Why Your Site Needs Long-Form Content
I’d like you to settle down and make yourselves comfortable because this blog post is going to be a bit of a long one. Well, it’d be rude not to be, it is a blog all about long-form content, after all. So, grab yourself a cuppa and shut the rest of the world out while we spend the next 10 minutes looking into why long-form content should be an integral part of your content strategy.
Now, if we are to believe the digital age scaremongering, the mere thought of a long article or blog post is enough to put users off. Research carried out by Microsoft in 2015 showed the average attention for an adult is a shocking 8.25 seconds, that’s currently one second less than a goldfish and approximately 4 seconds less than it was for us in 2000. Further reports state that the average attention span of someone reading online content may be as low as 2-3 seconds! If that’s the case, I’m assuming you’ve stopped reading already! Hello……You still there??
So, are we to accept this notion, that any content taking 10 seconds or longer to read, just won’t get a look in? If it’s ‘too long’, apparently, we as users, don’t want to read it and can’t read it, with our less than satisfactory attention spans. Are we now a nation of goldfish brains with an inability to read, consider or absorb any more than a couple of sentences without losing interest?
Surely not! Long prose doesn’t have to put users off and doesn’t have to be a drag!
Naturally, the content needs to be well-written and interesting to read, so considering how it’s going to be received by the reader is key. The trick is to write long content without it being, well, boring.
In addition to thinking about the reader and keeping their interest, primary consideration needs to be given to how the content will fare in search engine ranking. So, we’re going to look at these two factors but first, we should establish exactly what long-form content is.
What is long-form content?
There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to how long long-form content should be. It’s generally taken to mean more than 1,000 words but can be as long as you need it to be. If you’re writing a user manual for a product or a welcome pack for a particular service or client group, it stands to reason it’s going to take a lot of words to make sure you have included everything that needs to be shared.
So long prose or long-form content can apply to blogs or articles but also other, more lengthy content. Some argue that long-form content only truly becomes this at 4,000 words plus, others say that once you reach the 1,500-word mark, you are hitting lower levels of long-form. But, as we’ll see a little later, content doesn’t need to be pushing on 4,000 words or more to get the results you need.
Does a reader want long-form content?
A reader ultimately wants to be entertained, informed, or helped when they consume content and, in some cases, they will be happy to read line upon line of the content if it ticks a few of the imaginary boxes.
- Compelling
The content must be interesting, informative, and useful. I know this probably goes without saying but I’m going to say it anyway because it’s worth bearing in mind, particularly when writing a longer piece. Always consider the reader and ensure you are writing something worthy of holding their attention and worthy of their precious time. - Relevant
Make the content relevant. Relevant to your sphere of business, relevant to your readership and pertinent to current market trends or topical conversations. Relevance breeds interest, and interest breeds a captive reader. When you successfully keep the content relevant, a reader can stay on that page until the final word has been consumed and not even notice they sucked in 5,000 words or more. - Succinct
Content should be succinct and precise. Don’t waffle and use unnecessary words, it very quickly becomes boring and loses the reader. Bringing a personality to your writing is essential and will make it interesting to read; however, consider carefully throughout the piece, that you aim to hold the attention of the reader. So, avoid going off on irrelevant and confusing tangents. We’ve all seen it, in an attempt to appear smarter, or more authoritative, a complex array of words decorates a page, only to leave the reader questioning what is being said. With the enhancement of AI writing tools too, it’s very easy to suddenly lose your authentic voice and style of writing and instead bog the reader down in a quagmire of confusion, inaccuracy and unoriginality. - Structured
When structuring your content, it will largely depend on what type of content you are producing. An old-school approach, for example, is best when writing an article or longer piece. Start with an introduction, cover the key points, break up the text into suitable sections with headings, include visually pleasing content such as an infographic and end with a conclusion. Job done! This method works because it holds the content together; gives it structure and flow; and makes it easier to read, digest and refer to.
If you have a decent infographic that will enhance your content, it always helps to throw it in. To see in pictures and other visuals an explanation of what is being read helps encourage readers to read on. They’ve seen an answer but now they want to know more!
Content that can answer ‘How’ and ‘Why’ search queries is one popular route when structuring long-form content. Think about how often you use Google and how often you may search with a question word. Your audience is doing it too! Alternatively, think how often you might search for “the five best ways to xxx” or “most popular xxx in xxx.” These list-driven searches provide you with listed long-form results that are informative, and detailed and hit the exact search intent of the user.
Why long-form content helps your Google rankings
Contrary to general perception, long-form content is liked by readers; it gets read and ranks excellently. In addition, Google loves knowing that you have provided it with a wealth of information to show the person searching.
A 2019 article from Backlinko was full of praise for long-form content. In fact, it was positively gushing about how vital long-form content can be. It showed that long-form content gets an average of 77.2% more backlinks than short-form pieces. We all know Google loves a backlink, so this alone indicates your climb up the SERPs is likely to be a little easier with good long-form pieces that others want to link to.
Furthermore, a piece updated in March 2024, also from Backlinko, showed that the average word count for a first-page piece on Google was coming in at 1,447 words. Where are the shorter pieces you may ask? Check the rankings in the high teens and early twenties and you might find them!
We can also refer to what the team at Wordstream tell us. Using their content as an example, they switched up their style, changing from regular short-form content dominating their pages to more long-form. This saw the average time on their site jump from 1min 33secs to 4mins 35. And, just like Google loves backlinks, it enjoys seeing people stay on a page, consuming the content they have found. Slowly nudging you up the rankings as your relevance, authority and quality become more proven.
