Don't use 500 word articles!

I have written many articles and I'm not sure what the best length of an article should be. I write articles both for my site and some for ezinearticles.com.

It seems to be the consensus that length doesn't matter as much as keyword density. I always optimize my articles for keywords. This is a skill that is important to learn if you are going to be running a website.

I signed up for SBI about five years so far. It was a great invesment. I have learned so much from them. Now, when I start a new website, I write out a whole blueprint of keywords that have a great chance to rank. And I only purchase a new domain after I have done extensive keyword research for that keyword and I usually go through a bunch before I choose that new website.

I do this because each website will take up so much of my time. Lots of work for at least the first few years for each website. But, maybe I'm doing it wrong and I should be optimizing my time better.

For example, I would really love a PR on one site I recently started. But, I'll save that for another post.

please contact me at esalken at gmail if you have any tips for upping pr from 0.

 

Well there are two things to discuss here. Longer articles will most likely include more relevant/niche keywords that will help rank the article. It looks more professional too when your article is 600-700 words long. A 400 word article looks like a pathetic attempt to get a link..

 

300 or 500 words who gives a dam! Surely the point of writting an article is to make it interesting for the reader to read, know matter how many words you use.

 

500 words is useful in order to get it accepted by the most number of article sites. That way you don't have to rewrite them for individual sites.

 

Not if you know how to write and captivate your audience it doesn't. ;]

Even if your going for the backlink, IMO it's good practice to give your audience just a taste of what they are looking for. The idea should be to get them to click the link regardless. This way, not only do you have a relevant link back to your site, but you also get the extra traffic from people wanting more of what you have to say.

This can easily be done in a 500 word article, even without keywords sounding spammy!

You shouldn't be shooting for more than a few keywords per article anyways IMO.

You don't want to try to sell them anything in your article. You just want to give them a good taste of what you have to offer that gets them salivating for more.

Most people don't read large articles. So you have to ask yourself (if your trying to get people to click your link), do these (most) people matter to you, or less?

Shawn

 

I write about 300 word articles. I've only written 2 though

 

I dont see why not, any amount of words is good. Search engines dont care of how much data, they only care of how little it is..... and if its been duplicated.

 

Yeah I find short articles are just as good as long ones, as long as your on-page SEO is strong, your keywords do not have intense competition, and your internal linking is extremely relevant.

 

The content matters not the length.

 

Yeap, quality is matter rather than quantity.

 

i write article more than 300 words and i think its sufficient for me

 

Minimum of 500 words are good for article approval. As some of the article site don't mention words counts. But still approve 500 words article.

 

I would always aim for a minimum of 500 words, but not really more than 700 because you can lose the user.

 

According to me 300 to 400 words is sufficient for any good article content..

 

mainly article site take minimum limit of words is 250 -350 (150-200 not sufficient ) idle article words limit is 500..

 

Some directories (and these article directories are high regarded) don't accept any article unless it is 500 words minimum

 

450 words are enough....

 

Here's my thoughts which I believe have worked extremely well for a very competitive niche of mine.

On your main site you want to appear in google's eyes as an authority. So writing shorter articles won't cut it as google tracks the amount of time people spend on your site.
The people visiting your site are usually after a specific answer so reading a 1200 word article is nothing for someone interested in your topic.
Someone above wrote "You'd better write something interesting to keep me reading over 800 words" and that is spot on. If you write in your niche then people who have an interest in your niche will read the full article and then more if you have them. So long as they are all around the niche.

When writing articles for ezine it's a good practice to have two 400 word articles with each pointing to a specific web page of yours with more information. You WILL DEFINITELY get more traffic with two 400 word articles that 1 800 word article. Keep the longer articles for your own website.

 

I generally go for 400-500 words - suits my attention span!