Providing the right amount of content on your web page can tricky. On one hand, you’re trying to attract potential customers by providing valuable information without overwhelming them. On the other hand, you need to think about your SEO campaign and what works best to achieve higher rankings in Google.
Content and SEO go hand in hand. You can have strong SEO keywords and still won’t be found in search engines if you have no or bad content to go with them. So how much text should you have on a web page? The answer is not that straightforward. It partially depends on what kind of web page you have. Mostly there are two types, your core and landing pages – and your blog pages.
Core pages
Core pages are unique in a way, as they will remain static. They are your business card in the world wide web, displaying information about your company, your services and your products. However, even though they are vital for any website, they will affect your SEO performance negatively because they tend to have little content and are rarely updated.
Therefore, experts suggest having at least 300 words of content on each of your core pages to avoid them being perceived as thin content. The content should be unique, not just a double-up of your own work or someone else’s. The word count includes headings and paragraphs, so if you’re stuck on what to write, play around with sub-headings to help you get over the threshold.
In addition to length, Google and other search engines are looking for new content, which is why blog articles are so important for your business. The content displayed in your blog posts will highly influence where you appear in search engines and rankings.
Blog pages
Writing good blog posts on a regular basis is an important factor for improving your Google rankings. The main goal of your blog pages should be to provide valuable content to your users and by doing so, to show Google that you deserve to be at the top. Research has shown that articles with 1000 words or more usually rank higher than those with fewer words. Larger content also gets shared more often.
However, it’s not just quantity that counts. Quality matters just as much, so avoid using too many fill words, double-ups or nonsense. If you can get your point across in 300 well-written words, then you are providing more value to your readers than stretching the same article to 1500 words plus with a lot of waffle and barely any information at all.
More words, more readers?
Yes and no. Yes, the longer your article, the more likely you will attract readers because your chances are higher to appear first in search engines. However, this doesn’t mean that your readers will actually read an entire blog post with more than 1000 words. Most people will probably skim over your content and filter out what’s not useful for them.
Making your articles easier to read by using sub-headings or bullet points, will ensure that users find the information they’re looking for without reading the entire text. Happy and satisfied readers are more likely to share your posts with others, which in turn will increase your visitors and page views and improve your SEO performance.
Also, if you know that your audience prefers short, dense articles rather than scrolling through a master thesis, then stick with it. Otherwise, it is recommended to have a good mix of articles with varying lengths, providing each one is well written and provides answers to your reader’s problems.