first target a keyword which actually gets searches before attempting to hit the first page for it.
Hi, Vitaliy. Being a member of Wealthy Affiliate myself, I have been taught through the training that Google best likes relevant content articles that are at least 1,500 words in length.
Factoring in the keyword research that was hopefully performed by the author, plus shares, comments and bounce rates I can only presume that an article of that length would be ranked higher on the search engines as opposed to an article that was 500 – 750 words in length.
We were just discussing today over at WA an article written by a member who claims to always write articles that each are from 2,000 to over 3,000 words in length. With what I also consider to be important even regarding a fairly long article the author simply must make his/her article as easy to read as possible, something that I included in my comments back to the author.
With so many people in the world today afflicted by short attention spans, a failure to include large headlines, breaking up the paragraphs to where each is around 3 to 4 sentences in length, and also including relevant images will not keep the readers on the page.
Contrast that with a lengthy but very legible article with the result would being that a good amount of readers would become interested in whatever product was promoted. Finally, and most importantly because so many readers were engaged while reading the article, more sales would be achieved.
No matter how well written an article, if they are the length of a doctoral dissertation without the aid of making the content legible and easy to read, an extremely lengthy publication would make it hard for any reader to consume and understand its meaning.
Wouldn’t you agree, Vitaliy?
Jeff
Hi Jeff, yes this is correct, boring, hard to read content will not do well with readers and making that type of content longer will only lead to bad results. That being said, if the content is fun to read, and it actually does a good job of keeping the reader interested, it will only serve the person to write more of it.
While you are right on the idea that people have less attention spans today, you have to understand that usually this is in regards to content they see exposed to them on social media, not content they are specifically looking for on Google/YouTube, which if it’s the case, then if they find it, such as an article which answers a serious question they have, they’ll stay on it for quite a bit.
This is one of the many reasons why targeting a niche topic on a website is so important, because if the topic is a solution to a problem for instance, people will take a lot of time out of their day to read what you have to say on it, and it’s due to them wanting to find a solution, which is the main incentive.
Wow, great post. As a person that is relatively new to affiliate marketing, this is something I struggled with early on. In fact it was one of the first questions I asked. My first home page was over ,words. It was strongly recommended to be more brief. I ultimately ended up around 1,500. This article gives me the guidance and then the why it works strategy. I am going to bookmark this and use it as a reference for the future. Thanks and have a great day.
Mike
Hi Mike, I am curious as to who gave you the advice to “lessen” your home page’s content. I will say that it is advice that varies, meaning in some cases, a home page with less content will work better than one with more.
Here is a brief example for each scenario:
1) A homepage which promotes a business (or a squeeze page) will benefit more so if there is less content on it because people immediately know what they want, therefore taking them through a long article will only bore them, so in this case, it stands to benefit to have LESS content on it. But that will only work well if you have good traffic coming into other pages on your site, otherwise, this approach would be useless.
2) A homepage that introduces people to a topic or niche would be more beneficial if it was longer. In that circumstance, people who visit the site may not know what they’re doing there or getting into, so warming them up to it through a longer post will benefit you better in that case.
Thanks for this very informative post. What you say about posts with 1,000 words plus and their rankings is something that I’ve found to be very true. More or less every time that I’ve decided to do some research on topics, I tend to find that a lot of the first page ranked posts have at least 1000 words (usually more).
I will definitely start implementing this seo tactic for any future posts that I write. I have one question, would you say that posts with 3-4k if 10k words would rank better than a post with 1k words? Or would you say that they’d rank about after a post has over 1000 words.
I look forward to your answer.
Thanks,
Amhil
It would honestly depend on more factors than JUST the quantity of words Amhil, let me explain:
If you take 2 websites whose owners JUST started blogging and both of these people write their first article on each site, one write a 1,000 word article and the other a 3-4k, or 10k article, initially the latter (more words) will be ranked higher by Google.
But if the other person blogs more often, writes other content, eventually they can outrank the person with the larger article, BUT only if they have more content overall on their website as well as more comments and that is assuming the person who write the 10k article doesn’t continue to blog as actively.
