As a business website owner, you know that producing engaging content is essential for SEO success. Many factors go into creating one, but one of the most debated is the word count. Does it even matter? If yes, how long should a blog post be for SEO to maximize its potential in 2023?
Knowing the answer to these questions can make all the difference in driving organic traffic and ranking higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). We've created this article to help you understand the current search algorithm and how it affects the optimal blog post length for SEO success.
Let's dive into what affects the ideal length of your blog post and find out why an efficient word count could dramatically boost your site's visibility!
How Does Word Count Affect a Blog’s Google Ranking?
How long should a blog be for SEO? The truth is that no universal blog post length will work for every SEO content you publish online. Depending on the topic, some may require longer pieces while others may not need to be as long. But how exactly does it happen?
Look at how something as simple as the number of words in a post can greatly impact your blog’s performance in search engine results.
The Potential of Short Blog Posts
Short SEO blogs can have advantages and disadvantages depending on your content goals. Here's how they work.
Advantage: Optimization and Quick Information
Shorter blog articles that are well-optimized for specific keywords can rank higher in the SERPs. They can help you get more traffic from organic searches.
They're also quick reads, so users searching for information while pressed for time will benefit the most from short blogs. For content writers, short blogs are excellent for mastering the short-and-sweet approach. For example, how can they insert keywords naturally and provide all the information people need in less than a thousand words?
Disadvantage: Engagement and Algorithm
On the other hand, shorter blog posts may not be as engaging for readers as longer articles. The blog length could affect the reader's willingness to share the post or explore more content on the site.
Additionally, Google's Search algorithm favors longer, more comprehensive content. Therefore, shorter blog posts may not be as effective in helping sites rank higher in search results. Consider the purpose of your content when planning to write short blogs.
The Effectiveness of Long Blog Posts
Crafting long-form content can be more beneficial when optimizing your website for search engines. Longer blog posts contain more relevant information and keywords. Such quantity can help search engine crawlers understand your goals from a more in-depth perspective, resulting in a higher position on the SERPs.
Long-form blog posts also have more backlinks, which can help your website obtain greater credibility, authority, and, eventually, visibility on search engine results.
There is More to the Length of a Blog Post
It’s important to note that Google’s Search algorithm does not reward long blog posts for the sake of being long; the content must be relevant and useful for readers. If the content is of poor quality, Google's algorithm may penalize your website, resulting in lower rankings.
Therefore, it is important to ensure that when you create SEO blog articles, they should be not only long but also of good quality and topic relevance.
What Else Does Google’s Algorithm Look for in a Blog Post?
We can all agree that Google is one of the most powerful search engines out there. So understanding what its algorithm looks for in a blog post will improve your SEO strategies and lead your website to the top of SERPs.
Let's explore what Google looks for in a blog aside from content length by breaking down the elements of SEO. This valuable information will help you craft content for blogs with optimal word count.
Quality Content
Google's Search algorithm looks for quality when ranking web pages so that its users can find the most relevant and valuable information they need. It's not just about well-researched and well-written material. It should also directly provide a user's query with the best possible answer.
Valuable content helps Search algorithms understand the context of a web page and how it relates to a user's query. Google will then rank your content according to relevance and quality.
Keywords and Phrases
Search engines look at your use of keywords and phrases to determine the relevance of a web page to a particular query. Keywords are influential factors that can tell you how long your SEO blog post should be.
The algorithm can better assess how to rank a page compared to its competitors by assessing the number and relevance of keyword use. This process ensures that users get the most relevant and helpful information to answer their questions.
Internal and External Linking
Internal and external linking establishes a web of related content that Google can crawl to better understand the potential of a website's content.
Internal links guide Google's crawlers through a website so they can better understand the overall structure and purpose of a website. Meanwhile, external links can be seen as an endorsement; they show that a page from another website is authoritative and extends the content they link to.
By examining the number and quality of links directing people to a specific page, Search algorithms can determine which pages are more relevant and authoritative than others.
Timeliness
One of the many things the search algorithm considers when ranking web pages is how recently content has been published and updated. Website owners must regularly update their websites with fresh and relevant content to improve their rankings in Google's search engine.
Google wants to give users the most accurate and up-to-date information possible, so fresh and timely content gets a higher ranking than older content. The more frequently a web page is updated with new content, the more likely it will appear on the first page of search results.
Optimization for Web Page Usability
Page experience has become a priority for Google when ranking web pages. That's why blogs should be optimized for usability and ensure that the pages housing them can meet certain quality standards.
Factors such as page speed, stability, security, and user-friendliness contribute to a page's ranking. When you optimize web pages for usability, users have a better browsing experience using any device, which can result in better customer retention and position on Google's search results.
Other Ways to Make the Most of the Word Count When Writing SEO Blogs
There are simple yet effective ways you can follow to enhance your blog's word count and make it SEO-friendly. Let's explore some of them to help you maximize your SEO content strategy.
Employ a Smart Keyword Strategy
The goal is to apply relevant keywords in the content to make it easier for search engines to identify the blog topic and rank it higher. After researching the right keywords, strategically place them throughout the content for optimization.
Remember that keyword stuffing only harms your SEO efforts, so using keywords naturally throughout your blog is crucial.
Review the Competition
By analyzing the length of your competitors' blog posts, you can get a better sense of the count, quality, and content structure that best suits your goals. Make sure to look at several of them; calculate their average content length, compare, and adjust your blog post word count accordingly.
Take note of the topics they cover and their writing styles to maximize your quest for ranking opportunities.
Be Attentive to Search Intent
Knowing what makes a blog post helpful and relevant to the audience is a powerful approach in the SEO landscape. So understanding the user's intention when planning what to use as a target keyword can help you create compelling content that effectively answers their query.
Attention to search intent also helps you avoid irrelevant topics. This way, you won’t use up unnecessary word count, ensuring the balance between the length and quality of your blog.
Analyze Your Blog’s Performance
It’s essential to understand which of your blog posts have been successful in the past so that you can craft more effective blogs in the future and elevate your rank in the search engines.
Go over your blog posts’ analytics to carefully identify which topics and word counts performed better. Then, adjust your blog length and other content- and SEO-related elements to maximize the effectiveness of your previous, current, and future SEO blogs.
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