If you’re creating blog content for your website, it’s time to recognise that word count really does matter. While short and succinct articles are a brilliant place to jot down recent news and developments, there should be space within your marketing calendar for long-form blog content too. Not only does this give you a chance to highlight yourself as an authority figure within your industry, but it also increases the likelihood of shares and engagement. And, it’s been shown to have significant positive benefits for your SEO ranking tool.
What is long-form blog content?
In general, digital marketers deem long-form content to be articles that exceed 1,500 – 2,000 words. Whether this refers to a blog post, whitepaper or ebook, these longer pieces are vital to businesses. They provide you with the scope to delve into topics, including a host of statistics and studies that back up the expertise behind your words.
How does it benefit SEO rankings?
A number of studies have shown just how beneficial longer blog posts and content pieces are to your SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) ranking.
Higher online visibility
Content longer than 2,000 words have been shown to come up higher on search results, regardless of topic. A study by serpIQ in 2012 used 20,000 keywords to determine a correlation between post length and search engine ranking. It found that, within the top 10 results, all pieces of content were over 2,000 words.
Source: https://assets.website-files.com/589a31e3551e733a335ecfa4/5a61287f52d1da0001f4668a_serpiq.JPG
More backlinks
With more content to play with, it’s easier to insert statistics and rich information in a non-spam-like way. This makes the content more appealing to readers, giving it more depth and increases the likelihood that it will resonate with them. In turn, this increases the chance of gaining quality backlinks – a factor that significantly helps to improve search rankings.
Increased shares
A study from Moz shows that long-form content is more shareable. Again, this is due to the fact that they contain links and more information that relates to the user. With social media being such an important part of modern life, and that of digital marketing success, this increased shareability offers a host of benefits. It increases the chance of viral spread, boosts your company name to a wider audience and helps drive traffic back to your website.
Long-form content, be it in the form of guides, whitepapers and ebooks should be a solid feature within your SEO plans. If you would like advice on creating content that works, get in touch with the team here at Media Orb.
