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Why NOT to use Bullet Lists

Search engines compare many "metrics" when it comes to websites. These metrics are used to rate (or rank) your website. So lets consider two otherwise identical websites.

The first has proper prose as it's content, with each of the main points stated and explained. The second has a bullet list of points.

When the search engine is going to list these sites in the results, it will always choose to rank the one with prose higher, because the points are not only made, but they are also explained.

The search engine does this because it believes the person doing the search wants to understand something, rather than just get an answer. They are more likely to do this with explanation, than with unqualified answers.

The second aspect to this of course is the number of words used. With prose, the content may take 200 words, whereas with bullet points, it may only take 50 words. This also feeds the search engine with data about how good each website really is.

There is one single exception to this. Linked lists. If you have too much content for a single page, then you can use lists as a kind-of navigation. In this case each item in the list is a link to a page which properly explains a particular thing. This can be an advantage by taking long and complex explanations out of the flow of a related page. The best known example of this is Wikipedia. As one of the best cross-linked sites on the internet it is a great example of prose vs. bullet lists, and uses both of them correctly:


Also, refer to the second link, before you decide that you have too much information for one page...

Clive Knowles
January 2015