Does Length Of Content Affect Its Google Ranking?

In recent years, people have been claiming that the length of the content is affecting their Google Ranking. And if you Google Search any keyword, the first few articles will always be longer than 1500 words.

However, people are questioning it because there can be many other factors that, together with length could explain the popularity of longer articles. Some say that the length is solely responsible for their ranking while others claim that it’s more due to long articles being easier to optimize and pack more value into it.

So what is it: Does length matter or is it more about things that come with length?

What Have Case Studies Shown?

A study by Brian Dean from 2016 has done extensive research on what factors go into the Google Ranking of a certain article, and he has come up with the results that say that length does have a lot of impact on Google Ranking.

His graphs clearly show that articles of 1500 words or higher have the highest position on Google Rankings while shorter articles fall on the list.

Earlier research by Capsicum Mediaworks is the same, with the similar graph presented. However, as they go deeper into their research, they have concluded that this doesn’t play an exceptionally important role in Google Ranking. Popular sites simply write longer articles since they have more resources and, as SerpiQ says, there are even more factors other than the length that affects this.

Another study, done by CognitiveSEO, says that at least for the first five articles on the Google Search Engine Rankings, length does play a significant role.

The inevitable question is – who is right?

While most writing guides like State Of Writing and Academadvisor say that content needs to be brief to be read, what they mean is that it needs to be concise and that is an entirely different thing. Instead of going on and on about a topic without that having a certain purpose, the Google will not rank you well, and your article will hold no value.

Shelly Robins from UK Writings says

Remove all the redundancies from your text and make sure that it holds a lot of value and usefulness for your users. This is the only way to achieve success and a higher position on Google.

How To Get A Good Ranking?

Even though it might be tempting to go for lengthier articles solely for better Google Ranking, it might be better to focus on things that have proved useful before.

Here are some actionable steps you can take to have a higher ranking.

Optimize for SEO

This is the only surefire way to improve your ranking. Use relevant keywords, optimize your images and your website. All of your content should be optimized as well.

SEO optimization may sound hard at the beginning, but it’s a simple process of being available to people and allowing them to find you through adding keywords. Take a class if necessary or read one of the many articles available on this subject.

says Mindy Reddington from Australian Help.

Create quality content

This is the most important step. This way you will not only be able to gain attention but also retain it and generate more leads.

Use services for writing like Upwork and Big Assignments to improve your content. They can help you figure out what is the best style for you and how to find an attention-grabbing topic.

Our friends over at Time Doctor wrote a comprehensive review of Upwork titled Upwork Reviews: Is It Worth It? – definitely worth a read if you are thinking about using Upwork.

If you are more interested in working with a single writer long-term, you can find plenty of experts on various topics on Freelancer or Paper Fellows. They can provide you with great value and give you the best quality of work.

Check for plagiarism

In case that you do decide to hire services or writers, plagiarism checking is a necessity. This is a simple way to protect you and the others. Also, Google doesn’t look favorably upon those who plagiarize other’s content. Utilize services like Copyscape or Academized; they are available online and for free.

Format your content for scanners

People often don’t have time to read the entirety of your content, so they like to scan through to see the most important parts and the most prominent bits. This is why you should bold the most important parts, use bullet points, lists, subheadings and other formatting tools to help you out – you can also use Via Writing to do all of this for you.

Conclusion

After all of the research and studies conducted together with what we know from experience, it’s easy to conclude that length does have a lot to do with Google Ranking but only when combined with quality and sound optimization. Instead of focusing on length focus on that together with topical relevancy and your efforts will have amazing results.