What is the most perfect Word Count Sweet Spot to Rank High on SERP?
Should I write an 800 blog to rank? Or maybe 1000 words? Or maybe 2000?
That’s where you always get stuck ending up disoriented and bewildered.
Do you think the word count for your blog post is anyway related to ranking over the Search Engine Result Pages?
If you look into the stats, the answer would evidently be YES.
But, the reality is — Google had never talked about any standard, “word count” to be the criterion for ranking high on the SERP.
NO such standard exists in reality.
For people, the magical number of words is appealing as it makes them feel like half the battle won. Most marketers argue, the reason that long-form content should be considered ideal to rank high — more the number of words more the possibility to get noticed.
But, long-form content will help as long as you are being relevant. When it’s all over the map, stuffed with keywords and unnecessary words — it would JUST ruffle your audiences’ feathers. In the end, there would not be any accomplishments as was planned.
However, long-form content writing is not a bad idea! But, when all it becomes is full of keywords and you are JUST barking up the wrong tree then it won’t make the impact on the reader that you wished for.
That would only be an INEFFICACIOUS attempt to satisfy the search engine.
The question still remains up in the air — what is the ideal solution then?
What’s the best word count strategy for your blog post to rank high on the SERP?
The myth about word count.
A large percentage of content marketers think that writing shorter copies would not help their content ranking high on the SERP — thwarting their reputation.
The writers spend more and more time writing longer copies, blogs, and landing pages — setting their hearts on better marketing and better ranking.
Do you think in the same way?
Many content marketers do — Right?
So, do only long-form content writers get awarded? Are short blog posts & short copywriting content has disappeared?
Certainly, not!
Although long-form content has its own advantages, you do not always have to craft your copy similarly. The most important thing is to be aware of your audience, and what they want to hear from you.
We’ll talk about this — how many words would suffice for a particular content based on the audience & the content type.
But, before that we need to understand what the stats say about word count — let’s get started from an example from Google SERP.
Word count statistics.
Refer to some highly legitimate sources, and the data have collected to get a deeper understanding of dos and don’ts with regard to the length of your content.
Google: Google says that “word count is not a ranking factor.”
Google’s quality analysis team does not read each and every word you are writing; they would just focus on to what extent a particular blog/article/copy is answering the customers’ queries.
That’s where you can stand ahead in the game — there is no magic wand, you can hold in your hands and be present everywhere.
Google has always emphasized on the importance of quality — it never says that a huge number of words gets you in a better direction.
On the content marketer’s part that has to be good news — you do not have to always write more to rank high.
Being relevant would get the job done.
But, while Google promises quality content ranking on SERP irrespective of — if it’s long-form content or small copies, the research data obtained from various giant digital marketing establishments present some contrary data.
What Research Data says?
In research that was done by a reputable digital marketing agency, it was found that long-form content ranks higher on the SERP than the short-form content.
A study conducted by ahrefs established that a piece of long-form copy gets positioned better than a shorter copy. In another research, it was found that the sweet spot for a blog post is around 2500 words. One more study was done on the performance of content based on the number of words — it was found that long-form content gets better & more links than short-form content.
Final observation:
With the data above, we can infer that long-form content will for sure have its advantages.
It ranks for more keywords and helps the marketer managers get better backlinks as compared to its shorter-content brethren.
It makes sense to the content marketing manager who is writing her blog keeping in mind — ranking for certain keywords & getting better backlinks.
This is the obvious reason companies find their way to better advertising through long-form content.
But, ONE relevant question, we must ask here — is it always required to write long-form content?
NO.
Whether you should create a long-form content or short-form content will always be determined by two important factors –
Your Audience.
And, the type of query.
Although it plays an important role — the number of words written will not always make your content rich — sometimes it’s better to incorporate relevant images, videos, Infographics, and more to make it rich enough.
For instance, when you put on the query, “how to make paper flowers” — the number one & two organic results that show up on Google approximately lie between 700 & 200 words respectively. But these result pages do contain a lot of images and more relevant information as the query requires.
Someone who must have made an answer to this query in around 2500 words could have been irrelevant without pictures & videos- because your audience would better understand about making paper flowers through pictures & videos (if you wish to know why video content is must, click here)
So, it’s not always important to focus on the quantity, but you must not compromise with the QUALITY.
It’s all about being relevant to your audience & SMART enough to understand what they want from you.
Always remember the thumb rule –
- Focus on your AUDIENCE.
- QUIT focusing on what Google wants.
Let’s talk about the most perfect word count.
Be it the word count for a blog or for a landing page — it has always been a consideration for the marketers when it comes to driving traffic & being noticed by their audience.
The digital marketing landscape has seen a tremendous transformation with regard to word count for different forms of content, in the last few years.
If we had discussed this some twenty years ago — it would have been less the number of words on a particular page on the site, the more positive response you have gotten from your audience.
That was the case some twenty years ago — when people appreciated fewer words.
Gosh! What transformations have taken place in the last few years?
A brief discussion on what word count would make you sound relevant:
Landing Pages: Minimum 350 words.
Blog post (you wish to rank): Minimum 500 words.
Having said that, we would emphasize on being relevant to what topic you are talking about. This estimation in no way has come out of some rule-book but based on certain studies & data analysis in the past (as discussed
in the first part of this blog post).
There are tons of factors on which, “the number of words for your blog post or landing page” should depend upon.
Conclusion.
The length of content must depend on the audience and the type of query. It’s better to be relevant without deviating from the topic than trying to fool the audience with fancy words.
If you are writing a review for a particular Digital marketing agency — it is worthless writing 1000 words and unnecessarily elaborating it — it’s like barking up the wrong tree. Before you begin with writing, you must conduct competitive research. SEO writing is beyond keyword stuffing. Here’s what we have observed, you must take care of while creating rich SEO content.
Dive into your competitors’ approach.
Find out how they are using Infographics, videos & images.
How did they make it an authoritative page?
Has the page been linked to other authoritative sites?
Know about these authors and try to observe the flow of content they are using.
It is not about completely replicating the style, tone, or flow of the content that your competitors are using — but it’s more about making out the difference that makes them stand alone among the top-10 pages on the SERP.
It’s not rocket science — surely not!
This is all about making your content as relevant as a hen’s teeth with your UNIQUE style — of course, incorporating elements that are keeping your competitor on top of SERP.
While content marketing is one way of driving traffic, enhancing ROI, and improving conversion – there are other Digital marketing technologies to help you grow your business. One of the largest marketplaces, Admedia helps you earn revenue and drive traffic with Native ads, video marketing, email marketing, display marketing, and more.