Does wordcount matter for online content?

Will the debate on wordcount ever end? It’s probably the wrong question to ask. Why satisfying search is everything and why short and long-form have their places. 

Between the two camps of thought, that shorter content is better than long-form, there’s a raft of  considerations.  

Short? Long…? Or in between…? 

The answer isn’t black or white. If there’s even an answer at all. Then again, it could be black or white, depending on the content you’re able to produce and what it’s supposed to provide to the user who’s typed their search into the engine. 

We’ll explain – it’s not that wordcount doesn’t matter, but it’s the wrong question.  

Even Google say wordcount is not a ranking factor 

It’s true, John Mueller confirmed some time ago that Google do not consider wordcount a quality factor.  

Then why are we even focusing on wordcount at all when simply adding wordcount to content, writing it to make it longer, is not, going to improve a page’s ranking? 

To quote: “just blindly adding text to a page doesn’t make it better”. 

What’s meant by this is that it’s relevance that really counts when it comes to rankings – not the number of words.  

But wait… relevance to what?  

The answer: relevance to search intent.  

Long-form still outperforms short 

This is also true. And there are many studies that show long-form outranks shorter content. But one of the reasons for this is not simply that it has extra words. Although search engines can rank longer content more easily since there’s more actual words to analyse and classify – if the words are relevant. 

Importantly, long-form tends to be more comprehensive, which is why it outperforms short-form. The important word here is ‘comprehensive’. In other words, the content must be relevant.  

The more comprehensively an article is in answering a question or exploring a topic posed, the better it will rank.  

A user also takes more time to read 2000 words than 200. Hence increasing the ranking for that page due to ‘time spent on page’. But again, the user is unlikely to stick around if the 2000 words are not relevant.  

It all comes back to relevance  

Relevance to search intent is everything. As well as backlinks, internal links and authority of sources used in the content.  

All things being equal between long and short - providing both offer the same high level of search intent satisfaction – long will always outperform. 

But long-form is not always the answer 

To further contradict what we’re saying (we did say there’s no back or white answer), there are pages where long-form content of thousands of words is just not appropriate, needed or wanted.  

• A visitor to your website does not want to read 2000 words on your content page about how to get in touch with you.  
• Product pages also tend to be expected by users to be short, targeted and specific with that product’s information and specifications only.   

Focus on keywords to answer search intent 

Satisfying search intent and structuring the answer around the keyword – preferably one – is the main factor causing content to rank higher. 

Structure – deliver the main information first 

If a user wants to know about cucumbers, your piece of content should be about cucumbers. The key facts and useful information the user is looking for (remember search intent) should be first.  

What frustrates users is finding what they think is the right content – i.e. cucumbers, only to find the first quarter of the content talks about apples and tomatoes. 

Similarly, if the content writer runs out of words about cucumbers and tries to boost wordcount with information about apples and tomatoes – that’s also going to cause frustration. 

Does wordcount matter? 

To summarise: wordcount matters in ranking terms, but not as a first consideration. Answering search intent usefully, comprehensively and clearly matter first and foremost.  

If you can make it longer, on a page where longer content is expected and desired, and you can maintain relevance, usefulness and clarity, you’re winning.  

Need help with online content and SEO? We can help.  

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