Do you want to improve your text length?

Yoast SEO assessment: Text length

What does the text length check do?

Every page on your site needs to contain a certain amount of words to be able to rank. How long your text should be, depends on the kind of page: taxonomy pages require (slightly) less content than posts, whereas cornerstone content should be exhaustive and therefore needs to contain a significant amount of words. This check calculates how many words you’ve added on a page and whether it contains enough words to properly rank.

To improve your text length, write more quality content for your post, page, taxonomy page or cornerstone content page. Good quality texts are readable, well structured and contain original content. The text length check will let you know when you’ve added a sufficient amount of content.Here are several reasons why text length is important for SEO. First of all: pages that contain very little (textual) content are more likely to be considered of little value to users, and therefore ‘thin content’ pages, by the search engines. Furthermore: the longer your text is, the easier it is for search engines to determine what it’s about, especially if it’s well-optimized for your keyphrase or phrases. You’ll probably have more headings, more links, and more pictures containing the keyphrase. Finally, writing a longer text makes it more likely you’ll rank for multiple long tail variants of the keyphrase you optimized your text for. After all, in a lengthy text, you probably discuss multiple subtopics. Your article will have a chance to turn up in search results for all these long tail variants.

Internal linking: why and how to do it

The Yoast SEO analysis tells you to add internal links if your text doesn’t contain them. But what are internal links? How should you add them? And what pages should you link to? That’s what we’ll discuss here.

What is an internal link?

An internal link is any link from one page on your website to another page on your website. Both your users and search engines use links to find content on your website. Your users use links to navigate through your site and to find the content they want to find. Search engines also use links to navigate your site. They have a hard time showing a page in the search results if there are no links to it. That’s why internal linking is so important.

There are several types of links. In the SEO analysis in the plugin, we’re talking about links within your content. By that, we mean the piece of text you’ve written in the editor. We call them contextual links. Contextual links point your users to interesting and related content. Moreover, they allow search engines to find out what content on your site is related and to determine the value of that content. The more links an important page receives, the more important it will seem to search engines. Therefore, good internal links are crucial to your SEO.

Learn more about this check in Yoast SEO in our explanation of the internal link assessment!

Adding a link in WordPress

Adding links in WordPress is very easy. First, select the piece of text you want to add the link to in the editor. Then click the link icon (image 1). Then paste or type the URL you want to link to.

What pages to link to

When adding internal links, always consider what pages would be best to link to. Start by considering what articles are most important when it comes to the topic you’re discussing. It can be quite difficult to keep track of this, especially if your site is quite big. If you have Yoast SEO Premium, our internal linking tool does the thinking for you. It shows you the most relevant related pages and suggests adding links to them.

Remember that you want to link to your most frequent pages most often. Keep track of how many links your pages receive on your posts and pages overviews. The left column shows how many links are on the page itself. The right column shows how many links are pointing to that post. If your most important pages aren’t receiving the most links, you should reconsider your linking strategy.

Conclusion

Internal links allow users and your search engines to navigate your site. If a post isn’t linked to at all, that page won’t be shown in the search results. Moreover, the number of links pointing to your pages gives Google information about what pages are most important to you. Therefore, it’s crucial to add internal links to every page on your site.

The importance of using your focus keyphrase in your introduction

The first paragraph of a text is your introduction. That is a key location for both users and search engines. As said before, grabbing your reader’s attention right at the beginning is essential if you want them to stay on your page. Google also considers your first paragraph an important one. Including your focus keyphrase in your introduction is like giving search engines specific clues about your article. You should also know that sometimes, Google uses your first paragraph to create a meta description for your page itself. Make sure that your introduction accurately reflects what your text is about and include your focus keyphrase in there, and you should be fine. Remember: most people scan web pages rather than read them immediately. Make it easy for them by mentioning the actual subject of the page right at the start!

Passing the focus keyphrase in introduction check

We believe the use of your focus keyphrase in your introduction is important enough to have built a check for it, in our Yoast SEO plugin. Solving a red or orange bullet for this check might sound easy: just make sure you do use your focus keyphrase in your introduction text. But, it’s also easily forgotten. Let’s discuss some pointers that might help.