I will always suggest that people write as much high quality content as possible for each page/blog post they create, but also make sure that the quality of that content is always high. If you aim to just write extra stuff for the sake of it, the quality will deteriorate and it will affect the people’s experience on your site, which also affect rankings.
So just to sum up:
1. Write as much as possible for each blog post and as I said, let the 1,000 words be a minimum quota.
2. Make sure there’s always high quality content being prioritized.
3. Don’t worry if another article with less or more content outranks you. Always continue to build the OVERALL site, not just 1 page that isn’t ranking as well as you want it to.
Hi. Thanks for a very helpful article. May I suggest your post is a typical good example of what you are talking about.
Post, Main Body: Almost 1,500 words. Clear sub headings and short paragraphs. Comments: Over 3500 words.
Does that get picked up by Google as a post of over 5,000 words? If so, then everything you say makes sense.
I have read 1500 word blogs that were, quite honestly, rubbish so I guess the length is only 1 criterion? I personally like a blog to have a clear stated aim and then break down the important parts into chunks I can remember so would you say that was “normal” for a reader?
I think anything under 1000 words is likely to leave me wanting more and probably looking elsewhere for more detail. It does all begin to make sense.
Really interesting what you say about the Google criteria being obvious if you read Google’s own advice. We tend to get bogged down in the “Google Algorithm “mystery, which you explained perfectly. It is about Google’s own standing.
Thanks again. Thought provoking and informational.
In regards to whether or not this type of post would outrank one targeting the same keyword but had 5,000 words or more of content, I would say it depends. As I said in the article, the length of it is NOT the only criteria, you would also have to take into consideration the overall website’s authority, amount of comments it has and many other factors.
Can my article potentially outrank one with more content? Yes. Will it? It depends, but for certain, the number of comments DO add to the word count. You also have to consider that comments and stay times on a page for the reader also indicate if they like what they are reading, so naturally the longer a person stays on the page, the better it looks to Google and there are tools such as Google analytics which measure stay times (average) of people who visit your page/s.
So what you said about other long articles with bad content being present, yes there are MANY out there, but in those circumstances, you would see a shorter stay time of the people who visit it and that I assure you would impact that article’s ranking.
I hope I cleared up this whole topic on article length 🙂
Hey Vitaliy,
Cheers for your insight into content length and Google rankings. It is something I have been looking into and pondering lately and all the evidence points to longer content having the ability to rank higher.
I myself aim for at least 1,000 words, but it all does come down to the topic of the post, what there is to say about it and the quality of what is being said.
Some great comparisons between the supporting evidence. The truth is that the Google algorithm is so complex, there is a lot to consider, however I’d definitely agree that content length is one!
It is Sven, but so are all the things you mentioned in your second point about quality, length and the topic. Provided you write well enough, most of the parameters Google seeks in an high quality article that they want to rank high, will already be in place so you won’t have to dig any deeper to figure out what else to add.
Great article. I was not aware of the 1000 word minimum but it definitely makes sense. Seeing that google itself can lead to traffic, I would think that if the content is useful and people are sharing that information then success can be had for the blogger.
Writing a thousand words might seem tough in the beginning but once a person gets used to the idea of helping others by providing that golden content I imagine that it would become easy to do. I love to blog and will definitely utilize your advice. Do you know if there are any programs that actually count your words?
John
Hi John, a regular WordPress website has a default word count feature so it’ll tell you as you’re writing how many words you’ve reached 🙂 as for other platforms, I can’t really say. You can always take the content, put it into Microsoft Word and see how many you’ve reached there.
It totally makes sense. Thanks for being real about not all posts needing to be 1k words. I have gone through many posts of equally poor content to those who do under 1k words. The content is a key factor and the value of information…good content and info = good response and rankings. I think what makes the 1k word count so effective is you are more focused of the quality content you are putting out to get to that count.
Yes this is true, but I would add that in the beginning stages of a blog, it usually will not have high rankings and thus there will be fewer people who see it and leave their comments, but when it does reach a high status and gets those visits and comments hopefully, then you can start to try and write blog posts with fewer than 1,000 words (if it makes sense) because by that time, the supplemental content will come from the comments of your visitors and fans, who will revisit your website if they truly enjoy reading your articles and believe me, their comments to your article will only help boost it’s ranking further.
