Relationship Between Article Count and SEO | How to Increase Articles for Fast Results

If you’re working on SEO, you’ve probably wondered about the “relationship between the number of articles and SEO” at least once.

Even though you’re creating articles with SEO in mind, if your rankings aren’t improving, you might think,

“How many articles do I need to write to rank higher in search results…?”

“Would increasing the number of articles just make my rankings go up…?”

I believe many of you may have thought this.

However, simply increasing the number of articles (pages) on your site without a strategy could actually have a negative impact on your SEO.

In this article, we’ll cover the following topics:

By reading this article, you’ll understand how to increase articles effectively for SEO.

If you’re looking to get your articles ranked as quickly as possible, this will be a valuable reference for you.

The Relationship Between Article Count and SEO

To get straight to the point, there is no direct relationship between the number of articles (pages) and rankings.

In other words, simply increasing the “quantity” of articles will not necessarily improve your rankings.

On the other hand, it’s true that websites with a large number of high-quality articles tend to have an SEO advantage over sites that lack quality content.

This is because search rankings are determined by relative evaluation compared to other sites.

Here, we will explain the relationship between article count and SEO, focusing on the three most common questions.

1. Can Increasing the Number of Articles Improve Rankings?

The idea that “just increasing the number of articles will improve rankings” is incorrect.

Google’s John Mueller has addressed the relationship between the total number of pages on a site and its rankings, stating:

A higher page count means nothing (otherwise everyone would have an infinite calendar on their site, or heck, two.) There’s (still) no magical ranking factor that results in a site ranking better if it has more pages indexed. If anything, anecdotally from conference presentations & talking with folks, large sites that reduce the number of indexed pages end up ranking better (usually from cutting out cruft, merging similar content, etc).

Source: reddit – Anyone suspect that a site’s total page count affects SEO?

As can be seen from this statement, simply increasing the number of articles is meaningless. Instead, it is important to focus on increasing the number of “high-quality” articles.

If the goal becomes just pumping out articles, it can lead to an increase in low-quality content on the site, which can actually harm its evaluation.

Google’s official Webmaster Blog also states:

One other specific piece of guidance we’ve offered is that low-quality content on some parts of a website can impact the whole site’s rankings, and thus removing low quality pages, merging or improving the content of individual shallow pages into more useful pages, or moving low quality pages to a different domain could eventually help the rankings of your higher-quality content.

Source: Guidelines on Building High-Quality Sites | Google Search Central Blog

This means that having even a few pieces of low-quality content on your site could negatively affect the overall evaluation of your site.

Given this, it’s clear that creating high-quality content is not enough; in some cases, it may even be necessary to consider “reducing articles” as a strategy (we’ll explain this in more detail later).

In SEO, it’s not about just “increasing the number of articles,” but rather “increasing and collecting only high-quality articles.” This is the key.

2. Is There a Required Number of Articles to Rank Higher?

A common question is, “Is there a specific number of articles required to rank higher in SEO?” The answer is that there is no clear “X number of articles” rule.

However, depending on the competitiveness of the target keywords and the industry, there may be a need for a certain number of articles to rank higher.

For example,

• Queries in the YMYL (Your Money Your Life) category
• Transactional queries (keywords related to transactions)

In these cases, the evaluation is more dependent on the “site-level” rather than the “article-level.”

This means that even if your site has high-quality articles, if your competitors have higher expertise, better reputations, and more extensive content, it will be difficult for your site to rank higher.

On the other hand, for keywords with a higher emphasis on article-level evaluation (SEO difficulty is lower), it’s more common to achieve high rankings based on the quality of individual articles alone.

3. Achieving Results with a Small Number of Articles

“You need 100 articles to succeed with a blog.”

This is a commonly heard phrase, but it is possible to rank highly in search results and achieve success with only around 20 articles.

In fact, there is a company blog that achieved the following results with just 20 posts, as highlighted in Buzzubu’s content marketing success stories:

• 200,000 monthly page views
• High rankings for multiple keywords

Reference: Buzzubu – A Certified Accountant’s Blog That Achieved 200,000 Monthly Page Views with Just 20 Posts After Starting Content Marketing, and Published Two Books Just Three Days After Launch

However, the “quality of content” is an absolute prerequisite in this case.

Google emphasizes the importance of content in their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide as follows:

Creating content that people find compelling and useful will likely influence your website’s presence in search results more than any of the other suggestions in this guide.

Source: Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide – Making Your Site Interesting and Useful

Therefore, in SEO, the focus should first be on the “quality” of the articles, rather than the number of articles.

