Hi all, Will low word count in an article result in slower pick up rate by the search engine? Terence
Most searches show that the first page of Google search results usually has things within the 1000-500 word range. This isn't exactly what you were asking about, but it goes to show that length isn't everything. However, the short answer is — no, length does not affect the pick-up rate.
I had recently taken up a personal SERP analysis where I found that for most keywords the blogs on the first few pages had a high word count, the average being aroun 500 to 700. However, this wasn't really the factor that ranked them in the first few pages. They had high domain authority ranks in common (it is a moz score). This means that these sites had higher authority in their respective niches. I undertook this analysis for 24 keywords from multiple niches and those keywords had similar popularity range on when tested with Google webmaster tools. You can read the article by copy pasting this link onto your browser - http://blog.woorank.com/2013/10/google-serp-analysis-blog-length-affect-position-google-search/ Anyway, my conclusion with the extensive Google SERP analysis on word count on first five pages of search was that word count does matter to a certain extent but only if the content is worthwhile. And since the content is worthwhile the site delivering is usually acquires higher domain authority in the process thus making them pre-dominant in search results. You would also be interested to know that there were website homepages with words fewer than 200 featured in the first few pages of Google SERP. There was just one particular blog post which was under 200 word count and ranking in first page for its keyword. This might have been a glitch with the Google algorithms as the site had thin content in every other page. Also, there were articles with a lesser word count that contained a video that ranked high in SERPs. This clearly shows that the attraction factor of a content drives more traffic irrespective of how long or short it is. Bottom line - Word count does matter only if your content is liked by your users. A word count average of 500 is good enough, but if you can convey your point within 200 words and still manage to get maximum likes and shares by users (CONSISTENTLY) for many blog posts, you will still be able to rank high. It is all about how well researched and quality of content lies in your article rather than its length.
No, I never heard such things, But yes, the minimum word count of article should be minimum 300 words or +, as it looks good and natural.