Thank you for this post. I did find it helpful to hear about the comparisons that you have made when you search sites and how they rank in Google. At the same time, I was thinking about guest blogger rules and noting that some of the very popular blog sites set a limit of 500. I suspect that it is because they have a great deal of popularity (which you mention). Do you have any thoughts? Have you ever done any guest blogging? If yes, what were the parameters?
Hi, I do not do guest blogging and I am also not a fan of letting people do it on my site. I’ve had offers and have declined. Regarding the blog posts you said that allow 500 words or less, is this for comments specifically or for actual people who wish to provide a guest blog?
If it’s for the latter, I don’t really know how popular the website/s in question would be (unless you can tell me which specific ones you’re referring to) because this is REALLY a small amount of content. I’ve personally never seen anything like this unless it was an article directory, and those are dinosaur sites in the SEO world.
The only way this can have a good result is if in fact the blog in question is truly popular and by having someone leave a short (500 words or less) post, they can get a lot of comments from a fan community that actively visits/revisits the blog, as comments would also add to the content.
I think I’m doing the right thing by posting a new page or post 2-3 times a week for 2 different sites which does take up quite a bit of time. By what I read, it should start paying off soon.
Question for you: Do graphic’s help with getting ranked? I have heard we should include them, so I may have to insert more to my sites.
Thanks for all the great insight, I will follow your suggestions.
Doug
Hi Doug, you are doing the right things with your posting. I hope that you are following my suggestion on making the posts long and also targeting keywords in each.
Regarding graphics, I assume you mean images, correct? If so, then yes they CAN help your page get ranked, but be careful on this. Ideally you want to use royalty free images (or your own) and title them with the same keyword that you are using on the article where you’re putting it up.
If you choose to use multiple images on a page, do not label every single image with the same keyword, but use relevant words to identify the image. This will help Google pick it up and place it in it’s image results page when people type in the same keyword you labeled it as, so use one that gets searches.
Is there a cap on content per article? My articles seem to be getting more lengthy considering I have a genuine interest in my niche. I actually just created my first 2,500 word article today.
These are very informational ways on how to get ranked by google. You have explained many important things to consider when writing an article. Am I wasting my time by writing articles over 1,000 words?
Is a 1 3,000 word article the EXACT equivalent of 3 ,1000 word articles? Or which be a better opportunity for visitor engagement?
Hi Jake, you are NOT wasting your time with writing longer content. I have personally written 2,000+ and even 3,000+ word articles. The rule about more content per page leading to better rankings is absolutely true, so I would say if you CAN write more than a 1,000, do it, do not limit yourself to a “cap”.
Now the only time I’d recommend writing less is only if the BIG article you write has 2 or more topics in it which can be broken down into other, separate articles.
By doing this, you will be able to target a new keyword, a different topic and write a lot of content for that. Mixing up different topics on 1 article may confuse and bore people who initially view your page for 1 keyword search they were doing.
If nothing else, separate the articles that need to be separated based on content and their own, unique keywords, then interlink them together. This will really be the best thing you can do, but also make sure each of those separated articles ALL have a lot of content.
I’ve always wondered what the magic number is, so it’s good to know that 1,000 words is a good benchmark for blog articles. I’ve been noticing a lot on social media recently that people are sharing articles that are just a few short paragraphs and a YouTube video. They get lots of clicks on their post, but I think over time people will get sick of these as they don’t really provide much value to the reader. Do you agree? I’m fast coming to the conclusion that good quality content is the key to success, and while authority may take a while to build up, slow and steady will win the race in the end!
Hi Mara, those social media shares you see usually come from people who have fame and/or from websites which have a lot of authority and fans so whenever they share articles, they will likely get a lot of social media buzz. This is most typically associated with Fan pages.
For example, I know of quite a few fan pages which have a 1 million+ likes so whenever they share a new article, it is NOT uncommon to see it get 100’s of shares, likes and comments instantly.
But on the other hand though, those articles may not always have a good impact on Google rankings and that’s where it gets different.
