How much content is needed to be competitive and rank well?

[marknorman]

When considering on page / on site seo what process do you use / take to evaluate how much content is needed to be competitive and rank well?

[simonberenyi]

Content needs to be good enough to share, and to be shared in the first place you need to be aggregating that content through social channels relevant to your target audience.

Try - Wow, Why and How

Content to "Wow" and stop them in their tracks - A big enough "why" to stay - A big enough "how" to meet their immediate need.

I agree with much of what has already been said here, however quality is not always engaging! Its nice, but it has to be attractive enough that it wows your visitors in the right way, and this is not easy, but definitely worthwhile.

Another problem with content that answers questions to quickly is bounce rate - if the answer arrives to quickly your audience will leave too quickly. finding content that slows down a visitor and holds their interest is important, but its a fine wire to walk.

[JCurrier]

I think if you are looking entirely just to rank you will have to look at the competition in the space. Be sure to consider quality of the content just as much, if not more, than the quantity of the content.

Additionally, you should be focusing on creating content that serves your target audience. Can you produce enough valuable content to serve the market as an authority? Or, will people find your site and go elsewhere to find what they are looking for?

You should also focus on creating your content for multiple readership paths, i.e. - headings, subheadings, images, and links. Not only does this provide value to your audience, but will help in your rankings as well, contributing again to the quality rather than the necessary quantity.

[EGOL]

When considering on page / on site seo what process do you use / take to evaluate how much content is needed to be competitive and rank well?

I go out to the SERPs where I want to rank and look at the quality of their content.  Then I make a page that is better, a page that blows them out of the water.

The answer is not in the number of pages.   Instead it is the quality of the single page for that search term.  It usually requires a very substantive page to defeat what is at the top of the SERPs.  Lots of easy-to-understand text, photos, tables of data, graphs, mabye a video.  You can beat tough competition for difficult keywords with one page like that.

A nice gem is more interesting to people than a ton of crap.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

This is a very subjective question Mark.

For example, if you work in a highly technical market, it could be assumed that you are going to need more content than normal to explain processes, technical features and research. However, if you are writing a sales page, you would need less content as you want to get your messages across with big call-to-action type messages and supporting content.

I would certainly also look at competition in the market and see what those who rank well, do. This can only really be used as a guide, but it can give you an idea.

Some say that the average page should be no less than 250 characters - others say no more than 750. There is no right or wrong answer, but you do need to focus on making it as comprehensive as possible.

I hope this helps a little.

-Andy