How short should my paragraphs be?

Two to three sentences. Long enough to make a point, short enough to scan.

Does this hurt my writing style?

It constrains it, but clarity and personality aren't opposites. Say the plain thing first, then add the character.

Do headings actually matter to answer engines?

They provide structure that makes content easier to segment and extract. They also help human readers, which is reason enough.

Clear & Structured Content

Structured content means writing concise, definition-style sentences and breaking pages into scannable sections, so both people and answer engines can extract facts quickly.

Why it matters

Answer engines lift short, self-contained sentences and quote them. A fact buried in the middle of a long paragraph is harder to extract cleanly, so an engine may quote a competitor whose version is easier to lift. Human visitors behave much the same way — they scan for the fact they came for.

How to apply it

Open every page with a definition sentence. "Acme Plumbing is a licensed emergency plumber servicing Richmond and Melbourne's inner east." That single sentence is the most quotable thing on the page.
Use descriptive `<h2>` and `<h3>` headings. "Our call-out fees" beats "What we offer".
Keep paragraphs to two or three sentences.
Use bullet points for lists of services, prices, hours and service areas.
Write sentences that stand alone. "We offer this in that area" means nothing lifted out of context. "Acme Plumbing offers blocked drain clearing across Richmond and Fitzroy" does.

The three-sentence test

For every important page, ask: if an answer engine could only pull three sentences from this page, would those three tell a customer what we do, where we do it, and how to contact us?

If not, rewrite until they would.

Common mistakes

Walls of text with no headings
Clever headings that don't describe the section beneath them
Pronouns and references that only make sense in sequence
Prices and hours written in prose instead of a list

Quick answers

How short should my paragraphs be?: Two to three sentences. Long enough to make a point, short enough to scan.
Does this hurt my writing style?: It constrains it, but clarity and personality aren't opposites. Say the plain thing first, then add the character.
Do headings actually matter to answer engines?: They provide structure that makes content easier to segment and extract. They also help human readers, which is reason enough.