Well , I'm in doubt about this one. Should I spend an hour writing two longer articles or four shorter ones (considering the quality would be the same for the long ones as well as for the short ones). Would a let's say 600 words or longer article rank better than a 250 words one while using the same keywords?
I think everyone has a different opinion on what type of articles work better. I don't know which rank better, but I suspect it doesn't matter - more about backlinks to them than anything else, but I write short articles as I find the get a better click through. I keep them short, try to use some bullet points and try to make the article upbeat, benefit driven and flow towards my resource box as easily as possible, with shorter - 250-300 words, rather than 4-500 ones I seem to get a better click through - just my experience though.
They do indeed. I suspect this, too. I also get a better CTR with short articles, but I write longer ones which get a lower CTR because they actually produce significantly more sales for me. Not necessarily what you'd expect, I know, and kind of counter-intuitive, but I've now proven it - for my own articles - very reliably in 7 different niches. I suspect that my longer articles are attracting a small proportion of people who wouldn't be part of the higher CTR from a shorter article, but - interestingly - those people are real buyers. Your mileage may vary.
Wow! That surprised me! But from a buyers point of view it makes sense - they do look for information on what they buy!
Content plus backlinks seams to be the controling factor. Anything of 300 words seam to have a good chance to rank. My 2 cents anyway
I have 250 word articles that rank well and I have 800+ word articles that rank well too. I have to agree that it's probably more about what you do behind the scenes of the article that it is the length of any particular article. As mentioned, shorter articles have a much higher click through rate than longer ones. People like something they can scan through and the general idea of what they're looking for and then they click off. And, for most, that's what article marketing is all about....getting someone from your article to the offer page as quickly as possible. Longer articles can still have high CTR if they are appropriately structured. What I mean by this is dedicate the first paragraph or two to ONE main selling point of the product you're promoting, then have a clear call to action such as "Click Here to Check Out More About Yada Yada..." ,or something of the sort, between the last line of that paragraph and the next. Then the next paragraph have dedicated to a second main selling point...and so on and so forth. And, obviously, the way you place your links in said articles is going to depend greatly on what article directory you're using as some do not allow links within the body content and others do.