Long or short articles?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by DomainMagnate, Oct 7, 2005.

  1. #1
    In terms of SEO, what do you think is the best: writing long articles or short articles.
    Please explain your opinion.
    From my experience long articles rank better in SE, for example I've found this article in top ten while searching for "free music download" right after kazaa.com, mp3.com...
     
    DomainMagnate, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  2. redhits

    redhits Notable Member

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    #2
    Depending of the nmbers of back links you may get!
    If you are a good SEO then it will be very usefull to write big articles? why ?! keyword desity ... for yahoo/msn and even google :)
    +++ google seems to like big pages?! why ? because they are more useful... take a look ... A desctription of something... a book of 100 pages it's more usefull then a short phrases... Short phrases are used by comercial websites :) got me?! Google don't want comercial websites on #1 they want comercial websites to use theyre AdSense (sensing)
    So write long articles, keyword rich...
    and get lot's of back links to you ... so with 1 page, having all your PR contrating there.... on only 1 resource you may atract lot's of visiators.
    If you are beginner you can play by buolding 1000 small articles and link pages toghether... but without in-bound links... you can't do anything...
     
    redhits, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  3. DomainMagnate

    DomainMagnate Illustrious Member

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    #3
    Thanks for your reply redhits.
    I've heard there was some misterious 101KB rule once, that google only indexed first 101KB of the file. I don't know if it's true or not..
    Also having a big page means more links (even more than 100 recommended by google)
     
    DomainMagnate, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  4. TheNetCode

    TheNetCode Peon

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    #4
    I do writing for an SEO marketing group and have found that it is not so much the length of the article, but its relevance to the site and the keywords you use. Do not over do the keywords though as it can penalize you. Short or long, quality is what matters.

    Kevin
     
    TheNetCode, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  5. RyanBlank

    RyanBlank Guest

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    #5
    i just finished an article yesterday and it totaled about 1,600 words.. i was a bit iffy on the length so i had some people in the office read it. before they read it, i told them how long it was, and their faces cringed a bit. Their first instinct was to cut it down some. However, after they read, all replies said to keep as is.

    The article was lengthy because i didn't want readers to leave with more questions than they initially had before reading it. Making sure concepts were spelled out definitely added extra words. However, what i learned is if it flows, is easy to read.. and keep the readers attention it doesn't matter much either way. do what you need to do to get your point across.
     
    RyanBlank, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  6. AfterHim.com

    AfterHim.com Peon

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    #6
    It depends on teh goal of the article...SE visitors, or stickiness of those visitors
     
    AfterHim.com, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  7. DomainMagnate

    DomainMagnate Illustrious Member

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    #7
    Mostly SEO visitors I think..
     
    DomainMagnate, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  8. TheNetCode

    TheNetCode Peon

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    #8
    You have to guage the article to the types of readers you are targeting. If you are supplying a RSS feed then the articles should be from about 800 words to 1500 words give or take some. If you are supplying informative articles on how to do something then your minimum should be 1500 and max 5000. The average is around 3000 words. Remember above all else to give them quality as this is what they will look for. If you give them an article full of useless information and spelling errors they will remember this. You will make some mistakes so just admit it and make your adjustments. Best way to track your article size is using your word count feature that comes with most word processers.

    Kevin
     
    TheNetCode, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  9. AfterHim.com

    AfterHim.com Peon

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    #9
    If you want Se visitors, I would say long articles...they will have more keywords.

    if you have a site about widgets and you happen to mention the phrase "short hair" and someone searches for "short widgets" you have a better chance of getting that visitor...
     
    AfterHim.com, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  10. nohaber

    nohaber Well-Known Member

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    #10
    Long articles work better, imo.
    1. In a longer article you can put more instances of important keywords
    2. Longer articles have more potential keyword combinations and may rank for a bigger number of keywords
    3. Longer articles are usually of higher quality (better explanations, more info etc.). Higher quality = more sales, more links, better reputation etc.
     
    nohaber, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  11. I. Brian

    I. Brian Business consultant

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    #11
    It's not just length that's a concern, either - ensure an article has a logical structure, ie:

    Also, strong tag important document phrases, and also don;t be afraid to have lists.

    Proper structure in a document IMO is a very important part of the process, not simply because you can add a range of keywords in the h tags, but also because SE's may recognise the use heirarchy as more valued than a flat article. And in SEO, if there's even a small possible advantage, it needs to be grasped.
     
    I. Brian, Oct 7, 2005 IP
  12. TheNetCode

    TheNetCode Peon

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    #12
    Yes this is true. If you have no structure it will be nothing more than a jumbled mess.
     
    TheNetCode, Oct 7, 2005 IP