How word count affects your search ranking and why longer content tends to rank higher in search engines
In recent years, we’ve seen plenty of studies on the relationship between word count and search ranking. The general consensus is that longer content tends to rank higher but this doesn’t tell the full story – after all, Google analyses hundreds of signals for each query.
In this article, we explain how word count really affects your search ranking and how you should approach content length in your SEO strategy.
Is word count a ranking factor?
No. Word count is not a ranking factor in whatsapp number database Google’s search algorithm and it wouldn’t make any sense to reward pages with higher word counts. Google spent years battling web spam, dodgy link building and low-quality content with algorithm updates, which would count for nothing if you could climb the SERPs by simply adding more words to a page.
If only SEO were that easy.
That said, word count not being a ranking factor itself doesn’t mean it isn’t important for SEO. In fact, word count has an indirect influence on a range of ranking factors and this is something you should consider with every piece of content you create.
How important is word count for SEO?
Word count may not be a ranking free mobile number database – free tips you must try first! factor but it can influence your search ranking in several, indirect ways. In recent years, there have been plenty of studies looking at the relationship between content length and search rankings and they all propose estimated word counts for high-ranking content:
- Yoast: 1,000+ words
- Backlinko: 1,447 words
- Search Engine Journal: 1,900 words
- Databox: 1,500-2,000 words
All of these studies point to the same thing:
that the average word count for content chine directory in the top ranking positions is generally between 1,000-2,000 words. But none of them offer any data that proves word count benefits the search ranking of those pages: all correlation and no causation.
In fairness, there are known benefits of higher word counts (in certain situations) but the priority is always what’s best for the end user. After all, if someone is searching for a quick answer to a question, why should they scroll through a 2,000-word essay to find the one sentence they’re looking for?