Whether you outsource copywriting or write it yourself, you've probably wondered more than once how many characters they should have in order to rank well in a search engine. Content marketing is a reliable support and action partner SEO. Without valuable content, it is almost impossible to achieve high rankings in Google. Website traffic, building an expert image, acquiring leads - all of this can be worked on with content marketing. However, does the volume of texts count in addition to their content? Is it possible to define their ideal length? Answers to these questions can be found below.
What is the ideal text length? The case for the detective
You've probably typed queries on the web like "what length should the sponsored article" and you have been frustrated by the ubiquitous answer - it depends. Why do you usually get just such a - completely useless from your point of view - answer? Because when creating a text for the web, care should be taken to ensure that both users and search engine robots are happy with it. Google does not give strict guidelines on how long a type of content should be. Neither can there be a single ideal length for users - it will vary, for example, according to the subject matter covered or the format chosen. Therefore, the answer "it depends" is not at all a conspiracy of specialists who are secretly hiding the recipe for the ideal text. A universal ideal length simply does not exist.
Instead, there is a way to determine the optimal length. Read on to find out how to do this for the different types of content published on the web.
Types of content published on the web
It is important to know exactly what kind of text you are getting behind writing, as each type of content has its own characteristics. Also because of the optimum length.
Blog article
Blog is a space that allows companies to achieve multiple objectives. First and foremost, it is a platform for communication with potential customers. The blog showcases not only the company itself, but also the expertise of the people behind it. By posting articles on your company's blog that demonstrate your competence, you build an image as an expert and thus gain the trust of site visitors. This is a benefit that blog gives from the - let's call it - 'human' side. But what does a blog do for online visibility?
It's simple, the more posts you have, the more opportunity you have to reach new customers who may be looking for answers to specific queries or help with a particular topic. By writing an article for specific phrases (preferably long tail), you compound your chances of increasing traffic. What's more, each blog post is a new subpage. By publishing it, you expand the website.
How long should a blog article be?
A blog article should be a comprehensive approach to an issue. Of course, you don't have to write content that will take the viewer an hour to read every time. However, try not to write texts shorter than 800 words. Also consider that texts of 1500+ (words) are more likely to be shared.
There is currently a trend in the search engine in the context of blog articles, which can be described as "the more, the better". Given that you should take your competitors' actions into account when determining the optimal length of your content, it is better to bet on longer forms. An interesting study in the context of the length of blog posts was made available by the Medium platform. According to them, the optimal length of a post is 1,600 words, because that is how much a person is able to read in seven minutes. After this time, the focus of the recipient decreases.
Other results are given by our native analysts. According to them, the optimal texts in Polish are those with 400-500 words. As you can see, the discrepancy is really big. Therefore, the unfortunate answer "it depends" is inevitable. Above all, remember to treat the subject matter comprehensively and include in the content all the information that the user entering the query is looking for.
Sponsored article
This type of article is a type of non-invasive online advertising. Its importance is growing because traditional advertising is increasingly counterproductive. Anything even remotely resembling it is ignored by audiences. Particularly by the younger generation. This is the effect of so-called banner blindness. The aim of paid-for content published on external portals is to provide knowledge in a particular area and, as if in passing, to present a product/service.
A standard sponsored article is around 2500-4000 zzs. But again - the length of the text should be enough to exhaust the topic covered. If the topic is extensive, write several articles, each focusing on a different aspect.
To determine the optimum article length:
type the phrase for which you want to be optimised into Google
check how many characters/ words the texts in the TOP10 have
write a text of approximately average length
Category and product descriptions
Properly structured product and category descriptions are important for every online shop. They carry value not only for the user. Well drafted descriptions also support SEO. Their content must be unique, contain important keywords, subheadings and internal linking.
Read also: Silos - a way to structure your website
The shops' websites offer:
category descriptions ranging from 1,000 to as much as 8,000-1,000 zzs in length
product descriptions from 5,000 to even 5,000 zzs in length
Remember, the longer you write the text, the more keyword phrases and links you will include naturally. Therefore, if you are an online shop owner and you care about visibility, the only thing that limits you is the budget you can allocate for texts.
Social media posts
Social media posts are not a monolith. Here, the optimum length of texts will also be influenced by your marketing objective for the post. If you are publishing a slogan or text that is intended to go viral, it is important to be concise. Sometimes 100-200 characters with spaces are enough to convey the essence of the brand. On the other hand, if you are creating a post of a specialised, educational nature to build brand image, it can be as short as approx. 2500 s.
Of course, when writing a post, it should also be tailored to the specifics of the platform and its guidelines. You will find information on post length limits here.
How do I check how many characters a text has?
To check the number of characters in Word, in the selected document press "words" in the bottom left corner. A dialog box will open "Word statistics".. There you will find information about pages, paragraphs, words, characters without and with spaces. If you are working with Google documents, select "Tools" → "Number of words" from the top bar. → "Word count".
Text length and search engine success - summary
Unfortunately. There is no magic, universal formula, no formula from which you can calculate the best (read: most effective) length of texts for the web. Of course, there are studies, statistics and conventional guidelines to guide you. These are useful guidelines, but they are only one component to consider when preparing content. Therefore, before you start writing, do your research. Find out how your competitors who rank in the top ten positions on Google have approached the issue. Prepare a publication framework to make sure you cover all the relevant issues.
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