{"id":13613,"date":"2020-09-16T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T09:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/?p=13613"},"modified":"2023-12-04T15:48:06","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T15:48:06","slug":"john-mueller-talks-about-content-word-count-and-search-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/john-mueller-talks-about-content-word-count-and-search-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"John Mueller Talks About Content, Word Count, & Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you need 3,000-word content to rank on the top of Google\u2019s first page? Or will a 700-word blog post do just fine?<\/span><\/p>\n

Is the quality of information more important than the number of words a web page has? What does the evidence suggest?<\/span><\/p>\n

These are some of the many questions that content marketers and SEO professionals often think about. Recent evidence suggests that Google prefers long-form content in the search engine results pages, and that\u2019s the type of content that usually gets ranked on Google\u2019s first page.<\/span><\/p>\n

But does the search engine algorithm really work that way?<\/span><\/p>\n

Google\u2019s John Mueller recently responded to a question on Twitter and clarified some of these burning questions.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What Did John Mueller\u00a0Say\u00a0About Word Count?<\/span><\/h2>\n

A Twitter user analysed the competition in the SERPs, checked the average word count, and asked the following question:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if I’m covering more information in less words than competitors. What [does] Google think about word count?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Responding to this Twitter, John Mueller posed the following question:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would a search engine use word count as a metric?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

This is rather surprising.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we mentioned earlier, recent evidence suggests that Google ranks pages with high word count. According to a recent study by Backlinko, <\/span>the average word count in articles that rank on Google\u2019s first page is 1,447<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"how-word-count-effects-seo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another interesting tidbit is that in Google\u2019s SEO Starter Guide, Google mentions that content should be <\/span>\u201cfactually accurate, clearly written, and comprehensive.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Moreover, the word \u201ccomprehensive\u201d is mentioned 30 times in <\/span>Google\u2019s Quality Rater Guidelines<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As you can see, the \u201ccomprehensive content syndrome\u201d isn\u2019t completely unjustified. However, John Mueller mentioned that the comprehensiveness of a web page does not depend on the total number of words.<\/span><\/p>\n

John also explicitly clarified that Google does not use word count as a ranking factor.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"google-john-mueller-on-word-count\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mueller also mentioned another important point.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to him, not all pieces of content need to be \u201ccomprehensive\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some questions just require a direct, quick, and simple answer. In that case, not all pages need to be comprehensive.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"why-does-word-count-matter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Summary<\/b><\/h2>\n

If we are to summarise this entire \u201cexplanation\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Google does not use word count as a ranking factor<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The content should be comprehensive, factually accurate, and clearly written. That\u2019s more important than artificially increasing the word count.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Lastly, not all questions need a 4,000-word answer. Sometimes, a simple answer will rank higher because it helps users in a better way.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Do you need 3,000-word content to rank on the top of Google\u2019s first page? Or will a 700-word blog post do just fine? Is the quality of information more important than the number of words a web page has? What does the evidence suggest? These are some of the many questions that content marketers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":17866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oct_exclude_from_cache":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Mueller Talks About Content, Word Count, & Rankings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google seems to prefer ranking long-form content, but does the algorithm really work that way? 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