Since most of us who start out in internet marketing are not famous, it is better to focus on long, high quality content and to aim to get Google’s attention, not social media’s attention. You can absolutely build some sort of fan page while you’re building up your site for Google, but the traffic you’ll get from Google will usually be far more profitable than social media traffic, which in my experience is just a lot of likes and support, not so much profit. It CAN however boost your Google rankings when it gets shares and likes.
Well done for a nice post!
I’ve always been thinking about how a post gains authority in SEO and this article has provided answers to the many questions I had. I’ve read several articles that teach that many people prefer short posts these days especially during these times of 140 character articles. I don’t know what you have to say about this.
It makes sense when you say that pages that rate high in Google are long ones and I’ve personally proved that right. Secondly, I didn’t know that comments are a key point in giving authority to a post. I wonder how many comments are enough for a post in order to give authority?
About comments, there is no default number that will give you authority, that’s not how it works. Authority is given to a site when it has enough content, age and comments altogether for Google to look at it more closely and rank it higher. Obviously the more of all those that I just mentioned that you have, the better your authority will be.
As for the 140 characters, I think you’re mistaking Twitter with SEO. I have never seen a blog site rank on the first page for a competitive keyword with little content. There was ALWAYS a lot. The point is, when it comes to Google, write longer articles.
Bravo lad! You have made some sense of the elusive 1000 mark. I didn’t understand it. I was doing it, but I certainly didn’t understand it. My niche makes it pretty easy for me to hit the 1000 word mark. It breaks down nicely piece by piece. I think the fact that I’m a bit of chatty Kathy myself increases my odds. Thanks for the informative piece and I’ll be sure to keep reading your stuff, you are taking things I’m learning and breaking them down for common sense completely new to the scene of affiliate marketing guys like me. Thanks again.
No problem Jeff!
I’ve been looking for a post like this one for a very long time. Since I took this part of Wealthy Affiliate a long time ago, I couldn’t remember how many words I should use when blogging, or even writing an article.
Long ago I used to write articles for Ezine and if I do recall correctly, I thought they were extremely picky about the kind of work they would accept. I remember having to go back and redo many parts of the first article that I wrote for them. I’m sorry to hear they aren’t used anymore and was surprised to hear that many article directories would accept garbage writing.
I was so happy to hear that blogging posts should contain 1,000 words or more to be acceptable for content creation. I tend to be really overly wordy, or so I thought and was afraid of boring my readers to a great extent. I think there is a way to use your words to this advantage and teach yourself to be “creative” though.
I was grateful for your post and the reasons that posts should be longer in length. Thanks for sharing what seems to me to be very important when creating content for others to read and for Google to be acceptable.
I hope that many blog creators read your post as I have seen some pretty despicable blog post creations lately.
Thanks again. Your post was very helpful, at least it was for me.
No problem Rene. It is true Ezine at one point was more strict about it’s writing policies, but that was in part because Google slapped them for producing low quality content.
In it’s initial model, people could write as little as 250-300 words and get published without a review from a moderator. When this low standards produced low content and Google increased it’s demand for better content, Ezine articles fell behind by a lot and thus switched things up which is when I assume you started writing for them.
In any case, article directories and the content people write for them simply does NOT rank well these days. People need to create their OWN authority websites and produce content they own, for their own page.
This is where Wealthy Affiliate helps you with this, and why I strongly recommend using their strategies 🙂
This is a very good information. I have been hearing about using 1,500 words in a blog in order to get a higher ranking in Google. I keep seeing some pages on the 1st page of Google but I have never thought of checking the number of words. I know that writing a long blog and picking up a keyword below 100 competition will get you a higher ranking. I will start doing that on my next topic. Once again, this is a good piece of information.
No problem Emeolu, for the most part, whenever you see 1st page websites, you will notice a majority of them do indeed have a lot of content. The only real exceptions would be is if you had BIG authority pages like Amazon, eBay and others, but I would still not dismiss the fact that longer content is what is better for you to use as a personal website owner/blogger.
