Too Much Content?
Is it possible to have Too Much Content on a Post or Page?
A family member of mine kindly stated an opinion that has caused me to slightly worry. She mentioned I had "too many words" on my articles and said it may cause the readers to not want to stay a while. I explained that I am not Amazon, Ebay or other large companies and that I provide quality information to visitors who go to my website. Yes, there is product too but lots of researched information for users to learn before making a purchase.
I understand there will be users who zoom through the content and simply want to get to the product. But, we, as affiliate marketers, are offering information to people as well.
So my question is if any of you have come across this situation and if I should adjust my articles. I certainly don't want to lose any visitors.
Thank you all!
Kristy
Recent Comments
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That was a great question because I was wondering that myself. I don't want to drive people away but I want them to come to my site as well. I hope that my site is good for content that is. Thank you for the insight.
Mary
You are very welcome. The advice I got from all the members were super helpful! It's so great to have a community like this to help!
Content should be just enough to enhance the user/customer/client reading experience and no more. It's a balance between overwhelm and underwhelm!
Hi Kristy. This "family member" may have tried to be as kind as possible, but is she a professional writer, or into the business world as an affiliate marketer?
This person was also quite vague when she mentioned "too many words". That could mean anywhere from 250 words up to 2,500. If she thought that 1,000 words is too much for an article, (though apparently she never gave any specific number) than she would be quite wrong!
Kyle here in the training recommends around 1,500 words/article. It also has to do with how you break up your content to make it as easy as possible for your website visitors to read each article.
Ideally and to make it easier to read for the article visitor, you should not have more than 2 or 3 sentences per paragraph. Many people are now A.D.D. afflicted, unable to keep their concentration on anything for more than a few minutes.
It all is due to that annoying thing called "Twitter"; not writing more than 140 characters/tweet. Because of this, most people now skim through practically everything that could be found online, including major news articles.
Also something that should be included are bold and enlarged headlines interspersed throughout the content which would help the reader retain his/her attention on the premise behind your articles.
Because this family member was so vague, Kristy I am sorry that she apparently was unable to articulate her thoughts in a better manner. Instead, she just created a bit of anxiety taking place within you to the point where you're now questioning yourself. Please don't do that Kristy!
Keep in mind the training that is provided here at WA. Trust me, Kyle, (the author of all the training here at WA) knows much more about the process of writing great content articles compared to this family member of yours, who for all I know could be 11 or 12 years old.
I hope that this helps!
Jeff
Jeff, THANK YOU! This last hour I have been shortening my paragraph's, Twitter Style, like you mentioned. It does make the layout look much easier to read.
My two nieces mentioned that their age group hardly reads anything and briefly look over an article too like you mentioned. :)
Yes I will stop questioning myself! It was my 70 year old Mom who made the comment. And I bet she didn't even READ the info. She just went straight to the product. lol
I noticed my older posts don't have enough bold, enlarged headlines in the content. I can tell the difference in my recent posts opposed to the older ones. Pretty neat to see the progress! But now I just need to go back and add these nifty little writing skills that Kyle has taught us!
Thank you so much for your help! It has GREATLY helped!
Kristy
I recently read an article that the average person stays on your website 7 minutes. After adding an algorithm, the determined that to equate to about 1,600 words. Kyle is spot on with his advice (as usual).
Oh, Kristy I do apologize for misidentifying the person who told you, in her opinion, that your articles were too long as it ended up being your mom.
Lol, absolutely no worries! I am literally laughing out loud!! My Mom is a shopper and didn't want to learn about anything I had written. I am smiling.. All her daughters hard work.. Hee Hee..
All good! I spent the afternoon fine tuning my posts and they look much smoother! I am excited!! I also found some really good Keywords/phrases so I had a very productive day!
Every now and than we need to do some dusting to our sites. Mine is shiny now.. just need more visitors... lol
I have faith and it will happen!
Have a great day. Thanks again for all your help and making me smile.
Kristy
I really like your attitude, and I suspect it shines through your writing! Enjoy your writing, the right amount will be something you get a feel for when you write.
Janice
Great answers and suggestions here. I am a longwinded writer so I suspect that some of my visitors skim or turn away because of the length sometimes.
I am considering trying another approach in the near future; i.e.
1. a short version (combined with infographic) with solid pertinent info for the "lazy" visitor
2. a link to another page on my site for more in-depth information
3. an audio transcription of my posts (for each one)
That way, you kill two birds with one stone and everyone is happy.
Am I selling out?:) What do you think?
David
I like your "lazy visitor" comment! It is so true! Some people will read in depth and others couldn't care less.. LOL
We can get them with audio! Genius! :) They may just turn us off though.. I'm teasing..
Thank you for your unique thoughts.. very intuitive!
