2,500 Word blog post? What's your advice?
-
Most of my blog posts end up being 400-600 words, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have written one that is 2,500 words this time. If it were you, would you make one huge post, or split it into two or three? Or would you say it wholly depends on my site and the type of content?
As far as link bait goes, one page is better . . . I guess. But would anyone ever read a 2,500 word blog post, even it it's about a subject he/she is interested in? Additionally, what's better for SEO?
Just wants some second opinions. Thanks!
-
Thanks, everyone, for your responses. My gut was telling me to keep it in tact. Thanks for confirming it.
-
I have lots of articles of various lengths on my website.
I have also been improving lots of short content that was written a few years ago.
The articles that perform best are those that make a very detailed presentation about the topic and are long enough to address the most important subtopics that you would find doing keyword research. These typically go a minimum of 1000 words and can be as long as several thousand - in addition they have many photos, sometimes graphs, sometimes data tables or a video.
These long articles rank well and get LOTS of long tail keyword traffic. Think about it... there are a large number of different relevant words on the page and I addressed all of the major keyword topics for the subject area.
Years ago I tossed up a lot of short pages that have 30 to 50 words and a photo about a topic, then a couple years later I upgraded them to a couple hundred words and a couple photos, now I am making them 1000-3000 words and 6 to 12 photos. With each improvement rankings improved and long tail traffic exploded.
I don't break the long articles into several pages - that would kill a lot of the long tail keyword combinations, the article would not be as impressive in presentation, and don't you hate clicking through those long articles that span a dozen pages that are very slow to load?
Even if the article is monetized on the basis of pageviews I believe that the improved rankings and traffic will make up for the pageview loss. Plus the increased sharing will be a bonus.
-
For SEOmoz, I know some of our most popular (in terms of thumbs and comments) posts have been well over 2000 words. Adam, I don't have that post. What I do have is a roundup of 2011 posts by likes, tweets, etc. and you can look at those individually and see length (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-best-of-2011-posts-people-who-rocked-our-world).
I'd look more, but I've got a backlog of other Q&A questions due to being on the road. Driving from SF to Seattle today and tomorrow. Halfway there, and way behind on email and Q&A.
-
If it's monetized based on page views then serialize it.
If it's for link bait, it's riveting to read and highly relevant then take a chance and put it up intact. I think you probably already know if it's good enough for this.
-
I'm known for my verbose writing, and even I try to keep my articles under 1,000 words. My best series though, on SEO audits, was four articles that averaged 1500 words each. It was a very focused technical series though - something that people were willing to take the time to read as each new part was published.
The problem with very long articles is keeping people's attention in today's multitasking world.
-
I think it depends on your site, the content, how intuitive it would be to split the article, etc.
I think SEOmoz had done an analysis awhile back that looked at which blog posts got the most links. Length of article was one of the factors they looked at, I think. Alas, I can't find that article now, though. Anyone else have the URL?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Updating blogs - SEO best practice
Thinking of new blog content and one option obviously is to check out historical popular blogposts via Analytics and do fresh versions of those. So my question is what is best practice: 1. Copy and paste the old blogpost copy but edit it to be slightly different while still having the old blogpost live or 2. just update the old one and re-promote I assume it's better to have a new version of the blogpost?
Content Development | | digitalbua1 -
Blog on domain or sub-domain
Hi, I am looking to incorporate a blog that currently sits on another domain into my site. I am not sure whether to do this as part of my domain or as a sub-domain e.g. mydomain.com.au/blog blog.mydomain.com.au I can see the benefits from an SEO perspective for both but just wanted some advice on the best way to go.
Content Development | | landonkahn0 -
I started a Wordpress blog, google indexed it...
How long before I can see those links show up in SEO Moz for my website? What elements is SEO Moz looking for before they add the wordpress site to my linking domains report? Regards, Jeff
Content Development | | biggieshaws0 -
Blog on a separate domain
We want to set up a blog to discuss our industry. Is it better to set-up the blog on a domain that we buy and then link to it from our website or set-up a blog on a posterous account or something with a link?
Content Development | | AAttias0 -
Can having similar content on my company's two sites hurt our rankings?
We have a very successful website that has been up for a number of years (www.comellaortho.com). We rank high in the natural rankings for that site. A few months ago, we started seeing patients in another nearby city. I purchased a new domain name, www.dansvilleortho.com, and had our web company duplicate the website under the new domain name. The reality is that the content on these two sites are nearly identical. Some of the pages are different; for example, there are fewer pages on the new site. But the pages that do exist are nearly identical. My question is: Can having similar content on my company's two sites hurt our rankings? Based on what I've read thus far, I believe the answer is "Yes". However, I'm curious how bad this may hurt us. I'm not as worried about the new site (dansvilleortho.com) because our competition in that city is slim to none. But I AM worried about harming the original site/business (comellaortho.com). Which site(s) rankings may be affected by this, and if so, how bad? Thank you.
Content Development | | comellortho0 -
Wordpress blog, transferring .com to .org
For many years now we've had a wordpress.com blog, and accumulated a lot of links from it as a result. We now have a wordpress.org blog and are keen to move all the old posts on to the new .org site. How can this be done without losing the links from the old .com blog? Thanks in advance.
Content Development | | copywritingbuzz0 -
Someone wants to syndicate my content but I'm afraid
I GOT THE FOLLOWING EMAIL: Hi, I visited your site and would like to connect regarding nSphere syndicating your content into our search platform. We are interested in syndicating your content into our network. There’s no cost for this, we ask you to place a module on your site that reads your content and syndicates it into our network of millions of users. You only need to place a simple JavaScript code on your site. I have the code, but I would like to speak or email with you first. This module acts as search tool for your users as well. Can you email me or send me your number and a good day/time to connect? Thank you in advance.
Content Development | | UnderRugSwept
Matthew Mantyla | nSphere
Director of Media Integration I'M AFRAID OF DUPLICATE CONTENT. SHOULD I JUST IGNORE THIS; IS IT SPAM; OR COULD THIS BE AN OPPORTUNITY? I'M THINKING I SHOULD BE SUSPICIOUS OF THE FACT THAT HE DIDN'T EVEN PROVIDE A URL.0 -
Company Blog Killing our Rankings?
Our product is organic, eco, natural etc. Our blog covers organic, eco, natural culture. Sounds like a winner right? But what if we sold jars and our blog rarely talked about jars because jars are Boring? In webmaster tools, our keyword significance for the word organic is ranked 1st but for the word jars we're ranked 41st . Should i be placing our blog on a subdomain to make sure Google starts placing more emphasis on our jars? ie content on our site rather than content on our blog?
Content Development | | schmeetz0