Once upon a time, stuffing keywords into a text box was all you needed to get the search engines’ attention. Sure, these days you’ll still get noticed if you keyword stuff, but it won’t be the kind of attention you’re looking for. In fact, you could wind up with penalties that severely damage your rankings. But, a lot of things have changed over the years when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO).
Over time, people have tried to figure out what the algorithms look for when ranking webpages. One argument that’s persisted is this question: How long should blogs be to rank high on the search engine results pages (SERPs)?
The answer?
Well, like many things in life, it’s complicated.
There was a belief that if you wrote a 2,000-word piece and published an SEO-rich headline, you’d gain top traction with the search engines. Today that might be true, but there’s way more to the story than meets the eye. You see, it’s not about the number of words you’re putting out to the universe, it’s about the quality of the words you’re sharing. So, maybe you can say everything you need to say in 500 words. If that piece is valuable to your readers and offers great content, it’ll likely get its day in the spotlight from the search engines. However, shorter blogs leave less room for vital pieces, like links.
If you seek assistance from our SEO agency in CT, you’ll soon learn that word count isn’t the only thing that matters. With that said, the longer your pieces are, the more able you are to inject elements that will help you rank higher. Any organic SEO expert will tell you it’s more about what you’re delivering than how many words you’re delivering.
With this in mind, let’s dive a little deeper into the details.
The importance of content in SEO cannot be overstated. You have to provide your readers with valuable, reliable, truthful, and relevant content that meets their needs. If you can check these boxes, you’re off to the races. But, how do you do this?
The thing about short-form content is that it doesn’t give you enough real estate to build in backlinks. Backlinks are incredibly important when you’re trying to trigger the search engines to rank your pages higher, but if you only have 400 words of discussion, you’re not leaving yourself much room to link to other related topics. This is why longer-form articles are often ranked higher – it’s not about the word count, necessarily. Rather, it’s about the foundations within the text that allows for greater content optimization in SEO.
According to a Backlinko study in 2019, an analysis of 912 million blog posts revealed the following result: Long-form blogs achieve an average of 77.2% more links than short articles. That’s because they’re built with the blog word count that allows for additional information to be shared.
H1, H2, and H3 aren’t Bingo calls – they’re headers that any good content marketing firm will tell you to use. Headers help with readability and usability for your audiences, as well as the search engines, making it easier for everyone to understand exactly what you’re talking about.
When you structure your content correctly, you’ll break your content into logical sections so you’re not giving your readers a huge wall of text. A logical structure is more user-friendly, and Google pays attention to user-friendliness.
When we write our digital agency blog posts, we’re careful to adhere to the following structure:
If you’re looking for an SEO optimization for dummies trick, this is the first one to start with. Make sure your content is easily scannable, so people who are pressed for time can directly get to the information they need.
When it comes to blogging and SEO, you have to keep your readers in mind. What are they asking? What do they want to learn? When you answer these questions, you’ll satisfy your searchers’ intent and make the algorithms happy. Usability matters in the online world, so if you’re taking up digital real estate just to make words appear on the page, you’re doing it wrong.
If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Does blogging help SEO?” the answer is yes. But, that comes with caveats. You have to do keyword research so you know exactly what your audience is looking for. From there, you can create blog posts that speak to their needs and answer their questions. Doing so immediately, rather than forcing someone to scroll through all your text, will be beneficial to both your business and your audience.
Semantic analysis is focused on helping you make sure your content includes related concepts and entities, ensuring the search engines can understand what it’s about without a doubt. If you utilize keyword mapping to get to both branded and non-branded keywords, you’ll be able to optimize your posts in ways that make the most sense to Google and the audience you’re trying to address.
Fluffing hurts the content ontology and degrades your keyword and topic targeting. The hierarchy between keywords and articles is important, and it’s something you should pay attention to if you’re trying to win over the hearts of the search engines. Don’t publish mindless posts that are 2,000 words just to hit your daily or weekly word count. Instead, make it clear to Google that you’re publishing pieces with intent.
What happens when you have a target word count that doesn’t apply to the topic? If you’re tasked with posting 2,000 words about bananas, you might run out of information at 500 words. Then, you’ll start talking about oranges, apples, and “fruit” as a general term. This applies to any business and brand.
Forego the fluff and talk about what matters, no matter the word count. Your readers and Google will thank you in the end.
Zero Gravity Marketing is filled with a team of digital marketing experts who will help support your SEO efforts. From website audits to keyword research, we’re here to help you make your dreams happen. Reach out to us today, and find out why we’re the best. We can’t wait to hear from you!