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Content Length & Strategy | The Booster Seat Season 2 Episode 11

Hey there boosters, my name is Andrew Eagar and welcome to another edition of the Booster Seat. Today I would like to answer a common question we get in the SEO industry. And that is, how many words should I write for a page on my website?

For many of you that have been in the SEO industry for a few years, like I have, you know that the answer to this question has changed several times. Just in the last seven years we have seen major changes to the amount of content SEO’s recommend for pages.

From 2008 to 2010, I remember recommending 100 words of content for our customers. That’s right, they were simpler time back then. At the time and from our experience, 100 words was plenty. In 2013, this changed to a 200 word minimum, but you really need 250-plus. We added the “plus” assuming that would catch most scenarios. Starting in 2014, however, our strategy kind of changed.

Although we still recommend a minimum of 200 words, the answer of, “it depends” kind of took over. We determined that different businesses, verticals, locations and products should really determine the amount of content recommend to a business.
So, in short, is it 100, 200, 350, 500, 700? The answer is: none of them. Stop worrying about the numbers and start worrying about your users.

If you are concerned about users and visitors to your website, then everything else will take care of itself.   So, how do you write content that helps users?

Your content must be able to answer the following questions:

  1. What features or benefits help convince a prospective user to choose your company over others? Is you affordable price, your customer service, your timely response? Write those things that help you stick out from the crowd. Often times, you can figure out what it is that makes you so great, directly from your customers. Ask them this same question and they should be able to give you an answer. I would also add that this question helps if you are a local business targeting locations outside your physical location. Why would a potential user choose your company over the potentially dozens that they pass while going to your location?
  2. What is your company’s typical customer base? Is it that users are a certain age, within a certain geographical area? Are your typical customers all home owners? This question help you determine who the content is directed toward.
  3. If your company were a person, what sort of person would it be? You want to make sure your content reflects your business’s personality. Yes, businesses have personality and yours is no exception.
  4. What Action should you users take while visiting this page? This question is often answered at the beginning of your content.

Answer these questions for the content of every page on your website. If while reading through your website content you find areas where you don’t fully answer these questions, then that means that your content needs to be revised.

In addition to answering the questions for your content, there are two additional aspects of your content that could affect your content length.

  1. Your content should BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front). The action you want users to take should be right at the top. Prioritize your content with the most important information for your users at the top. Don’t force users who don’t want to read through all your content, read through all your content.
  2. The last thing I would mention is you would be surprised at how much content users are willing to read. Feel free to write a lot of content WHILE still remaining relevant and on topic.

Well, that’s if for this episode. Comment below if you have other ideas of how long your content should be. Stay Cool.

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7 Comments

  • Josh, April 27, 2015 @ 4:55 pm

    So the content should BLUF without ever bluffing, right? My lame attempt at humor at its best. 🙂

  • Maria Williams, April 28, 2015 @ 2:36 pm

    Great Article Andrew!

    It is very interesting how much the length of the content is been changing trough the years and now it’s good to have a good length but you also want to make sure that it’s relevant.

  • Andrew Williams, April 28, 2015 @ 3:27 pm

    As long as you can get your point across without resorting to using too much fluff then your on the right track. The more the better as long as it is relevant and not filler or repetitive.

  • Lindsey Potter, April 30, 2015 @ 9:44 am

    We always hear that content should be clear, concise, and relevant. As long as content is following those three guidelines we shouldn’t worry too much about the exact word length. The contribution and quality of the writing is more important than the length

  • John Coyle, July 1, 2015 @ 1:59 pm

    Another consideration is your linking strategy. If you are going to attempt link building on your content, you will have more success if your content is stellar. Length definitely plays a factor in that, but you can have really stellar content without a lot of words (for example visual content.)

  • Jamison Michael Furr, July 1, 2015 @ 2:18 pm

    Great point about visual content – seems like for whatever reason “content” is synonymous with “words” in the minds of many.

  • Robin Johnson, December 15, 2015 @ 5:26 pm

    Favorite sentence: “Stop worrying about the numbers and start worrying about your users…If you are concerned about users and visitors to your website, then everything else will take care of itself.”

    This is SO TRUE! User experience really is everything. It’s also important to consider the visual impact of content and how it’s organized on a page. This really affects user experience and bounce rate, and I think a lot of people forget to consider it. Instead they just kind of plop all of their content on there in one overwhelming lump. The same content, depending on how it’s styled, can make a page look a lot more inviting, which encourages people to stick around and actually read the stuff.

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