long content
Pages with over 5,000 words may need restructuring for better readability
What it is
crawler.sh flags a page as having long content when the extracted text exceeds 5,000 words. This is check #9 in the SEO analysis.
Note: This check requires content extraction to be enabled. If you crawled with
--no-extract, content checks won’t run.
Why it matters for SEO
Very long pages aren’t inherently bad - comprehensive content often ranks well. However, they warrant review:
- User experience - Extremely long pages can overwhelm readers and increase bounce rates if not well-structured.
- Crawl efficiency - Larger pages take more resources for search engines to download, parse, and index.
- Content dilution - A page trying to cover too many topics may not rank well for any single topic compared to focused, dedicated pages.
- Core Web Vitals - Very long pages can negatively impact loading performance metrics.
Why it matters for AEO
AI answer engines process content to extract relevant passages. A 10,000-word page covering multiple topics makes it harder for AI to identify the most relevant section for a specific query. Well-structured, focused content with clear headings helps AI systems extract precise answers.
How to fix it
Evaluate whether long pages should be restructured:
- Comprehensive guides - Long-form guides that thoroughly cover a single topic are generally fine. Ensure they have a clear heading structure and table of contents.
- Multi-topic pages - If a page covers several distinct topics, consider splitting it into separate, focused pages.
- Repeated content - Check for unnecessary repetition that inflates word count without adding value.
Guidelines:
- Use clear H2/H3 headings to break up long content
- Add a table of contents for pages over 2,000 words
- Consider whether the content would serve users better as multiple pages
What crawler.sh reports
In the CLI, long content pages appear under the “Long content” section of crawler seo output. Each affected URL is listed. In the desktop app, they appear in the SEO Issues card.
