Is one page with long content better than multiple pages with shorter content?

[AspenFasteners]

(Note, the site links are from a sandbox site and has very low DA or PA)

If you look at this page, you will see at the bottom a lengthy article detailing all of the properties of the product categories in the links above.

http://www.aspensecurityfasteners.com/Screws-s/432.htm

My question is, is there more SEO value in having the one long article in the general product category page, or in breaking up the content and moving the sub-topics as content to the more specific sub-category pages? e.g.

http://www.aspensecurityfasteners.com/Screws-Button-Head-Socket-s/1579.htm
http://www.aspensecurityfasteners.com/Screws-Cap-Screws-s/331.htm
http://www.aspensecurityfasteners.com/Screws-Captive-Panel-Scre-s/1559.htm

[RobCairns]

While you may not be able to compete directly with the big dogs immediately, you aren't doing yourself any favors by sticking pages you wish to rank deeper inside your site. Even though the content may be more specifically relevant, the reality is that once you are targeting traffic on a national scale, you are probably looking at your link profile as the defining factor of success rather than your content.

Content still retains power in terms of generating relevancy, but link building is what you need to compete with those long-standing enterprises. In my opinion, content location is secondary in this situation.

A better way to go about this might be to run some competitive analysis on a wide range of keywords to determine:

a) Where are your customers coming from?
b) What are they looking for?
c) Where does your competition rank?
d) Why are they ranking where they do?

Once you can answer these questions, you have the ability to make a strategy that will work regardless of where your content is located. Additionally, adding more pages will just make work for your web dev team without any discernible increase in your potential rankings, and will take time. Given the size of your site and the variety of products you carry, this may be an ineffective use of time when you might just be building a significant link profile to a couple of major landing pages.

Whatever you decide, learning why your competition is succeeding needs to be your priority. Then you can decide on a content-driven strategy or a link building strategy.

[AspenFasteners]

What if the long, detailed content is for a page for which you cannot possibly win rankings for because huge, long-standing enterprises with high PA and DA already dominate the first few SERPs? Would it not be better to move the details of the content to the specific pages where they apply?

[ahmetkul]

I agree with you, Rob. In my personal experience, I realized that long and more detailed content always wins. Rather than creating a short and simple content, it's always better to have a longer and more specific content.

[RobCairns]

Hi there,

In general, Google is moving towards providing an all-questions-answered approach to content, particularly for sales-oriented (e-comm) sites. The algorithm uses content to determine relevancy using semantic keywords. In your situation, you would probably need to adjust a couple of items to improve your SEO before you develop your content strategy.

For example, your filters include everything from grades to brands, screws, bolts, etc. You might take a look at the sub-categories of products you carry, and determine if you can lump several of them together to make the ranking process a bit simpler. All "Fasteners" on your sidebar could probably be lumped into 1 category page, which would rank more easily than having 7 or 8 different pages, as an example. This may not be a handy way to do things, based on your customer base and the architecture of your site, though.

Your content strategy will also be impacted by your link building strategy. Do you have a lot of time and/or a huge budget of time and money to chase links for individual pages, or do you have to be a bit tighter in your spending on this front? If money isn't an issue, smaller pages may be worthwhile over the long term. However, I have yet to see the project where money and time aren't factors.

SUMMARY

To answer your question more directly, a long piece of content on a single page tends to outrank smaller pieces of content spread across multiple pages. If you can provide your users with everything they need on 1 page, you will outrank your competitors. That being said, you need to balance this approach by ensuring that you are not over-stuffing your pages and driving user experience into the dirt.

My opinion is your first link is a better way to go than the next 3, although I think there are other factors here you might want to spend some time on for full SEO benefits.

Feel free to reach out to me any time and we can put our heads together for a more complete strategy.

Cheers,

Rob