Short Vs. Long Form Content: Which Is More Effective?

Content is king –but which is best: short-form or long-form?

By now most of us know the benefits of content marketing –and understand the importance of regular, consistent content.

Content marketing is a great way to get the word out about your company –raise your public profile, and market your services. According to HubSpot’s latest State of Inbound Industry report, “Inbound campaigns achieve higher ROI than outbound.” Having a blog that’s full of great articles will help you to appear more frequently in search engine results, and thanks to social media, your message also has a chance to be shared far and wide with a huge audience.

When it comes to creating content, though, you’ll want to ensure that you write articles that will produce the best possible results. Which is one reason that many business owners and marketers alike are asking the question, “Which is better, long or short-form content?”

The simple answer is both! There’s no one-size-fits-all sweeping answer to the question of which type of blog post is best. The fact is that long and short posts both have their benefits –and the best word count for your blog posts will depend largely on what your goals are with the content.

Let’s take a look at both short and long content –and see how each one can benefit your marketing strategy.

Short-Form Content

The average post on WordPress is just 280 words long, according to WP CEO, Matt Mullenweg.

Short-form content has a lot going for it –and there’s a reason that short articles are extremely popular. These posts are fairly easy to create –and they’re great for generating discussion, and encouraging readers to chime in and share their own thoughts.

Tip: If you’re looking for more comments on your blog, consider posting more frequent, short and succinct blog posts –with strong calls to action. For best results, focus on asking your readers questions and generating discussion.

Long-Form Content

Longer articles are valuable as well. These articles allow you to establish credibility and deliver content of value to your audience, helping to build your online reputation or position yourself as an expert in your field. Longer articles also tend to rank higher in search engine results. Medium to long posts also do well for shares on social media.

If you have some ideas for topics, or subjects that you’d like to cover in-depth, long-form content is a great way to do that.

Just make sure your efforts are well-spent. Try to create content on topics that you know people will be searching for –it would be a shame to write in-depth articles on vague topics that no one will read.

Tip: Do you want more social media shares? Focus on creating medium-length content. Articles that are between about 600 and 1250 words tend to do well for shares. Want more traffic from Google? Longer, heavily researched articles, about 2450 words tend to rank highly on Google.

Which Length Is Best?

As we’ve seen, the optimal length of content depends on what your end goal is.

Shorter pieces are great for sparking conversations and increasing reader engagement.

Long content is usually considered best for longevity –and is ideal if you’re looking to create content that will draw in traffic both now, and in the future. They’re also good for educating and informing others, helping you to establish yourself as a thought-leader in your industry.

Just remember that there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to content. You may even find it beneficial to do a combination of short and long articles, and see how well the articles perform both immediately –as well as over time.

The final verdict?

As a good rule of thumb, your content should be as long as it needs to be to get your message across. If you can do that in 300 words, great –but if you have a topic that requires 2,000, that’s excellent too. Your best option is to write content that’s inspired –no matter what the length may be. Just keep in mind what each length will bring to your blog, and don’t be afraid to vary your word count to suit your message, and readers.

Remember: the best content is the kind that will help you to get your message across –regardless of how long, or short it may be. 

Do you prefer to write short or long-form content? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Image: Pete O'Shea