Content. We talk about content a lot; you probably read everywhere that content is king and your focus should be on content. Content does need to be a big focus, the most common question time and time again is how long should my content be.
How long should my content be?
Now you would think that there would be a simple answer, but nothing is ever really ‘simple’ when you have Google involved. Think of all of the big players in the game, the most technical SEO and content giants in the industry, SEMRUsh Moz, Neil Patel and Backlinko, you would think from the vast studies they have done on millions of search results that they would have a concise answer. Wouldn’t you? Well thus far their conclusions have been drawn and it falls within the Bell curve – in simple terms, there are many determining factors considered and therefore many answers to this question.
If you still wish to search, then typing into google “any of the big leagues names with content length” is your best bet. What has been taken away from these studies is that generally speaking 1 thousand words and above ranks better, 2 thousand and above being even better.
There we should have the answer, but of course it is not quite that simple. It differs not only industry to industry as Neil Patel stated, but on how well the piece is written. The average read time should be around 7 minutes, typically 1600 words, then add in the factors of page load time, user experience and how many images you have.
If we had to summarise this wildly inconclusive conclusion that has been drawn, our recommendations to you would be;
Use your tools! Find out, on average how many words the top ten results have. Your tools will tell you a lot about why these pieces are ranking. Use this knowledge and reverse engineer and apply it to your content. You can outsource your content creation, or if you’re up to the task, write something engaging about your chosen topic yourself – make it engaging, helpful and relevant!
Passage Based Ranking
The end of 2020 saw the rolling out of Google’s Passage based ranking. It used to be that Google would index pages to display in the SERP’s, but with passage ranking, Google can now decide which sections are most relevant and display those passages, those passages determine rank.
As always, this change is new and it is too early to comment on what sort of impact this is going to have. Only time will tell and when we know, expect a blog informing you.
Recent Changes in Google SERPs
Image Search
Google doesn’t like when you have duplicate content, we all know that. And this update is them practicing what they preach. The image update has seen google drastically cutting down their duplicate image search results with a handy little tool you might have noticed under the search bar, this tool helps to narrow down your search and find what you’re looking for.
Google’s John Mueller on Image SEO;
- Add images that add value to your content
- Titles alongside your image adds relevance
- Placement is important
- Place image near the most relevant content
- Place the most important image near the top of your page
- Alt Attributes
- Use descriptive Alt attributes – don’t keyword stuff
- Use captions as you would al attributes
- High quality images – When the image is high quality, naturally the thumbnail version in the results is crisp and clear
- Check your display on ALL SCREEN SIZES, great web design is key
Those are the three SEO updates for this week and as always, there will be changes in this ever evolving SEO landscape, as we become aware, we will let you know.