Are more words on a web page better for SEO? What about links? There are many articles recommending that we include lots of those too.
Are more words on a web page better for SEO? What about links? Many experts recommend including plenty of both.
First things first: Google has stated for years that the number of words on a page is not rewarded in itself. The reason many SEO professionals advocate for longer articles is two-fold: first, more in-depth content has a better chance of matching various search queries; second, it helps avoid “thin content” – pages with little substance.
While research shows that top-ranked results often have more words, this could simply be because they’re more substantial and authoritative. I believe that articles that repeatedly restate the same ideas (an old SEO tactic) will increasingly perform poorly in the future.
As for links, Google says that readers don’t count them, and therefore, Google doesn’t either. That’s fair enough. Again, this doesn’t mean links are pointless, but that an article should have a number of links that “makes sense” within the context. It’s not something to get overly concerned about.