What length of texts do you feel most comfortable in?

[dannyx]

Probably most of us write the texts for our sites ourselves.

My question is what length of texts do you feel most comfortable with? Short succinct ones or long exhaustive ones?

It is known that a lot depends on the topic. However, you can also look at it on the basis of whether you prefer to describe long topics or short ones.

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Personally, the thought of too much text, makes me feel like my audience won't be bothered to go through all of that reading. I keep in mind the 'too long, didn't read' rule of thumb. At the same time, I think it's important to stick to the relevancy of the text and to get to the crux of it. Hope that helps you.

[universal4]

Agreed some topics may warrant longer text, but I also think there is a point where an article can end up being too long.

If you can make your point in 500 words, adding more filler to get it to the 1000 word mark is not logical and to add even more words in to make it to the 2000 word mark is no longer about making a point.

This is possibly a good discussion because I think many of us can agree, if the article is one that has a lot of data to be presented such as some sort of stats or results of something that is closely related to the topic, we need not fear crossing 1000 words or more.

However, I think it is easy to see that a 2000 word or 3000 word article can be far more difficult to read, as well as comprehend when it is full of points being stated over and over in different ways.

In other words, keep my attention, keep it fresh I'll keep reading if the topic interests me, but say the same thing you said in the 1st and the 3rd paragraph again in the 5th or 6th and I will lose interest.

I think part of the length question, is partially answered by the quality question.

When it comes to the writing part, I never look at the # of words until the article is done or at least close to done and ready for a wrap up.

When I order articles from others, I usually suggest a general length, but always ask for less repetition and request certain points to be covered and the # of words is not relevant if the points are made.

Rick
Universal4

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For me, the ideal length ranges from 600 to 1000 words. Of course, there are exceptions, but if I feel that I'm not able to reach 600 usually it's an indicator that I should do more research or take a different approach to the topic.

On the other hand, if I feel like I'm writing an endless text, it could be because I'm not prioritizing what's important to the reader or the text deserve a second part.

[dannyx]

I think a lot of people try to extend articles assuming it is an important ranking factor. Although google denies it, SEO plugins encourage long texts.
Because of this, I often encounter what Universal mentioned, i.e. many paragraphs are basically the same thing.

I personally also feel most comfortable with articles around 1000 words. I have different sub-pages and those of 500 words and those of 4000, it depends on the topic.

[eenzoo]

From the writers point of view I have no idea, never wrote more than a teaser on my own.
But from the technical and seo point you shouldn't think you can rank with 600 words on a topic the average top10 (ranking) site comes with 2.500.
So the question here is not your comfort but Google's expectations.

[chaumi]

So the question here is not your comfort but Google's expectations.

This. Precisely.

With the proviso that everything is a guide. For example, if the top ranking page for a term currently has 1500 words, and all the rest of the ranking pages come out at an average of 1500 words, it doesn't mean that you have to be 1500 words. Because it could be that none of those pages were really good enough, and the subject needs 2000 words. Just no one did it good enough yet.

Equally, in that example, if you can answer the query in 900 words better than everyone else did, then 900 might crack it.

Overall,it's not about what you are comfortable with or not, it's about answering the query in as many words as it takes to answer it 'perfectly', while also trying to keep it as succinct as possible - (one area that AI currently definitely falls down on).

[Parth84]

It has to be anywhere from 400+ to 1,500 words for sure.

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So the question here is not your comfort but Google's expectations.

This is a VITAL distinction (and a personal reminder, I have to admit). What I feel comfortable with is one thing and what works is quite another.

[PaulEchere]

eenzoo raised a good point, you probably don't want to bloat your content size just for the sake of it.

That said, depending on the topic, there are definitely ways to zoom into many relevant details. From a user experience / navigation standpoint too much content can be an issue, however structuring it well and implementing TOCs should help with that.

Again, the other thing you should consider is who you are competing with. If all the top ranking websites have 3000+ word detailed pages, you might want to aim at something similar. Ranking for such a term with thin content is still possible, but you'd have to be a very high authority source.

[onlinebetdotcom]

SEO writing tools such as Surfer seo tell you that short articles are likely not going to rank. They match your target keywords and match against your competition.

Surprising to read most votes are for under 1000 words

[dannyx]

That said, depending on the topic, there are definitely ways to zoom into many relevant details. From a user experience / navigation standpoint too much content can be an issue, however structuring it well and implementing TOCs should help with that.

A good way to improve UX is to hide text behind tabs and accordion