Should You Go Long on Content?

This is a question many marketers have been pondering given the statistics around long form content facilitating better visibility in search, more social shares and engagement.

Here's the thing: Content engagement and reach are intertwined when it comes to digital content. Search continues to be an important driver for connecting brand solutions content with buyers at the moment they need it. Some analysis of the content types that fare best in search have superficially associated length with "better".

It is not the number of words that has merit, it's the words used. Depth is better than length.

The reality is that depth is better. It just happens that much of the content that goes deep on a topic also has length. But it is not the number of words that has merit. It's the words used, structure, citations and associated entities that matter most for search engines trying to understand and rank the best answer content. 

Google is essentially an answer engine and if companies want to be the best answer for what their potential customers are looking for, they'll want to invest in content that is comprehensive and engaging on the topic.   

The notion of best answer content works in tandem with the idea of what some people call pillar pages. We call them Power Pages at TopRank Marketing. These are encyclopedic treatments of a specific topic and will often serve as the hub of an idea with spokes to tangential and related ideas in the form of other pages or posts.

The information architecture with Power Pages is very logical and both search and human friendly. Exploration of an issue from what it is, to how it can be solved, to evidence of credibility and triggers to take action call all be found within a single Power Page and it's ecosystem of subordinate content. 

Long form or short form shouldn't be a question answered solely from a SEO perspective, but organic search is absolutely an important filter.

There are many ways companies are making it easier and more effective for Google to crawl, index and rank long form brand content. Best practices SEO tactics include:

• Ensuring pages are fast and mobile friendly
• Pages include useful, logical content
• Page titles and descriptions are optimized for clickthrough in SERPs
• Signals of credibility / authority are added to content through attracted links from credible sources
• On topic influencers share and link to your content
• and credible content like statistics and cited excerpts,

The list of search performance optimization tactics is always evolving. What's most important about long or short form content is to remember that depth of topic, not length of page is what determines a best answer solution for bots and buying customers alike.