Low-quality articles will not contribute positively to SEO, no matter how many are added, but high-quality articles will become more effective as their numbers increase.

In the next section, we will discuss the benefits of increasing the number of articles, assuming they are of “good quality.”

Three Benefits of Increasing the Number of Articles

If the articles are “good quality,” increasing their number brings several benefits.

Let’s take a closer look at each benefit.

Benefit 1. Increased Traffic

The more articles you have, the more traffic you can attract.

This is because there are more “entry points” for visitors to your site.

For example, a site with only articles targeting the keyword “How to write a blog” will only attract users who have questions about writing blogs.

However, if you target keywords like “How to start a blog,” “Monetizing a blog,” and “Tools for creating images,” users with various concerns will visit your site.

Potential customers will search for various keywords, so increasing the number of articles will expand the opportunities to attract more visitors.

As the number of visitors increases, so does the likelihood of conversions and backlinks.

Benefit 2. Increased User Engagement

As the number of high-quality articles grows, user engagement improves.

Higher user engagement means that users who visit one page will also view other articles, staying on the site for longer periods.

You may have experienced reading not only the article you originally intended to read but also other articles of interest when visiting a site.

As user engagement increases, the time spent interacting with users grows.

The longer you engage with users, the stronger their loyalty and trust will be, increasing the likelihood of purchasing products or services.

Benefit 3. Improved Quality Rating of Related Pages

Another benefit is the improved quality rating of related pages and the overall site.

As the number of articles increases, so does the number of pages related to a specific topic.

Google values the relevance of pages and the comprehensiveness of topics. By linking related pages, Google will assign a higher quality rating to your content.

It goes without saying that quality ratings affect search rankings.

For users, being able to obtain supplementary or related information from linked pages is also beneficial.

We’ve covered three benefits so far, but these are only achievable if the articles are of high quality.

The next section explains what factors to focus on to create quality articles, so please continue reading.

Three Key Points for Creating High-Quality Content

We’ve repeatedly stressed that it’s important to increase “high-quality content.” But what exactly constitutes high-quality content?

To create high-quality content, at least the following three elements must be considered:

Let’s explain each of these in detail.

Point 1. User Search Intent

To create “high-quality content,” you first need to accurately capture the user’s “search intent” and provide information that meets their needs.

When we perform a search, we always have some kind of “concern” or “intention.”

For example, let’s consider the keyword “Moving costs.”

A user searching for this keyword likely wants to know “How much is needed for moving?” (an explicit need).

Furthermore, the user’s underlying concern might be “I want to move with the lowest possible cost” (an implicit need).

Content that addresses these types of user concerns and helps solve their problems can be considered high-quality content.

To understand the needs behind keywords, the following should be analyzed:

Point 2. E-E-A-T

If you have researched SEO, you’ve likely come across the term “E-E-A-T.”

E-E-A-T stands for the following three elements, which have recently become especially important in Google’s quality evaluations:

Source: Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (General Guidelines)

Google lists E-E-A-T as one of the most important factors in page quality evaluations in their Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.
Reference: Google – Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines

In other words, the more you embody the elements of E-E-A-T, the closer you get to the quality Google desires.

Examples of ways to enhance E-E-A-T include:

Point 3. Originality

To be high-quality content, originality is essential.

While analyzing competitors is important, creating content similar to theirs doesn’t bring much value.

If all the pages displayed in search results have similar articles, it can become overwhelming.

Google also states the following on its official blog for webmasters:

With this update, sites that focus more on ranking higher in search results rather than providing useful and reliable information to users will see their rankings drop. As a result, high-quality sites with original and useful content will be ranked higher.

Source: Google Webmaster Official Blog – Improving the Quality of Japanese Search

As shown here, original content contributes to better search rankings.

Let’s look at the following examples and think about how to bring “originality” to your company’s articles.

How to Increase Articles for Faster SEO Results

If you want to achieve SEO results as quickly as possible, focus on the “priority” of which keywords to target rather than the number of articles.

Whether an article ranks well depends largely on the initial choice of keywords.

By prioritizing articles with keywords that meet the following two conditions, you can achieve efficient SEO results with fewer articles.

Let’s examine these in more detail.

1. Target Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords refer to compound keywords consisting of 3 to 4 words.

Generally, these are niche keywords with a monthly search volume of 1,000 or fewer.

There are three reasons why you should target long-tail keywords first.

Because long-tail keywords have a smaller search volume, the competition is lower.

This makes it easier to rank higher, unlike big keywords where competition is fierce.

