What do you think is the optimal number of words for a hub?

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   Victoria Lynnposted 12 years ago

   I've seen people saying that they are writing longer hubs and getting more traffic. I've always heard at least 300 words up to 800 or so. Have you found an optimal number to shoot for?

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      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Most of my Hubs top 1,100 words, some are above 2,000, one packs a wallop at nearly 5,000 (that one I think I need to do something about; although it gets decent traffic, it could be designed more sleekly). The Hub that generates the most traffic for me has 1,172 words, while the one that generates the second most traffic has 730 words. None of my Hubs that are under 700 words (of which there are very few) has generated much of anything...I just like them.
      
      Here's my philosophy about word length in a nutshell.
      
      Use as many words as you need to get your point across to the reader, because that's who it's all about. At the same time, remember that a Hub is intended to be (according to HP standards) an article of some depth (my words, not theirs). I take this to mean that the reader must have his expectations met once he lands on your Hub.
      
      I read your thrifty ways to save money on clothing Hub, at about 1,200 words, and you are right on the mark for delivering to the reader what you promised in your title.
      
      Do longer Hubs get more traffic just by virtue of their length? From my experience, no. There are so many other factors involved.
      
      I see that you also write poetry, and that category of writing stands outside any discussion of word length. If you want to have a long read about what Hubbers and staff have had to say about poetry and word count on HP, check out this forum thread:
      
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/70209#post1528842
      
      Then take two aspirin and call me in the morning.

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         Victoria Lynnposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Sally's Trove, for taking the time to respond with all that great information. Thanks, too, for looking at some of my hubs. I read most of the forum in the link you included--very interesting. There are a lot of great poets here, and I think they should have a voice, too. 'I do think that concentrating on writing quality hubs is key. So I'll keep plugging away. Is there a word counter on hp? I do my hubs on Word first, then copy and paste, but I'd like to be able to see the word count when I go in and add content.
         So much information to learn! I think I'll have those two aspirin now. Thanks so much for all the input.

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            Neerizzleposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Each text capsule has a word count on the upper right side. I used to write my articles on word before I realized that as well haha

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      PaulPd0posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The lengthier your content is, the better. The reason for this was already mentioned by Marisa Wright below (more chance of longtail keywords, more opportunity to include keywords more than once). Still, you don't want to just keep pounding words into a hub for the sake of hitting a certain amount.
      
      Try to make as much content as you can by sectioning off certain aspects of the article and giving detailed explanations in each section, but not to a point that the reader would feel like your trailing in circles. If a topic really only requires a small amount of words, it might actually be good for your earnings because people won't scroll down beyond your ads, keeping them on their screen as they read.
      
      Check out some of my articles - I've dedicated some time on HP towards tutorial ish SEO stuff, might help you out

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   summertime8posted 12 years ago

   That's very interesting. I think I might have to start writing longer hubs.

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   qseraposted 12 years ago

   Nice, even I would start writing longer Hubs now

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   David 470posted 12 years ago

   In my experience, 300-1000 is good range, but it depends on the topic. I actually just wrote a short hub that only has 250-300 words recently and it got over 2000 views overnight.
   
   It really depends on the keywords you use. If you write an article on something that is not searched on internet (even if it's a 5000 word article) don't expect a lot of traffic.
   
   In general though, I'd say 500 words is best. The longer the hub the more keywords you should use & the shorter the less.

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   Long hubs work. But it takes a year+. Sucks, but that's the way it is. For now.

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   brakel2posted 12 years ago

   I recently began making my hubs shorter 500-700 words. The ones that are 1500 do not attract traffic now. On a very long one, a visitor said that she would come back to read the remainder of article. I think attentions span crawls to a halt on longer hubs sometimes. They used to have more views. I guess it depends on the topic.

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   jcmayer777posted 12 years ago

   My overall experience with writing online is that longer articles, in the 1,000 word range, perform better and get ranked better, but not right away.  I find that shorter articles, maybe 400-500 words, rank well early on.  It can take up to several months for a longer article to move up in rank.
   
   I suspect the reason the  longer ones perform better (over time)is the natural infusion of additional longtail keyword strings that will appear.  The problem is, you can write two shorter articles in the time you can write one long article.
   
   Almost all of my hubs are 400-500 words and they are doing pretty well, so I'm content with what I've been doing.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      One very successful Hubber did some fairly extensive testing last year, and she believed it was best to shoot for over 800 words for precisely that reason.  In a longer article, you're more likely to include a bigger variety of additional longtail keywords naturally, so ultimately you'll get a wider range of traffic around your topic. 
      
      Writing two or three shorter articles and interlinking them works, too.

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   Ms Deeposted 12 years ago

   I find anymore that I shoot for 500-700 words, like some others are saying here. Much longer than 700 may not be read all the way through because of the limited time people allow for reading them.

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9. 70

   Cagsilposted 12 years ago

   Take what you want from this and do what you want with it.
   
   My top three performing hubs as far as HP ratings are concerned are presently, 700 - 1500 and 2100 words in length.
   
   If you want my most trafficked written article, then that would certainly change, simply because topic plays a factor in that.
   
   (a) How to solve poverty(1142 words)
   (b) How to get motivated(718 words)
   (c) Quality of Life vs Standard of Living(703 words)

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