Hi Vitaliy
This is a great explanation that helps me understand how Google ranks content. I am fairly new on the scene to content marketing but have learned that we should consistently write about 3 articles per week that are approximately 1000 words long (quality content) to keep the publishing frequency at 100%.
Well, as long as Google keeps the algorithm system a secret, we just have to keep on guessing and adjusting 🙂
Thanks for information.
Regards,
Kamil
Google isn’t as secretive as you may think Kamil. I mean they literally have an entire blog page meant for webmasters where they TELL you what they want to see on your site.
There’s no point in Google holding some big secrets on how they rank sites, because by giving you their expectations, they get good quality sites to rank and earn their browsers trust.
And overall, they have consistently SHOWED that they value great content above anything else. Forget algorithm, forget about what goes on behind the scenes at Google, work to make great content and I guarantee you that you will be make Google happy and they will make YOU happy by giving your site extra privledge in their search engine. I’d also recommend you read my post on SEO for a better understanding of this.
This article was very thorough and answered a question that arose for me which is, what about when it gets to the point where you feel like you are going on and on, harping on a point? This means I need to go back through and make my articles longer. I have been getting approximately to the 7-800 word mark. I am just beginning with everything, including social media, so I really needed this. Thank you!
Rather than focusing on a point, add a story to back it up, that usually helps fill the gap of words for me.
This is a great explanation and I have learned a lot. I always write at least 1000 words in a post and sometimes close to 1500. I now understand why much better than I did before.
I am only able to post about once a week. Do you think that hurts rankings or I just have to wait until I get enough quality posts?
It doesn’t hurt rankings as much as it inhibits their rise Cynthia. If you write once a week, your progress with Google will also slow down proportionally. Getting comments and shares will help though.
If you can write more often, I’d do it. Even if sites are already an authority in Google and getting traffic, lack of new content can inhibit present and future rankings but again, this doesn’t mean it hurts them…
This is a very decent and well explained article I have come across regarding blog posts. Since i am new at writing, it is little difficult to write post with 1k words as I have started with 600-650 words but ya the rankings are low. I would want to know how often does one upload new blog posts with the 1k words to keep getting rankings better? Because I read somewhere that new blog posts should be up in every 4-5 days.
That’s the problem, there’s different places posting different advice. The truth is, from the people who I’ve listened to at Wealthy Affiliate who have consistently shown me their advice works, the 1k word advice and writing up to once a day is what I have personally seen to be the best way to get your rankings up Nicole.
Thank you for such informative information. I am new to blogging and was doing longer posts as that is what I was told to do, then I saw where shorter posts were better, and as long as they are over 500 words you are good. I am getting a green go ahead from yoast so should I still go back and add more to my posts?
Yoast is not in my opinion a tool whose metrics I would abide by Merry. In the end, it’s not about how many words you have or if you get a green light from some special SEO tool, it’s about providing the best information possible and as a rule of thumb, longer content is better for this, especially if your website is still new. More developed websites can “get away” with putting down lesser content, but as long they have a following of people to read that and comment on it, it will work, but for newer blogs or those who don’t have a following, stick to longer content 🙂
First of all let me start off by saying great post, really. Hmmm I don’t know where to start…lol.
1000 words, is definitely the way to go, I too have learned that from a well established online marketer. but what I love about your post is the detail you go into explaining the reason why it is so…
I can say with confidence that I am a lot more educated about this topic then I was before I have read this post.
I can’t help but comment on the fact that google gives a VIP pass to established websites… this seems to be a big stumbling block for those who are just starting out and trying to get noticed… if they are not given the same chance as the big guys out there how can they climb up in the search bars? I am sure there is a way but I guess I’m missing something here.
Also, would you know how long it will usually take someone to get their blog noticed?
Thanks for the post,
Shlomo J
Hi Shlomo, on one hand you’re right in that it’s tough for someone new to get noticed by Google, but consider if the situation was reversed and new people could get noticed quickly, you would basically have the period where people made horrible spam sites and abused Google relentlessly.
Micro niche sites come to mind when I make this example and frankly, as I’ve said before, forcing people to work harder to make their blog earn big money is totally worth it.
