{"id":117176,"date":"2019-07-23T12:45:20","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T04:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/?p=17176"},"modified":"2021-05-11T05:49:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T05:49:00","slug":"word-count-importance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/word-count-importance\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your Page’s Word Count Isn’t as Important as You Might Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the formula: the longer your page\u2019s word count is, the more chances it has to be successful in search. That\u2019s a common belief or statement in the SEO industry. That might have been true 2 to 3 years ago, but does it still hold effective up to today – amidst all the confirmed and unconfirmed algorithm updates rolled out by Google?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Updates<\/span> such as Medic<\/a>, January broad core<\/a>, March broad core, (announced) June broad core<\/a>, etc. have targeted a variety of factors. Most of them point to authority, expertise, trustworthiness, or better known as E-A-T<\/a>. Of course, the belief stems from the idea that the more words you have in your blog post, the more information it could contain. But the problem there is if the information contained is the one that the users are looking for when they input a specific search query\/keyword?<\/p>\n

Data on Long Form Content<\/span><\/h2>\n

Last 2016, Backlinko partnered with Clickstream to produce an awesome article called \u201c<\/span>We Analyzed 1 Million Google Search Results. Here\u2019s What We Learned About SEO<\/span><\/a>\u201d. It\u2019s a great read and I suggest you read it too since it\u2019s a useful resource to understand how search engines (Google) rank our pages. However, one key finding that took the SEO industry by surprise is this one:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Backlinko<\/p>\n

Since SEOs are adept at adjusting and adapting to sudden algorithm and foundational strategy changes, we all increased the word count of our pages to increase our chances of ranking on the first page.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the problem:<\/span><\/p>\n

That was way back in 2016<\/b><\/p>\n

3 years worth of algorithm changes, updates, and new factors have happened and I can\u2019t really expect this to work as great as it did back in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the date of the article seems to be the problem, then here\u2019s <\/span>another study<\/span><\/a> done by <\/span>Ahrefs<\/span><\/a> back in 2018 which says the same thing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ahrefs<\/p>\n

When SEOs read studies like these, we can\u2019t help but think that:<\/span><\/p>\n

Longer Content = Better Rankings<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

But that isn\u2019t necessarily true. I believe that longer content has higher backlink acquisition potential than shorter content and we all know how important backlinks are for SEO. To support this, Backlinko with Buzzsumo <\/span>conducted another study<\/span><\/a> that showed:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Backlinko<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s safe to conclude that having longer content doesn\u2019t automatically give you better rankings. It\u2019s about the backlink (as most of us experience) that the long form content gets. But there\u2019s still something missing for me with regards to the problem of long form content.<\/span><\/p>\n

Understanding User Intent and the Keywords They Use<\/span><\/h2>\n

For businesses, being visible in the search market is an important marketing tactic that enables them to improve awareness of their brand, increase lead generation and conversions. Which, for us SEOs, mean that we have to give our clients (the businesses) tangible results that benefit them. If we produce long form content for our clients that help them be more visible, but does not produce any tangible results that they\u2019re happy with, they\u2019ll still be still a dissatisfied client. This is where user intent, specifically, buyer keywords come into play. We have to make sure that our content (it doesn\u2019t matter if its long form or short form) targets the right intent.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are three buyer keywords we have to be mindful of:<\/span><\/p>\n