Kristy
I agree with the others, this is personal preference. I have to admit I skim a lot of articles, that is why I think they need to have sections that have headings, to keep me somewhat engaged.
It also depends on the subject matter. As long as the content is relevant to the subject at hand, I think a longer post will show that you know what you are talking about.
Someone here at WA once said that you don't want people to have to search the internet after they read your article. Give them what they want and need. If that is 500 words, or 5,000 words.
Unfortunately there is no perfect answer to your question, just more opinions :)
That is one reason I don't request SiteFeedback anymore. One person will tell me the font is too big, the next will tell me the font is too small.
Great advice! I definitely need to add more headings with bold print. It helps the reader "skim." I think we all skim. Some areas we spend a little more time on.
I like what you said about not wanting our reader to go back to the internet for more information. That is a GREAT CONCEPT to consider when writing. With that, I will keep majority of my content. There's a lot of great stuff I researched!
Wonderful advice that I will follow! Thanks for your time.
Kristy
you really have to think like your visitor rather than what you want to see - if they are researching then give them everything and a link at the end.
make your content fit the purpose - do you know any of your target audience? are you active on any forums where you could ask an opinion?
it is not about you and what you want - it is all about them and what they want - unless you are buying your own products.
if you really know your audience then comments like this would not bother you as you are confident that your audience really need this - if there is any doubt then go for confirmation.- ask the audience. it is the only way you get to know.
i am thinking of putting single question in the sidebar and seeing what reaction i get - 'did you find what you are after today?' simple yes/no tick box - if more no's then review what you have written or your title or other. if yes then it is ok.
Phil
I like the idea of adding a question! I will add that. What great advice I am getting from everyone. And every comment has something a little different than the others. All wonderful!
I am definitely part of my niche and know they will benefit from the info provided. You mentioned providing a link which I think would be great. I will add those today!
Thanks again for your time and great advice!
This is more of my opinion rather than being from experience here at WA.
I like websites with a lot of articles when the content is organized well and things are easy to find. It's frustrating when you find a few great articles but then that's all there is.
Sometimes I will click out of an article if I am only partially interested in it and if it's a really, really, long article, even if the rest of the website is great.
I think you have to make a judgement decision and then also ask for advice here at WA for other members to take a look and give you their opinion.
Rick
Thank you Rick! I like lots of content too especially if it is something I didn't know much about.
As we write content on our site, we are learning too. It's pretty neat learning more about stuff we thought we knew about. I get excited to share this with others. So I didn't think I had too many words... BUT, I am going to check out each post and adjust if I feel it is necessary.
After I tweak the posts I will ask WA members for their advice. I do tend to talk a lot. :)
Thank you for your advice!
Kristy
You can always use the Site Feedback feature in the Site Rubix menu.
You can also PM members that you would like to have take a look at it.
I will take a look at your site if you PM me with your site or if you have a few articles in mind that you are concerned about.
It would just be my own, biased, unprofessional advice, but I would give my advice to you anyway.
Rick
I am taking all this great advice from members and tweaking the posts. This past hour I've browsed through my site and wow is their a difference in my posts from a couple months ago to recent.
There is definitely some fine tuning I can do to the old posts to make the reading flow smoother.
A member mentioned making the paragraphs like twitter.. very short with a few sentences. I thought I did that but after reviewing them, there is room for improvement. Easy fix!
I'll PM you later with a few posts.. Thanks!
Don't worry, this isn't the child loss website I am talking about. This is a fun colorful one! Beach stuff!
Kristy
For what it is worth, and this is just a personal opinion form someone that is new, so please take it for what that may be worth. Kyle may have a different opinion. I think you know what is best for your website and for your customers. You are the one that has their best interest in mind. What does your "gut" tell you for a lack of a better way of putting things.
There is never going to be a "perfect amount of content" that fits what is right for ever site. Thus, there is really no way for anyone to determine what is absolutely, truly best for your site, accept what you determine is best.
The best way beyond that for you to determine things may be for you to test out the impact of making changes and adjustment to your site. You can always take the site back if the changes are not for the best... Just a thought...
Not sure if this helps very much, but i hopefully if will give you food for thought....
Thank you! That is great advice! I am going to look over the posts and if something seems like it doesn't fit I will delete it. Maybe a fresh set of eyes will help. When we write content and publish it, it's good to go back and take a peep at it later on to see how it looks.
And maybe I will look at it and leave it all as is! :)
Thank you for your response! It made me feel better. :)
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Hi Kristy,
Good question. My understanding is Google wants good quality content. I had that experience on Google plus a few days ago.
He did like my article but he said that was too much reading but it was well worth the reading. My question is what is a person to do?
KYLE HELP!!
I know! I went back and tried to read my site with the eyes of a new visitor. I did delete some stuff but not much!
Just cleaned it up.. and added more crap Lol :)
You go girl