Long versus short copy
-
Does the search engines have a preference for pages with long or short copy? (Assuming our short copy fulfill the basic keyword requirements)
While a long copy, enable us to include more long tail keywords, i find that most people prefer to read a short copy. We currently try to keep each page short and give the reader an option to explorer further with links to more detailed pages.
-
You're right, Google doesn't appear to have an opinion on length that is has voiced - more pointing out the quality of the content itself - my statement was more from what I had seen here and there on various publications, and on also as a result of generally having seen pages with more content on performing better organically over time that pages with thinner content (this is not to say that the 500 number was a max at all - far from it, I too have pages 2 or 3 times that size). I would rather the task of optimising performance of 500 word pages than say 250 word pages.
Apologies to all for not being a bit clearer with my original answer
-
Relevant to this question, my experience is from building information pages on information sites. We load them with deep substantive content supplemented with data, media and images. Several thousand words, reference lists, data tables, a video or two and a dozen big images.
This is an info site with a small store. The info pages get us into competitive, high traffic SERPs but we often feature sales items just like you might see adsense or other promotions. These can be buy buttons right on the info page and always have links to a product pages with full product information.
A great way to put products into difficult relevant SERPs.
-
When you enrich a page with articles and video, do you include this in the same page or do you link to it?
In our case, we are trying to promote a product page. The page gives an overall product description and it has sub pages that each describe individual features. Plus we have a couple of resource links, that link to related datasheet and video.
In your experience, would we benefit from including more of the linked content directly on the product page, instead of linking to it on separate pages?
-
Where did that 400 to 500 word stat come from? I would guess that this is just conjecture and that no one knows.
I have a number of articles on my site that are well over 500 words and do well in the SERPS. I think that as long as you are writing useful information that is meant to help the reader then you will do well. I personally don't think Google has an optimum number of words that they like.
-
Quality first, and enough of it to avoid looking "thin". Post Panda, the general consensus of opinion appears to be around the 400 - 500 word mark.
As much as it is more work, that aim from the SE angle is to show results that are going to answer a searchers query.
The way in which SE's can quantify this is through bounce rate, time on site, and page views per visit. Bounce rate is fairly well known - high bounce rate means a good chance your content is not relevant and/or not ranking correctly for the terms it is targeting. Time on site, although not openly taken into consideration by google publicly - if you think about it, the more time a prospect spends on your site, the more chance of them performing your chosen call to action. Pages per visit will come naturally as a result of mastering the previous 2 points, and again increase your chance of a call to action happening.
-
We have enriched lots of pages from a few sentences to several paragraphs and then to substantive articles of a couple thousand words with images, tables, references and sometimes video. These enrichments usually were accompanied by a ranking improvement but were always accompanied by an increase in long tail traffic and an increase in the average visitor time on page. I believe that they also made the pages much more linkable.
-
The preference is for quality content.
Some page SEO tools will offer feedback based on the amount of characters or words, but those are just guides.
Think of a simple dictionary page. A random word definition does not offer a lot of content. As long as it is unique, relevant, and helpful to viewers then the content can still rank well.
You would never want to intentionally make an article longer to satisfy a search engine or stuff it with key words. If your content is larger then your page layout allows, a "read more" link to another page, or a link that then shows additional content is perfectly acceptable.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Internal blog with history and some SEO value versus new external blogs with specialized content?
We operate a blog inside a folder on our site and considering the launch of 4 highly focused blogs with specialized content which are now categories on the internal blog. Wondering if there is more value in using the external new blogs or just keep growing the internal blog content. Does fact that the internal blog is buried amongst millions of pages have any impact if we want the content indexed and value given to the links from the blog content to our main site pages.
Content Development | | CondoRich0 -
How to add Press Releases the site without it will be consider Copied ?
Hello guys,
Content Development | | WayneRooney
There is a Press Releases company that posting every month 2 Press Releases in their website about our company. I want to show the Press Releases post in our company as well.
How can i do it without that it will be consider Copied text ? Thank you0 -
Images in articles - copying the authority in my industry
Hello, For my site, BobWeikel.com, I have an article about the type of coaching I do. It's called "What is NLP?" Here's the link. The two authorities in my industry which I respect the most have no (or sometimes one) images or anything in their best articles - it's all just text. Some examples of these authoritative articles are here and here. Note the second article has one image in it. That's common for that author, and he's the top person in the field. Note that that first link has no images at all. I'd like to refine my article until I can compete. Should I leave out all images since that's what the big guys are doing? Thanks!
Content Development | | BobGW0 -
FAQ page to target "long tail keywords".
I'm wondering if there is any benefit to creating a FAQ section on a website for the purpose of ranking for long tail keywords. If so, are there best practices in the way that the page is structured? Also, would doing this just help me rank the FAQ page for these terms or would it also help more critical pages on my website, such as homepage, contact, about, etc... which do not contain these keywords.
Content Development | | pharcydeabc0 -
Tons of Long-Tail Conversion Terms -- What Should We Do?
A friend of mine runs a website that recently got hit with Penguin. His site now longer has authority. But he does have a long list of very similar longtail phrases. Example: Dog Food for Cheap Cheap Dog Food Organic Dog Food Home Made Dog Food Dog Chow Organic Dog Chow Basically, these are all about the same thing. But, he'd love to write content that has the exact longtail phrase in the title.. but not over-stuff it. He feels that if he puts it on the same site, it might look too spammy in G's eyes. But how would one go about doing it? I realize he should "Theme" this info -- but what does that really mean? Its all kind of the same theme.. IS there a way to do it in wordpress with categories? Please -- we'd love your help. We are also curious about how to run ANY site in the post-penguin world without adding redundant content.
Content Development | | momo30 -
If we use content copied from another site ( assuming we have not plagerized), does it hurt our Google Rankings?
We have permission from another company to copy their content and use it on our site. This happens when we are describing a manufacturer's product and we copy pages from their site and add these pages to our site in order to describe the product we are selling. Is this considered duplicate content? Can this practice hurt us?
Content Development | | huskers0 -
Short blog post or Long Blog post, Which works better?
I was thinking, that SEOmoz or other technical SEO blog writes long blog post which cracks my interest when i start reading few lines of the blog post. My mind speak, Wooo! so boring.In SEO what will be best post long or Short? Thanks
Content Development | | tapankumar0 -
Issues with copying online forum reviews on own website
Apologies- I asked a similar question the other day but did not word it as clearly as possible. We are looking at having a text box of 'What customers say' on our product pages using reviews written about us online (to remain factual) and wanted to know if this created any issues relating to search engines finding matching content on two separate websites? Will this have any SEO implications as effectively we are 'plagiarising' the content in the eyes of the bots even though it is just customer opinion of our own products right? Thanks in advance.
Content Development | | jannkuzel0