Break the 300 word rule of SEO!

Not every blogger believes in the three hundred words' rule of search engine optimization (SEO). Following the rule might help you to get to the top of the Google search results or at least to some of the first pages. But just writing 300 word postings does not guarantee that the people who are searching for information actually find your blog worth reading.

In fact, there are some very famous bloggers who all the time break the 300 word rule. One of the most popular is Steve Pavlina whose web site I have followed for some time. Steve writes about personal development and the topic is very interesting. But Steve constantly breaks the advice of writing shorter postings, in fact, his articles are usually very long. They are more like articles written for a magazine than ordinary blog postings. This way, he makes it sure that his readers get enough for their time spent on the web site.

I am not sure if I can constantly keep my standards on a level as high as Steve Pavlina has kept for a long time. But I'll try to do my best in providing enough content that can satisfy the needs of my customers - that is the needs of my readers.

I suppose the main important point to remember is that one can break the 300 words rule by writing longer articles. But one should never be satisfied with short blog postings of 100 words. They just don't make it to the top of Google. In addition, short postings don't keep the readers on the site long enough to click through some Google AdSense advertising.

The point I made last is worth remembering. When one is trying to monetize a blog by using AdSense or some other advertising affiliate system one needs to keep the readers on the site as long as it is needed for them to turn their interest to the ads on the margins of the page.

Some might try to do the trick by MFA (made for AdSense) pages that have only little original content and as many AdSense widgets as possible. This way they encourage people to continue their surfing immediately by following the links given in advertisements.

But that is not the way I intend to follow in this blog. I want to offer my readers quality instead of crap.

300 Words or Quality Content for SEO?

Much has been written about the "300 words rule for SEO" during the last years. In short, it is usually adviced that bloggers and other content authors should write posts that have at least 300 words. This should be the optimum or at least the minimum for getting the web site a good ranking in the search engine results.

Three hundred words are not much especially when one writes in English. Every text has lots of "meaningless" words that do not carry any meaning that is used for web searches. With these meaningless words I mean for example articles ("a", "the"), prepositions ("in", "at", "of" etc.) and very common words like the verb "to be" ("is", "are" and so on).

I have not read anything very specific on this topic but I tend to think that as author I should concentrate on using words that have a meaning, words that add to the content of the blog. I doubt there is any point in just trying to make the articles longer by adding meaningless words to it. After all, what is the point of writing a blog? Is it just to make money by providing a platform for Google Adsense advertising? Or should I think my readers as customers who have needs that have to be addressed?

If I think my readers as my customers I have to provide them something that is worth reading. In my opinion this is best done by writing lengthy blog articles that have some point and answer the problems of my readers - or problems of my customers. If I think my readers as my customers I must concentrate on the quality of the service I provide. Only so will the customers return to the blog. Otherwise they will just read a few lines and never return back unless Google sends them here again with some new combination of search words.

Another point in providing quality content is the fact that even if I would not earn any high AdSense revenues I myself learn all the time. I learn about many things, not only about SEO, blogging or AdSense, but at least as importantly about writing in a foreign language. All of these are skills I can use elsewhere.

I am convinced that in order to keep my readers happy I have to be ready to work. Otherwise the blog is not worth reading. And at least as importantly I will not learn anything.