Is this a Catch 22 Situation?

10
1.2K followers

I have read here at, WA, several times, and I know Kyle has also mentioned this in his training – strive for 1000 or more words in your blogs to get indexed by Google.

But here’s the thing….we are people with busy lives, always needing to get on to the next thing. Who has time to read long blogs? I personally skim a lot, especially if the topic is technical. I am not the only one; my husband is the best skimmer I know. He quickly scans and picks out the key points that interest him (but then again he does the same thing when I am telling him something - he always says 'just give me the Cole's notes!")

That aside, my question is, are our readers really reading (like that phrase – all those r’s?) every word or are they skimming? I will admit that adding lots of pictures/photos/graphics does break up the article, and I do believe short paragraphs are definitely better than long ones, and if the article is written to captivate one’s interest, we are apt to finish to the end. When I read a great book, I don’t skim but read Every Single Word (sometimes more than once).


Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Is there anyone else who has thoughts on this?

PS. I really wanted to get my point across so decided against 1000 words :)


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Recent Comments

18

Hi Mary, on some of my longest and most popular posts I receive comments from people saying they have read every word... it's all about what information you're delivering and what problem you're solving. e.g. the "how I made money" posts really get read.

I imagine it did! We all want to make money :).

I don't watch the word count when I'm writing a post. I write until I feel like I've covered the topic and made all the salient points I wanted to make, and then I'm done. Sometimes that's 1200 words, sometimes it's only 600. Cramming in words just to hit the 1000 mark won't make the article perform better if the content isn't good. You may get ranked, but readers won't buy and isn't that our primary goal?

Personally I like to use bullet points in my posts - that way the skimmers have something easy to read.

Yes, I have started doing that lately; don't look at the bottom of the page to see what the count is until I am done or almost done. That does help and sometimes I am pleasantly surprised that I wrote as much as I did!

I totally agree with you on the length vs time to read issue. I wrote a long blog with multiple headings, and now I'm thinking I should go back and mark those headings as links for a table of contents at the top of the page. That way, the reader can go directly to the particular subject in the blog they want to know about first. Once they experience that convenience, they may be less intimidated to visit my site going forward, knowing they don't have to scroll or skim.
Leslie

I also skim through text on websites, but I also find myself crediting the author with more credibility and knowledge by the number of words on the page. It makes it look like the person is knowledgeable anyway.

Sheila

Great post and thought provoking. I also was against the 1000words blogs as I shared the same sentiments that people won’t have the time to read. But judging from those who have done it for longer, combined with the knowledge of how google works, it makes sense to write 1000words or more if that will give you success. We are constantly learning and even when somethings don’t make sense to us, as long as it’s a tried and tested method which produces results, then that’s the way to go. Thanks for all the contributions. Really helps
Lilian

Absolutely!

My sentiments exactly. Kyle/WA is generous with his knowledge gained in over 15 years of experience. He wants us to model his proven success and not reinvent the wheel.

Hi Louie-Gigi
Thank you for your comment and I agree with you.

It is good you have started this topic. Most of my posts are 1000+ (actually, all of them). Every time, when posting 1000+ words, I am thinking who is going to read all of it. And I project it to myself, I am not reading line-by-line, I am scanning and picking words/expressions I am interested in... certain parts of the text I am reading thoroughly - parts which are very important.
I know I could express my idea/views/interpretations in 500-600 words. It might be a better quality post: concise, focused, and clear.
I am planning to do so research about it.

Thanks. Excellent viewpoint. I too do that so I know what you mean.

I know I am going against what is being taught here, but I agree with you. In my opinion you should cover a topic and stop writing when you have covered it and have no more useful information to add.

If I am looking for a recipe, I want to know the ingredients and instructions on how to make it. If you can tell me in 200-400 words, I will be perfectly happy.

I really believe it depends on the subject matter. And if you do write long articles, the best thing I can suggest - rather than lots of photos - is to have lots of little headlines to help the skim readers quickly find the information they want.


I am definitely with you on the recipe thing!

I agree with you, unless the material is captivating and of interest to you, you will likely skim only the keywords. That's what most will do.

However, Google will rank your posts higher for articles greater than 1000 words, and the "ideal sweet spot" is between 1700-2200 words. This is how the Google bots work.

Note "skimming an article" is different from how engaged a reader is; highly engaged readers may also be skimming, then leaving comments and likes anyway.

Your last comment is very true.

Man, 1700 - 2200 words!? You are killing me!! I am amazed when I reach 1100!

It does seem counter intuitive, but the word count is true.

Oh, I believe you!

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