250 Word Versus 400 Word Articles – What Is The Big Deal?

You can read whole forum threads which are talking about the subject of articles length these days.  This is mostly due to the fact that EzineArticles has decided to no longer accept articles with a minimum of 250 words.  The minimum word count is now 400 words.

Some people are saying that one can write a perfectly good article within 250 words and others disagree.  So, who is right and who is wrong?

The honest answer is that there is no right or wrong answer in this case, because you could have a great article with only 250 words and you could have a very boring valueless article with nothing in it with 400 words or more.

Where does the argument come from and why article directories no longer accepting shorter articles?

In the beginning, EzineArticles understood that it was possible to write a valuable article in just 250 words (and they still do) and while other big article directories would not settle for less than 400 words they had no problem with it.  The problem is that many (too many) internet marketers started to write 250 word articles for the only purpose of having their resource box links showing above the fold.

What does this all mean?

When the reader would open the article, because of being rather short the links in the author’s resource box would be visible on the screen without the need to scroll down.  This has been the main reason for some internet marketers to write article of not more than 250 words.  Because of this, however, the quality of the articles began to suffer over time.

In other words, the reason why a 250 article could be both, very good or very bad, really depends on the “intention” of the writer.  Let me give you an example.  If you have some great information that you would want to write about, but somehow, you were able to cover it in some 250 words, your article will be a good one, regardless of its length.  No doubt about it! On the other hand, however, if all you want to do is fill out a page making sure you do not pass the 250 words for some ulterior motives, then, most likely your article will suffer and therefore not be of the best quality.

This is what happened! And there we are.  Directories which were accepting such short articles had to stop for quality reasons.

Does this decision will help the articles quality?

While 400 word articles might not make a mediocre writer write better, it will force people who want to write a quick low value article for money reasons, to expand a little on what they want to say and write article that are a little more interesting for the reader.

Who wins in the end?

In the end, regardless of what the directories are accepting or not when it comes to the length of your articles, it will always be good and valuable content that wins because, after all, that is what both Google and the reader is looking for.  When you write valuable content you are not looking at the word count, but how good and valuable your article will be for people looking for that information.

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5 thoughts on “250 Word Versus 400 Word Articles – What Is The Big Deal?”

  1. I don’t like reading lengthy ones except if the article is too important for me but on the other hand an article too short may not deliver all the information the readers are looking for. I also feel that maybe the length of the article also depends on the topic, while some topic cannot be elaborated whatsoever some topics can gets too lengthy around 2500.

  2. I think no one like the long article m also don’t like read long article but when create your article with some videos and images than mostly people spend few time on your article.

    1. Well, I beg to differ. Google loves long articles and so are my clients. Reputable blogs do not want short articles, and they they wouldn’t pay for anything less than 600-700 words.

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