5 Factors To Determine Your Ideal Content Length
When publishing content online how do you determine the ideal content length for a post? These 5 factors will help you decide.
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There are several factors that you need to consider when optimizing any online article, and the ideal content length is one of the most important when it comes to SEO.
Professional writers use content length to get better rankings on the search engines. But how do they do it? Is it simply a matter of content length?
The content length alone isn’t enough — you need to ensure that the ideal length of your content establishes your post as an authority on the topic. This is what creates rankings that last.
Many online publishers try to bulk up content by adding fluff or filler that really doesn’t add anything for the reader. And the others make it too short that even the intent of the topic doesn’t get covered. Both of these are BIG problems.
To optimize your content, you have to be precise and to the point with your ideas while providing enough insight into a specific topic that a viewer doesn’t need to search elsewhere for answers.
How Does Word Count Play into Content Length?
When writers don’t set a word count limit in the content, it becomes more difficult for them to focus on the length.
Either they make it too long that the readers get bored while reading the lines. Or in the other situation, they make the text very short that the reader becomes unable to find the answer.
SEO writers always set a word count length before starting to write. It makes it easy for them to keep the content to the point and helps them keep away from irrelevant text.
It’s easy to upload content in an online word counter and check the total number of characters and keyword density. Many online platforms such as WordPress have plugins built in to do this for you on the fly.
With the help of online word counters, you can check how many words you have added to a specific section of the content. These tools also tell the total number of sentences present in the article making it much easier for you to determine what might be effective for SEO.
Determining the Ideal Length for Content
If we look for the ideal length of any blog or article, it varies everywhere.
What you need to keep in mind is this one goal — answer your readers point of concern.
The main purpose of setting the word count target is that you can keep your topic to the point and eliminate extraneous copy that could distract a reader. Let’s talk about it with an example.
Suppose you are asked to write an article on the best mobile phones in the market.
What do you do first? Search for best mobiles phones online and add them to your content?
That would be silly, right? You need to make sure that whatever you publish is better than what is already ranking in search. You’re going to need to provide some type of added value, so find out what’s missing in the currently ranking posts and improve on it.
So in this example we would find this post,
I’m not going to lie, this would be a hard post to knock off the SERPS. It’s current. It’s in-depth. It has detailed reviews, and it has 4,429 words!
This right off the bat tells you that you’re going to need a substantially lengthy piece of content that brings value. In a scenario like this — you’re going to want to take an alternate approach. Instead of writing another piece of content on the best mobile phones on the market, you may want to explore variations on that topic such as;
- The most stylish mobile phones for women
- What mobile phones work best for publishers on the go?
- What mobile phones have the fewest security risks?
Essential Factors for Ideal Content Length
To determine the ideal length of content, there are numerous factors that you need to consider.
Here we will talk about the most important factors that users need to consider in order to determine the ideal length of content.
1. Make Clear Topical Sections
The first and most important thing to limit your word count is that you have to make clear sections of your topic. This is essential for online publishing. Viewers online take in content differently and need to be able to quickly scroll down sections of content.
When it comes to UX-centric writing and content creation, your creative process should be centered on accessibility and usability. This will allow you to attract far more traffic as a result of user-friendly UX writing instead of an emphasis on complex wording or technical jargon. Clearer content will always be more appealing to an online audience and allow you to grow in popularity.
2. Keep the Topic to the Point
The main concern of your reader will be to get the answer directly. Everyone loves skimming while reading content.
Knowing to whom you’re talking is incredibly important when writing anything, but especially online content. This is an age of distraction and temptation, so your words need to grab the reader’s attention and make them keep reading, instead to scrolling to the next article or clicking away.
Reading other work that is aimed at a similar target audience can help give you inspiration and encouragement and nudge you in the correct direction regarding writing techniques such as vocabulary, length and structure. Depending on what you are writing, it can be great to add your own influence on your work, to make sure people know you write it.
3. Focus on Relevant Examples
Let’s say you have a topic that can’t be explained without examples and you also have to cover the content in limited words. What will you do?
Obviously, you have to add the relevant examples. But the element that you have to remember is that examples should be brief and relevant to the topic.
Avoid adding too many samples. Go to the search engine and look for the best case that you can add to the content to engage your reader.
Give one or maximum two examples in the entire content as it is enough to convey your message to the readers.
4. Avoid Keyword Stuffing
One important factor to make the length ideal – you have to get away from keyword stuffing. There are cases where writers add keywords in the content several times.
No doubt, content gets ranked due to keywords. But using them too much can totally defeat everything you’re trying to achieve.
Understanding your subject matter is vital to keep your writing correct and accurate. You may find yourself doing extra research to develop your knowledge on a subject or fact-checking things you thought you knew. Educating yourself and gaining experience is never a bad idea, but it can take a lot of extra time and effort. Planning your work and writing can help break down the task, and make it seem less overwhelming. However, you like to plan; lists, bullet points or diagrams, keep clear and detailed notes on your subjects to ensure that your writing is as informative as possible to shape the ideal length of content.
5. Offer More Than Words
Most great content has visual examples. A single picture can explain so much and helps support whatever written content you have. Or even simple graphics like the one below can help engage your viewer, especially when relevant. The example below may be relevant to understanding your content pipeline and the process of content creation including all its steps and stages. A content pipeline allows you to optimize your content process, cutting off any dead weight or improving it.
People vector created by stories – www.freepik.com
Colors are also an important part of digital content, despite your words being the primary convincing factor for future customers. Using color psychology in your marketing and web design is an extremely important part of CRO.
Different colors will affect your readers in different ways and either drive them to buy products or add to your bounce rate. Colors are best used when combined with calls to action, such as by using green shades with a discount or conversion-centric calls to action.
Final Words
To get optimized content that can rank better on the search engines, it is necessary to make it brief and descriptive while nailing your ideal content length.
There are several factors that users need to consider when it comes to understanding what the ideas content length is and we’ve tried to cover them in this post. If you find yourself in need of more tips on crafting content or determining your ideal content length, make sure to check out some of these other posts.
