How many words = a page of content?

[judyo]

I thought I read somewhere that you should have a minimum of 250 words on a page for it to be considered a true content page. I am scrambling to redo my Oak Lawn web site to regain the serps I had prior to losing the domain name.

With my P2 site I was showing hundreds of pages in the index mainly due to the Handshake Listings P2 offered. All that were not mine were shown as supplemental results but I read Matt Cutts as stating that supp results do not go against a site.

With my new REW site I'll at least have the pages created by my Resources section that I didn't have with P2 but that's only an additional 50+, not 100's. I am creating content daily but because I have other sites I have to keep it original and different.

I am highlighting surrounding areas of Oak Lawn and some of the area pages are somewhat long. If I could break these pages up I could create more content pages for my site. So I need to know what the minimum words or characters should be for a page.

[pcdoc]

So I need to know what the minimum words or characters should be for a page.

Not to be flip, but my answer is the length of the article is determined by the subject matter and what it takes to present a cogent thought.

Oh, that's not SEO?

I see too much emphasis on writing to satisfy the spiders who can't think, read, comprehend or buy property.

[kensmith]

Write for the reader/visitor on your extra pages and you will be fine. Use common sense as you wouldn't want to make a page for 10 words, but there isn't a majic number that is a must. Also don't make pages just to have pages, add the content over time.

[judyo]

I always write for my end reader, hopefully a future client. My question wasn't just about seo but about having pages that are too long to read in one sitting. IOW, pages that require scrolling to read the entire page.

On some pages there just isn't enough content to justify breaking the page up. On others it might be easier to give a link to other information (another page on my site) so if a reader is interested they'll click the link and if they're not they don't have to.

Any seo benefits would be icing on the cake. Maybe I should have rephrased my question, although I did think there was a minimum number of words a page should be. Here's my new question: If a page starts to require scrolling is it safe to say a new page should be created? Or will having to start clicking links turn off a reader?

Because I am trying to keep people on my site I want to offer them good content. I also want to present it in a way that is easy to read and navigate. When I see a long page of print my first thought is, ewwwww, too much to read. So I was thinking that maybe breaking long pages up is a better presentation.

[pcdoc]

If a page starts to require scrolling is it safe to say a new page should be created?

Now that's a great question.

Judy, I'm a voracious reader, most times spending two hours each morning reading the news, financial, and webmaster sites.

Here's one example

http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/21/news...ce=yahoo_quote

notice how they try to keep the reader engaged; in-line hyperlinks, references to other cnn.com articles.

Here's another

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/tech...FREE&cm_ite=NA

I've noticed that The Street (of which I am a subscriber) tends to always split their articles into multiple pages with a 'Go to NEXT PAGE' (could it be advertising revenue?)

So, when I writing a lengthly article, I tend to split it into multiple pages, interspersed with links, pictures, whatever, touting my products.

[seattle realtor]

In general, you should focus on the quality of content. It's not the number of words that dictate quality.

But, if you have to ask, I think 200-500 words is a good place to start.

[webmaster]

James, this thread was from like 4 years ago, please don't drag up REALLY old threads - chances are, they're already handled
thanks

[GreenBayRealtor]

James Hua,

I agree with the basic premise of the 200-500 words. Eric Blackwell posted a video of Matt Cutts onto his website. Matt works for google and did a 45 minute presentation recently about blogging and some of the basics. I'd strongly advise watching it. It was the quickest 45 minutes I've read in a while.

[Jemma Sanders]

An official agreement should have 250 to 300 words in a page.

[trentdejong]

if you are gonna write just to satisfy the "squids" like google, better save your efforts. SEO gurus keep telling us that it's very important for the search engines to have "optimized" content.

The only optimization worth trying, however, is the one for your visitors with wallets and bank accounts... and goolge and the rest do not fall into the category, i guess