As mentioned earlier, “article-level” factors tend to reflect in rankings more easily.

However, some might wonder, “If the search volume is small, won’t I not get much traffic even if I rank number one?”

While it’s true that long-tail keywords may not bring as much traffic as big keywords, they have the advantage of being more likely to lead to conversions (sales).

This is because users searching for long-tail keywords tend to have deeper and clearer needs.

For example, compare the big keyword “skincare” with the long-tail keyword “skincare for dry skin men.”

It’s clear that users searching the latter are dealing with a more specific and urgent concern, right?

If you can provide content, products, or services that address their needs, the likelihood of conversion is higher due to their stronger intent.

Moreover, since it’s easier to grasp the user’s needs from the keywords, it also becomes easier to create “high-quality content” that matches their intent.

While the desire to target big keywords is understandable, it’s best to start with long-tail keywords that are directly related to the problems and needs of your potential or prospective customers.

2. Target Keywords from Specific Categories

Focusing on keywords from specific categories is a shortcut to achieving higher rankings in search results.

Identify one area where your company excels, and start by increasing articles focusing on that theme.

This is related to the “E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust)” concept I explained earlier.

Google values sites and pages with expertise, so if you can specialize in a particular field early on, it will benefit your SEO efforts.

For example, let’s assume your company sells furniture.

Keywords related to furniture might include “desk,” “chair,” “dresser,” and so on.

However, initially focus on a specific category like “stylish desks” or “recommended desks for single living” (this is just an example).

By doing this, you’ll quickly create a niche where you excel, leading to recognition as an expert and authority in that area.

So, if you want to see SEO results quickly, it’s especially important to decide which keywords to target first.

Don’t just blindly add articles; always prioritize and add content strategically.

Points to Keep in Mind When Increasing Articles

After reading this, many of you might be eager to start adding articles, but there are some important things to consider.

Let’s check the following two points as well.

1. Eliminate Low-Quality Content

If your site already contains low-quality content, you must consider “removing” it alongside adding more articles.

You may feel it’s a waste, but in today’s SEO environment, it’s essential to aim for a site filled with high-quality content.

If there’s a lot of low-quality content on your site, it can drag down the performance of all your articles, making it harder for rankings to improve.

To handle low-quality content, here are a few methods you can use. *Listed in order of priority:

If there are many shallow articles, copied content, or content that’s irrelevant to your potential customers, it’s best to remove them.

Be cautious when determining whether content is low-quality. For more details, please refer to the article below.

What is Low-Quality Content? Google’s Definition, SEO Impact, and How to Identify It -webma-

2. Be Aware of Cannibalization

When increasing articles, you must also be cautious of cannibalization.

Cannibalization refers to a situation where multiple pages on your site are targeting the same keyword or search intent and competing for rankings.

If cannibalization occurs, it can cause rankings to fluctuate or waste resources spent on content creation.

Therefore, when writing articles on a specific theme or topic, make sure not to create multiple articles targeting the same keyword or search intent.

You can read more about cannibalization, including examples, in the article below.

What is Keyword Cannibalization in SEO? Problems and Solutions Explained -webma-

For Those Wondering Whether to Outsource Article Creation

If you’re reading this article, you might be wondering whether to outsource article creation to increase your article count.

Article creation takes significant time and effort, so it’s not uncommon for in-house resources to fall short, causing article updates to stop.

However, simply outsourcing article creation to increase content volume will not yield good SEO results.

If you decide to outsource, make sure the goal is to have “high-quality content” created.

While you can hire freelance writers cheaply via crowdsourcing platforms, the quality can vary, and finding the right person isn’t easy.

For this reason, it’s recommended to outsource content creation to companies specializing in SEO and content marketing.

Such companies can provide the necessary SEO strategies to rank higher and deliver “high-quality content” that aligns with your goals.

Some companies may even offer site-wide improvement suggestions and advice.

At our company, Exscore, we also provide SEO content creation services.

If you’re interested, please feel free to reach out to us.

[Summary] Increasing Articles Without Strategy Can Backfire! Focus on Adding High-Quality Content to Aim for Top Rankings!

In this article, we’ve covered the relationship between SEO and article count.

Simply adding articles won’t improve search rankings, so focus on improving the quality of each article and satisfying your users.

If the content is truly useful to users, even a single article can lead to higher rankings and conversions. Ultimately, this cumulative effect will improve your site’s overall evaluation.

When creating content, be mindful of the following three points.

Additionally, if you want to see SEO results in a short amount of time with fewer articles, prioritizing keywords is also important.

Focus on keywords that meet the following two conditions first.

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