From GOOP Digital in New York

Want a website with few words and lots of pretty pictures? Well, the news is not that good unless your business provides products and services where online searchers want to examine pictures of what’s for sale – and even then your website will still need plenty of words explaining what those pretty pictures depict.

Research revealed at the SMX East search marketing expo in New York today shows the number of words for websites to rank highly in Google is on the rise, and without words to inform searchers your website is going to struggle to make Google’s home page.

The research backs up what GOOP Digital’s SEO team has been telling clients and prospective clients for the past couple of years – words count and without words your website cannot rank organically. Don’t say we didn’t tell you!

So, how many words does a website need to perform?

Here’s what the research shows: The number of words on website pages ranking in the top 10 Google search results in 2017 is 1900, up from 1600 in 2016 and 1300 in 2015.

That’s right. Websites that rank in the top 10 for their keyword focus have almost 2000 words to a destination page.

That’s bad news for any business or organisation that wants an organically ranking website without words to tell the story of what the business does, where it does it.

The importance of words in websites has increased as Google further refines its algorithms to deliver the most relevant websites in response to searchers’ queries.

Olga Andrienko, head of global marketing at digital marketing software company SEMrush, Marcus Torber, founder of internationally acclaimed SEO marketing company Searchmetrics, and Herndon Hasty, digital marketing manager for online retailer The Container Store, spoke to a packed auditorium at SMX East on the subject SEO Ranking Factors in 2017: What’s Hot, What’s Not.

Study of website ranking factors

Ms Andrienko’s company carried out an international study of website ranking factors and discovered numerous consistencies in high-ranking sites, including more content on destination pages, content that matched user intent, and SSL certificates to ensure HTTPS security.

Mr Torber backed up Ms Andrienko’s research about the need for 1900 words on high-ranking pages and about the increasing need for websites to match user intent.

Mr Torber did offer hope for those website owners who want sites filled with pictures – but there’s a catch: The pretty pictures aren’t much value unless they’re relevant to the search query.

For example, users searching online for chairs would benefit from photographs of chairs in a catalogue on a furniture shop’s website. And words explaining those chairs would provide an added boost because they would help deliver precisely what searchers wanted to know.

Likewise, videos would work on a weight-loss website and a recipe site would require photographs, cooking instructions, meal presentations and serving suggestions.

High-ranking websites match user intent

Mr Torber had a fairly blunt opinion of old-school SEO techniques, summed up in his statement that traditional ranking factors were dead. He said today’s high-ranking websites would match user intent and show users what they wanted to see.

Mr Hasty’s list of ranking factors for 2017 included the need for high-ranking websites to have SSL certificates, to be relevant to users and to keep site load speed as quick as possible. One way to speed up sites was to resize or reduce the number of images in a website.

The speakers had plenty more to say about website ranking factors and GOOP Digital will discuss their research and presentations during coming weeks to devise strategies to ensure our clients continue to rank highly in Google searches for what they do, where they do it.

Get in touch with our SEO team and stay tuned for more updates out of the SMX East search marketing expo in New York.

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