What You Need to Know about SEO Word Counts
When aiming for high search engine optimisation, it’s important to remember there is a minimum word count for specific types of content. Alongside this, there are proven word counts that you should aim to fill to improve your website rankings in the search engines.
Today’s article explains what you need to know about word counts and how they impact search engine optimisation. This guide will also give some insight into how long content should be in terms of SEO.
SEO Word Count
Some content types have varying word count recommendations. For example, a standard blog post should have at least 1000 words. Longer form content should have a count of 2000 words. The word count for news articles and product pages should be around 300-500 words.
These recommended limits will help push content to the top of search engines for relevant keywords.
Does Word Count Affect SEO?
According to Google, word count is not a direct factor in how your content ranks. Content with a higher word count does help when trying to rank higher in search engines, as there will be more keywords within the content. This means an increase in overall search engine visibility for a web page by helping it rank higher with more total search queries rather than a single keyword.
Although a higher word count allows for more keywords to be used, experts argue that there is no real need to add more words to boost SEO.
Essentially, this means that adding 1000 words of unrelated content to make an article longer than top-ranking competitors will not have any real impact on SEO performance or visibility. But, again, this is because additional words are not added to the expertise, trust or authority.
Writing long-form content will indeed make it easier for Google’s algorithm to work out the content and themes of your web page. However, you still need to publish comprehensive information as this will mean the content will have a position of authority and will enable web pages to rank for long tail keywords variation the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
What is the Minimum Word Count for SEO?
The minimum word count for SEO is 300. Therefore, for every web page optimised for SEO, you should use the 300 word limit as a guide to rank higher in the search engines for relevant keywords.
However, many search queries will require you to exceed the 300 word limit to rank content in higher search results. Therefore, meeting users’ search intent by writing in-depth about a topic is also an essential factor for ranking when selecting the SEO minimum word count.
Experts have worked out, based on average minimum word count, what are the best recommendations for common types of search engine optimised content:
- News Articles: 500 words minimum
- Blog Posts: 1000 words minimum
- Product Pages: 300 words minimum
- Review Content: 2000 words minimum
What Is the Best Word Count for SEO?
On average, the ideal word count for SEO is between 1000 and 2000 words. Yet, the most optimal word counts will depend on the topic, target keyword and unique need of that user.
Again, experts have a list of recommendations based on average word counts for in-depth search engine optimisation.
- News Articles: 500-800 words
- Blog Post: 1000-1500 words
- Product Pages: 300-500 words
- Review Content: 2000-3000 words