Ever struggled with how long content should be on your niche site?
“When creating content, be the best answer on the internet.”
—Andy Crestodina
Well, get ready, because I’m about to share what makes affiliate websites successful.
Their formula for success is simply to create timeless and valuable content. If you prefer watching a video to reading, click here, or keep reading.
What do websites like The Wirecutter, BabyGearLab, and OutdoorGearLab have in common?
In addition to being very successful, they all post content that’s up to 10,000 words or longer.
The length of their content varies dramatically. It depends on what the product is and how many products that review includes.
For example, OutdoorGearLab publishes really long posts – like ultimate guide type posts, which also include long reviews for each one of the products that they mention.
A lot of people argue that nobody is going to read that much content, but some do because they’re really curious about a particular item.
Someone in one of my previous webinars said,
“Oh, you know, I would never read something that long.”
They discounted the idea automatically, just because it’s something they wouldn’t do.
Everyone’s a little bit different — some people actually enjoy researching and reading information online. And if the content is well written, people will read it.
Just because you don’t read lengthy content, doesn’t mean that other people don’t!
When I was researching and learning about niche sites, I read everything that I could get my hands on, including extremely long posts.
The point is – just because you don’t read lengthy content, doesn’t mean that other people don’t!
In-depth posts can offer much more value to your audience than shorter and superficial ones. They can raise your credibility and authority which will attract traffic for years to come.
You’ll stand out from your competition due to going the extra mile to make it easier on your audience when deciding to purchase something.
Additionally, when you publish long content, you’ll find that you often rank for more keywords – long tail keywords.
Now, who wouldn’t want all of that?
What’s the length of content on my niche sites?
If I’m trying to rank for keywords that have a monthly search volume in the range of 1,000-10,000, I generally publish content that’s 2,500 words long at a minimum and over 12,500 words at a maximum. (Improve your keyword search results)
When you publish long content, you’ll find that you often rank for more keywords – long tail keywords.
Moreover, I also publish keyword golden ratio (KGR) content, which is a way to find content that nobody else is trying to rank for. By using KGR keywords, you can rank in the top 15 without any links, within a day. It even works for new websites!
It’s a proven and tested method, so if you’re not familiar with it, check out this short video.
With KGR content I usually aim for about 800-1,000 words, though I may expand it later on, if the content is getting a lot of traffic.
Other questions:
- What ratio would you suggest for reviews to informational content?
- If the main page is a static one, how many thousand words should it have?
- Do 800-1,000 word articles work for new sites or should I have some pillar content, then build these articles around it like silos?
If you’d like to know the answers to these questions, check out the video below. The Q & A begins at 7:42.
Your thoughts? Leave a comment and let me know:
- If you read in-depth posts.
- If you’ve published any content that’s longer than 2,500 words? If so, how much traction did it result in?
- If you’ve applied KGR and if so, what kind of results did it yield?
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Other Common Amazon Affiliate Site Questions
- How Much Do Niche Sites Earn with Amazon Associates?
- How many posts do I need before I launch my niche site?
- How often should I post content for my site?
- Is it ok to publish multiple posts at once?
- Do you use other affiliate programs?
- Do you use Amazon images?
- Where should I put affiliate links?
- Do you cloak Amazon affiliate links?
- Amazon Affiliate websites!
- What is the Amazon Associate Disclaimer that I should use?
- Do you use sidebars on your site?
- The Amazon Associate Report looks wrong or hasn’t been updated — what gives?
I am curious why only 800-1000 words for KGR articles? Is this because it does not take as much to rank on these?
I am assuming that if one is willing to write 2500 on a KGR topic (and the content warrants it) that would be even better, right?
Peter, it’s cheaper… Yeah, 2500 could be better if you want to go that route.
I prefer an incremental approach, but either way is fine.
Great Article Doug,
I am actually about to launch a new site and be honest, banging out 10,000 word minimum content, one article per week.
Some KGR some not. The way I see it 1) smaller site content wise easier to manage. 2) I am sprinkling in LSI keywords using LSI graph, thus as you said I ought to rank for more LSI keywords.
Also the way I see it such long article will get longer average on site time, even if and when the whole article is not read. This is a pretty good Ux which will aid rankings.
Also, been proven by Brian Dean and I Think it was Buzz sumo done the research that longer articles tend to attract both more shares and more social interaction. Thus, we can deduce that one long article is better than many shorter ones.
Hi Doug,
I use the KGR Method and I keep my articles to around 800 words to 1000 words. Initially, they took long to rank but as I published more and more Google indexed them quicker and I saw the rankings increase slowly but steadily.
Thanks
Gareth
I’ve been writing some 3200 – 3600 word buying guides. Some for KGR keywords and some for more difficult ones with higher volume. Good to know I can keep things a little bit more condensed with the KGR guides. That’ll definitely save some time. Thanks Doug, you da man!