What is the Ideal Content Length for SEO?

How important is article length when it comes to SEO? It’s a commonly debated subject and one that doesn’t come with a simple answer. The reality is it depends. There are a lot of factors that go into it – the audience, subject matter, target keywords and competition – to name a few.

The most important consideration is … does the content effectively answer the query?

With attention spans declining, some people logically assume shorter content is more likely to be read, and therefore provides a better user experience.

If your goal is to get a simple, single message across, then a quick hitting post is often best. There is no reason to add a lot of fluff just for the sake of boosting word count.

Some topics and formats do lend themselves better to shorter form. Listicles, infographics and social posts are great examples in which less is usually more.

But if you’re looking rank high for a topic or keyword that requires more substance, evidence or can have varying viewpoints or has competing long-form content, longer is generally preferred.

There is a strong correlation between article length and high search rankings. While there is no official minimum word count, numerous studies have shown that articles with 2,000+ words are the ones that dominate the top 10 results in Google, as illustrated in the following Moz chart.

An article’s length is not the reason it ranks high, but a byproduct. In other words, Google doesn’t decide a page’s ranking by simply looking at its word count.

So what are the key factors that push longer content up in Google’s rankings?

Google’s RankBrain Algorithm and Dwell Time

Google’s RankBrain is a machine learning algorithm used to sort search results and better understand search queries. RankBrain is Google’s third most important ranking signal (behind Content Quality and Backlinks). It has two key functions.

Helping Google understand the intent behind search queries.
Measuring how users interact with the results (A.K.A. User Satisfaction).
One of the key metrics Google applies to measure user satisfaction with its search results is Dwell time. Dwell time is the amount of time a user spends on a web page when they clicked on a link in search results, before returning to the results listing.

Often mistaken for bounce rate, which is the percentage of users who don’t visit a second page on a site, Dwell time tells Google whether you spent 5 minutes or 5 seconds on a page before clicking back to the SERPs. Bounce rate doesn’t measure time on the page, only that you “bounced” off the site before visiting another page. It can be misleading metric, especially in assessing content.

So how does dwell time tie back to content length? If structured in an easy-to-read format, longer posts should keep you on the page longer. A short Dwell time tells Google your page was either irrelevant to the search query or just not good, which runs counter to Google’s goal of providing users with the best possible results.

Pages listed in search results that have more success with users (higher dwell times) get rewarded with higher rankings.

Longer Content = More Backlinks

Longer content has been proven to generate more backlinks than shorter content.

A study of more than 912 million blog posts by BuzzSumo and Backlinko found content longer than 3,000 words gets an average of 77.2% more referring domain links than content shorter than 1,000 words.

Another study from Semrush revealed that pages that are 3,000+ words in length earn 3.5x as many links than those of an average length of between 901 and 1200 words.

Why? Long-form content stands out from the glut of shorter articles found across the Web. Longer content is generally more comprehensive and useful, and therefore perceived to be more valuable and worth linking to. Site owners that link to other sites are trying to add value to their users so they will obviously seek out the best content available.

Google also understands users prefer to find as much information as possible in one place, instead of pulling small snippets from a lot of different sites. In some instances, deep dive content, such as whitepapers and ebooks, can serve as excellent all-in-one resources for answering more complex queries.

Longer form content is also more likely to provide a more complete picture by offering different perspectives on a particular subject or a bulleted list of pros vs. cons.

Longer Content is More Shareworthy

Although the correlation isn’t as strong as it is with backlinks, the BuzzSumo/Backlinko study also found that longer content results in more social shares. In fact, blog posts with a length between 3,000 and 10,000-words got the maximum number of social shares, based on their 2019 study.

Even in a short-form channel like social media, users tend to share longer-form content.

Again, it come down to providing their followers with content that adds some type of unique value. The supply of content with less than 1,000 words is 16 times greater than content with 2,000+ words. So, in most cases, which is more like to stand out and rise above the noise? A well-researched 5,000-word ebook or 500-word blog post.

While longer content isn’t always better, it is more likely to distinguish you from the short-form masses. The amount time and effort involved in developing in-depth content is the barrier for many people. Like most things in marketing, if you can raise the bar in a way that resonates with your audience and positions you as authority, you’re chances for success increase exponentially.