Recent Google algorithm updates – specifically, Panda and Penguin – targeted low value content, and some people think it took a hit out on short form content. In fact, a lot of websites with short content lost rankings for important keywords they were targeting. Was there a reason for that?
In truth, a lot of that short content was duplicate content across a website. For instance, shopping carts with product descriptions were almost verbatim except for the name of the products. That’s lazy content writing.
On the other hand, long content gives you plenty more search queries that you can rank for. That’s a lot more potential traffic. So that proves that long content is better, right?
Not necessarily. The length of your content doesn’t really matter. It matters in the sense that you can rank for more search queries with long content, but if that content isn’t high quality content that people want to read, then it doesn’t matter. People might click on the search engine link, but they’ll likely bounce right out and go somewhere else. That sort of defeats the purpose of your content.
There’s nothing wrong with short, concise content. But you have to make that content shine. If you can consistently write long content that is excellent, well-written, and that readers love, then you will be much better off. Not a lot of us have the time to do that. Do what is best for your business, but do it with quality.