A good paragraph starts with a core sentence, after which you elaborate. This applies to your first paragraph, the introduction, too. Think of a core sentence that mentions your focus keyphrase, and move on from there. Elaborate and/or discuss what to expect from the rest of the text. You could decide to start with a short anecdote or example, to catch the attention of your reader. If you do so, follow that up with your focus keyphrase as soon as you can, so it’s clear what your page is about. Not just to your reader, but to search engines!

Why is the bullet orange or red?

Several things could trigger the “focus keyphrase in introduction” check in Yoast SEO. This might help you figure out what’s happening!

• You’ve mentioned your subject, but not your focus keyphrase;
• You’ve used an anecdote to attract attention, which doesn’t include your focus keyphrase;
• You have mentioned your keyphrase or its synonyms, but not within one sentence;
• You have mentioned a synonym for your keyphrase, but not told Yoast SEO Premium it is a synonym.

So, make sure the words you’ve entered as your focus keyphrase are mentioned in your first paragraph. And even more specific: they need to be within the same sentence. For search engines and readers to understand what your text is about quickly, you need to state the subject clearly. So even if you decide to start with an anecdote, for example, make sure to add a sentence that does clear up the subject of the text.

Learn more about this check in Yoast SEO in our explanation of the keyphrase in introduction assessment.

Your introduction is like a first impression

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This saying is true for both people and texts. If the first paragraph of your text is unclear, off-topic or just boring, people will lose interest. They will put the book aside or click away to another website. Especially with online readers: if the page doesn’t match their interest, they’re just a click away from millions of pages that could be more interesting. With that in mind, what could you do to make a potential reader stay on your page and read your entire text? How can you make a good first impression?

How do you write a good introduction?

We’ve covered the importance of using your focus keyword introduction. But how do you write a great introduction in general? You know your first paragraph is important to grab the reader’s attention. We’ll start with the basics: what elements should be present in your introduction?

Use your introduction paragraph to:

1. Introduce your topic
   Tell your reader what your text is about, preferably in the first sentence of your first paragraph. Keep it short and simple. Attention spans are very short online and you don’t want your reader to wander off. Consider using the inverted pyramid writing style. This method encourages you to get to the point immediately so you grab the attention. Some say the purpose of the first paragraph is to get your reader to read the second paragraph!
2. Explain what your reader can expect
   Take your reader by the hand. Tell them what they can expect from the rest of your text. Mention your purpose and explain your structure if this could help your reader decide whether this text would be useful for him. A lot of writers tend to forget that there are many ways to find a site. Your audience does not only consist of returning visitors that know your stories and products. Take the perspective of a new visitor, that lands on a specific blog post through the search results. Does the introduction of this post give the visitor enough clues to hold on to?
   
3. Tempt your reader to read along
   There are two ways to encourage your reader to read the rest of your article. The first one focuses on content. By introducing your topic and explaining what your reader can expect, you’re providing information. For some readers, this information alone could be enough to keep reading. Other readers might need a little push. You could use stylistic elements to trigger their interest some more.

Some last tips

If you’re still having a hard time making sure your focus keyphrase is in your introductory paragraph, here are some tips left that might help you.

First: the use of synonyms. In Yoast SEO Premium you can set synonyms and related keyphrases for your focus keyphrase. That enables you to write a less repetitive text, which is good for your readability. By entering the synonyms, Yoast SEO Premium takes them into account when analyzing for the different focus keyphrase checks. Including the check to see if your focus keyphrase is mentioned within a sentence of your introduction paragraph. Do think about this though, why would you use a synonym instead of the phrase you’ve decided is most important?

And here’s another tip that might help you if you’re struggling. Although it’s the first paragraph of your text, it’s definitely not set in stone that you should write it first! It might even be easier to write after you’ve finished the full post. You’ll have a better idea of the angle and content of the post, which might make it easier to write a great and enticing introduction that includes your focus keyphrase.

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