I’m fascinated by SEO but I don’t understand it at all. I didn’t realize how important that 1k number was and from now on I will strive for 1.5k or more if possible. Will it make a difference if I go back, edit and increase content? Did I understand you correctly, do comments increase the content as Google sees it?
Fascinated but confused,
Allan
Hi Allan, yes any new content, be it yours or people who comment on your site is still content and yes Google sees it and gives you more benefits from it. If you’re as confused about SEO as you say, then I strongly recommend this read on it, I think it’ll clear it up entirely for you.
Vitaliy,
Thank you for teaching me something new today. I am still an SEO newbie and am trying to learn as much as I can. I have added your website to my favorite bar so I can come back later on. I should have watched your video on how to avoid online scams a long time ago. It would have saved me some money and disappointment along the way.
Cheers
Chris
Great article Vitaliy
It has opened my eyes on some subjects about SEO ranking that I did not consider.
I’ve only started blogging for a year…still consider myself a newbie and still learning.
It really shows that you are trying to help bloggers get better at what they do and it shows in the information you’ve provided. I have a feeling that showing that you are helping and getting comments will also help you gain rank in SEO, which in turn helps more people which is the goal of search engines…to give good content results to the right person at the right time.
Is it true that links from you article to other articles within your site also helps your ranking? As I think it shows that your site is consistent with the information being provided. Showing that it is within the same context of your site.
Cheers
Paul
Hi Paul, yes, what you’re referring to is called interlinking and it does help with ranking as well because it basically helps readers and search engines explore your site better. With less focus on selling and more focus on linking to articles that continue to benefit readers, this is something looked upon positively by Google and does lead to better rankings.
I tend to write lengthy articles anyways (usually around 1500 words) and always saw that it earned me a green rating on Yoast, but I never really knew why it was necessary or recommended. I also now see the importance of using my keyword frequently. Thanks so much for clarifying that!
1,500 is quickly becoming more recommended than the 1,000 one and you’re doing well to keep your posts that long. On the keyword end, focus less on writing them too much and just include them in your title and in areas of your blog post where it makes sense, don’t be artificial about it.
Hi Vitaliy,
I agree that it is not all about the word count. I have two examples, if I may.
I have a 2k-word article in my blog with only 6 comments but it gets the highest clicks of all my posts. It has been on page 1 because of very low competition.
I also have a 650-word article with 100 plus shares and 64 comments and is also on page 1 of Google despite using a competitive target keyword.
I have been chatting with my friend about some of our article rankings – it seems that Google is being erratic nowadays. One minute an article of ours is on page 1, and the next thing you notice, it is nowhere in the first 20 pages.
Do you know what’s happening?
Are Google’s algorithms changing again?
Thanks for any enlightenment you can give.
Regards,
Pitin
Hi Pitin, is this erratic article you’re speaking of, one of the two you mentioned that are ranked high? If not, then my guess is this:
1) The article in question is bouncing around due to the Google dance and…
2) It is especially plausible to assume this Google dance is happening on a newer website as those tend to always have newer blog posts jump around the search results and this will happen less frequently on bigger blogs.
So in summary, yes it is normal to see this happening and I would not worry about it.
Thank you. Glad to know.:)
I think the advice you have here is sound for sure.
The problem is (I think) is some marketers rely on these figures of publishing over 1000 words, when actually what they wanted to say and the message they wanted to get across was done in the first 500 or 600 words.
Does Google also understand when content is simply being built out?
I mean why write 1000 words when you can deliver your message with half of that?
Id love your thoughts on this!
Thanks
Chris
Hi Chris, the thing is, I don’t think Google has a “quality meter” that advanced to be able to tell if your point and content within whatever amount is better than other competitors and to be honest, I think the whole concept of judging one’s content over another is totally subjective.
What I do believe Google does is still look at the overall quality, the quantity as well, but gives it extra points for comments and shares like I said and if that happens, and Google sees comments, they will see that people, in their own subjective way, value the content enough to do this action which they will then take into account for ranking you higher.
Having personally had content rank above others after they had more comments showed me this. So I would take the time to add that extra content per page, because even if you don’t get comments, you can still rely on your authority and content length, which are 2 factors I know still play a role in SEO.