Back in 2012, another batch of research, this time conducted by serpIQ, threw up some interesting statistics about long-form content. More than 20,000 keywords were analysed to find the average content length of the pages shown in the top 10 results for each keyword. The findings are perhaps surprising. Every page reaching the top 10 for each keyword search had a content length of more than 2,000 words. The average number of words, for the content on the page ranking the highest for each keyword, was 2,416. The average number of words for the site ranking in 10th position was 2,032.
Multiple sets of results, but one clear fact. Long-form works!
How does long-form content benefit your website?
There are a host of reasons long-form content can benefit your website, it’ll not only see you climb up the rankings, but it will help you appear as the authoritative voice in your field. The one that customers, employees, commentators and more will turn to when they need to seek answers. Let’s jump in a little deeper.
Your search engine ranking goes up!
Long-form content is a must for any website, whatever your business. Blogs, articles, guides, brochures, and more are a perfect platform to target niches, engage customers and boost search engine rankings. Search engines appear to big up long-form content. How content ranks is often a close-guarded secret, Google don’t want to spoil our fun trying to suss how to hit that first page. However, there are potentially as many as 200 ranking factors for us to consider!
In March 2024 Google wrote about how they have further enhanced search to ensure unoriginal content is less likely to have a high ranking and how the more helpful, detailed information is pushed closer to the top. This is where long-form stands to help. By answering a host of questions, and giving detailed, relevant information, Google will give you preference over the unoriginal, rushed, shorter, less informative pieces. With more traffic being sent to those creating higher-quality and more user-intent-focused content, it stands to reason that you will see your rankings improve. As of April 2024, Google claims you will now see 45% less low-quality content in search results. Certainly food for thought when creating content calendars!
As mentioned earlier on, an SEO benefit of writing long-form content is the increased backlinks. These extra backlinks will help your site rank well with the SERPs too.
You become experts in your field
Putting lengthy, reliable, well-researched and expert content out there – particularly if it’s useful, helpful, or informative – will set you up as a business that’s ‘in the know.’ A trusted and turned-to expert, providing invaluable resources in your area of expertise.
Regularly posting such content will continue to boost your authority and position as a relevant voice in the field. This continual kudos building provides more proof of your standing in your sector and gives a chance to build on your business profile and user engagement, as you enhance your business.
User engagement increases
Providing regular informative, lengthy content, offering advice and ‘how to’ guidance will create a good relationship between you and your customers because they are turning to you as a resource. As information providers who know what they’re talking about, it’s a great way to engage with your client base. Long-form content gives the reader both value and reward.
Your online presence is more prominent
Long-form content gets more user engagement and shares on social media. There’s plenty of research out there indicating this. A study conducted by Buzzsumo found that 1,000-2,000-word content gets the most average shares. Not far behind, content averaging 2-3,000 words racks up consistent social media coverage and even content in the 3-10,000-word bracket gets people hitting those share buttons. It’s when the content contains up to 1,000 words that you see a significant drop in the number of times people want to share it with others.
This ties in with being known as an expert in your field. People are turning to your site, and interacting with the content because you are regarded highly in the sector you are in.
Regularly providing this type of content will continue to attract more potential customers, as users share content published on your site, across their preferred media spaces.
This is exactly the cycle you want to be caught up in. The potential ripples are mind-blowing! Take Pinterest, for instance. There are an average of 1 billion visits to Pinterest each month. Each person busily going about their business pinning away. Each pin, on average, leads to 2 page visits and 6 pageviews. That’s something to think about.
(If you’re still with me, we’re at 2,022 words and 11,869 characters. That’s around 10 minutes of reading time so far! Thanks for extending your so-called 8-second attention span this far…)
Have you got a blog yet?
The upshot is some long-form content should be a feature of every business’ website.
If you haven’t already got a blog that is regularly updated on your site, sort this out and set up a blog!
Anything from 1,000-7,000 words per piece is acceptable, provided every inch of this content is relevant, useful, topical, and pertinent. One subject area may warrant an in-depth discussion that justifies many more thousands of words than another which may be covered in 2,500.
It’s good to mix it up and offer a range of content of varying length but bear in mind this content will only tick the ‘long-form content’ box of the rankings lottery if it is actually long!
We’re talking at least 1,400+ words to stand a chance of being ranked highly! Remember the data we showed you earlier?
Utilising long-form opportunities
Introduce more long-form articles into your content strategy. It doesn’t have to be just blogs. In fact, you could go long-form on pretty much anything if it is brand-relevant and captivating.
Consider producing guides, brochures or handbooks that will contribute to the knowledge available in your field. A proper long-form content project like this could be as many as 20,000 words or more!
This is a large undertaking, amounting to many more words than your average blog post, but it will help your online presence and standing within the sector immensely if you do it right. Do this periodically, becoming known for the expert literature you are sharing, and there’s every chance you will be the site your market base turns to, not only for information and advice but also as loyal customers.
Play the long game
Don’t fear long-form content. In-depth long-form content is one of the best ways to get your site featured in search results.
Useful, considered, and in-depth long-form content will remain relevant for months and years after publication. Used as a resource that can be accessed again and again, it can be evergreen and only need an occasional, annual repurposing to change time or law-specific features.
This is most definitely a feather in its bow! Long-form content can carry on producing traffic to your site, shares on social media and rankings for years after its creation with only the occasional tinker to keep it where you want it to be!
So, what are you waiting for? Get stuck in! It’s such a great opportunity to show the world the business you’re in, that you’re a market leader, an authority and an expert in your field, while at the same time, bringing more users/customers to your site and setting you up to stand a chance at being ranked up there in the top 10, bringing more users and customers to your site.