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6:36 pm
June 10, 2011
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QuoteHi John,
Supposedly search engines are currently favoring longer form articles (500+ words) to avoid giving rank to "article farms?" I'm wondering how that affects our own websites. I'm currently putting together a mini-site for one of my cds which is very genre specific to see if I can get ranking in a general search for that genre. I'm wondering whether it's best to create long form articles to ensure better ranking or if it's ok to have a combination.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Julianna
10:29 pm
June 10, 2011
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Steve Rodgers said:
Hi Julianna,
You will be just fine if the content you are posting is original. 🙂
Hey Steve, So in other words for your own site that's a non-issue? It's only for article marketing type sites where that's relevant?
3:57 am
June 7, 2011
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Hey Julianna,
It's a good question and I don't really know the answer if I'm to be honest. I have seen the shift towards longer articles taking pace within the directories and content farms, but my personal opinion is that user engagement is far more important. In other words if people read the content and interact with it by clicking links and/or leaving comments and social media nods, I think you'll be fine regardless of length. If Google only rewarded long content we wouldn't have as many forum and q&A sites showing up in the results as we do. When in doubt, offer quality.
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5:59 pm
June 9, 2011
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Julianna,
John brings up some really good points about visitor interaction. I was speaking from the standpoint that if the content you are creating is unique to your site, or originated from your site, google isn't going to whack you at all. They may take article length into consideration, but I agree with John, that length goes right out the window if people are either commenting on your site or actually visiting other pages and articles on your site.
As long as the articles aren't obviously spun (some spins I've seen are just aweful) or the site isn't made up of entirely other people's work (optimized for the same keywords), google is likely to not only not bother you, but actually reward you for putting out good content that people seem to engage with.
SEO is definitely not for the careless. Even though you can get some quick results with it, it's really a long-term strategy, so it pays to be original and interesting, rather than just posting things for the sake of having a few keywords sprinkled about.
Good luck with it. There are some other technical things that go into SEO, but once you understand them, the rest is simply writing good stuff. 🙂
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