Minimum word count

1. 86

   David Ortegaposted 7 years ago

   I have a sense that the mobile community is growing to the point where I think Hub articles over 1000 words are likely too much for those reading from a phone.  I am of the mindset that I need to write shorter ones, say in the 500-800 range. Thoughts?

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      promisemposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      You have a great point. People aren't likely to scroll that much.
      
      But I suspect the bigger problem lies with photos. Downloading a lot of photos on a mobile phone will make them display much more slowly on a phone.

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         David Ortegaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         When reading an article, I don't think you have to download a photo unless it is in a thumbnail?  But you too make a good point in suggesting that photos can also hinder scrolling and perhaps the reader exiting before the end of the article.

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            promisemposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            It depends on how the mobile site is built. Some sites use what's called a cascading stylesheet to take a photo that may be 500x300 pixels and 100 KB on a desktop browser (for example) and make it look like a thumbnail. But in reality it's still 500x300 pixels and 100 KB in download size.
            
            Many sites built that way will display the same page address (www.site.com/article_name/) in mobile as they do on desktop.
            
            Other sites create totally separate mobile versions with a different address, such as mobile.site.com/article_name/. In those cases, they have the ability to generate a second version of the photo in an actual thumbnail size. The actual photo may be 100x75 pixels and only 30 KB in size.
            
            In either case, it's wise to optimize photos for the fastest download speed while maintaining some minimum amount of quality.

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2. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

   You are right that many people have a short attention span, BUT word count is not determined solely by your readership.
   
   To get any readers at all, you first need to please Google.  Google wants to see informative, content-rich articles with lots of relevant keywords.  Testing has proved that the "sweet spot" for achieving that is to write an article between 800 to 1500 words.  Make it shorter and Google will not rate it as highly and therefore you're less likely to get on the first page.

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      Chriswillman90posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      So if many of my articles are over 1500 words, is that considered a bad thing or too much.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         It's not a bad thing, but it means you're not making the most of your opportunities.
         
         When a Hub gets over 1,500 words, it's time to take a hard look at it and see whether it can be divided into two Hubs.  And I don't just mean, stop writing at 1,500 words and start a new one!   
         
         There are very few subjects where you can write more than 1,500 words on just ONE aspect of the subject.  Chances are you've strayed off on a tangent, or have started talking about different aspects of the topic. 
         
         You will get more traffic if you edit the Hub to move those other aspects into a Hub of their own.  Two Hubs gives you two chances to get noticed by Google, and the fact that both Hubs are better focussed means they are likely to rank better.

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            Chriswillman90posted 7 years agoin reply to this

            That makes a lot of sense, it gives me a whole new perspective on things. Thank you for the advice, I need to pay more attention during the editing phase.

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            eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            So maybe I should break up my 10,000 word hub into several parts? I don't want to affect the ranking though by diluting the keyword content? At the moment, it ranks 2nd to 3rd place in a search.

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               Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               People talk about breaking up pages but often they end up competing against each with similar titles and closely related content.
               
               10,000 seems a bit much, though, lol.

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                  eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes Will, it started off as a troubleshooting guide but then became an epic, like a technical version of "Paradise Lost"!

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                     Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     I started a page on the oldest fossils, just the oldest from each major grouping.  Soon realized that was a site on its own.
                     
                     I will call it Paradise Stoned.

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  If they are genuinely about different aspects of the topic and the titles reflect that, then there's no reason why they should compete with each other.
                  
                  Also, of course, you would link them to each other, so each one feeds traffic to the other as well. 
                  
                  I'm like you, I tend to just start writing and see where it takes me - but I'm sure you'd agree that a writer who doesn't edit is a bad writer!   If I find that the Hub ends up far too long, I'll stop and analyse it to see if I could break it down.  If I can, that often means quite a big edit as it's never as simple as just cutting and pasting a bit of it, but it's worth the effort IMO.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               How do you know its ranking? Are you checking it from a computer that's not your own?

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                  eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  No, so is Google adding my link as a suggestion? Do I have to log out/clear cache or whatever to see where it really ranks in a search?

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                     Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     It's no bad thing to have 2 browsers, one set to clear the cache when it is closed. Clearing the cache gets rid of personalized search.

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                        eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        Logged out from Google on Firefox, cleared cache and my hub is in 4th place above an Angie's List article on Google. I tried the same search on my sister's iPad on the Google site in Safari, and the hub was in 5th place just below the Angie's list one.

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                           Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                           Google's personalised searching is far-reaching!   Even if you're logged out of Google, and have cleared your cache, Google will still use your IP address to personalise your results.
                           
                           So the result from your sister's computer is more accurate, and it's good to hear it's ranking so high.  The only other question is, what query is it ranking for?  Is it a phrase that lots of people search for?

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                              eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                              According to Google Adwords, there are 5400 search results per month and competition is low

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                                 Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                 "Competition is low" does not mean what you think it does.  It's referring to competition between advertisers.  That means few people are interested in advertising on this topic, so you won't earn much from it.   It does not tell you anything about competition from other articles!

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                                    eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                    So should I use keywords for which there is a high monthly search rate and high competition, or high monthly search rate and high suggested  bid, or is it that simplistic?

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                                       Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                       If you have a page at the top of search go and check out the search phrases in the adwords tool. It will give you some notion of how adwords data relates to real traffic.

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                                       Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                       Write about what you know first and foremost, then use the AdWords tool to find the best keywords

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                                          eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                          I do try to do that and I did use the keyword tool to find phrases/keywords for which there is high search traffic. Then I tried to weave them naturally into the text of the hubs which were not receiving much traffic. However views didn't seem to increase. I'll have to look into this again to see what I'm doing wrong. Should I use the URL of a hub, the title, or some text phrases from the hub when looking for suggestions?

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                                             Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                                             You might use any all or of those, and see what Adwords suggests.

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                              Will Apseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                              Tough on anyone sharing an IP address! How do library users, internet cafe users. get by?
                              
                              Honestly, clear the cache and that is it. Try it. Make sure the cache is really cleared though, no history, no cookies, no Google account etc.
                              
                              Best to clear the cache on closure and never keep anything at all on your SEO browser. Put all the browser settings to keep nothing.
                              
                              This is inconvenient for normal browsing which is why you need a dedicated browser to check what others are seeing.
                              
                              If you are paranoid switch off the modem now and again and get a new IP address (assuming you have dynamic whatsits).

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            mchllhwgtposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you for this. I am new to writing hubs and find I am happy at just over 1000 words. I can say what I need to and sum up concisely.

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3. 89

   Will Apseposted 7 years ago

   The important thing is to cover the subject comprehensively whether that can be done in 500 words or 1500 words.
   
   Sometimes you start a hub with the best intentions to keep it down to a single page length but it just grows and grows. Sometimes you realise that you might as well turn it into a niche site of its own. My last 2 hubs have gone that way, lol.
   
   Never been a great planner. Just set out and see what happens.

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   aakriti94posted 7 years ago

   I personaly think that you should be able to write all your views and thoughts whether it goes upto 500 words or 1000 words. If any article has worth interesting things to read ,reader will definately read your 1000 word articles too irrespective of considering the mobile.

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