Why long-form content is worth your time

The following post is a snippet from our recent Fresh Egg blog:

Why long-form content is worth your time

It may come as a surprise, in this digital age, with attention spans apparently fading and infinite amounts of content for audiences to consume, that long-form content still has a place.

In fact, it should be a cornerstone in your content strategy.

We know Google loves regular, high quality, authoritative content – there’s nothing new there. And the fact that longer content can be beneficial isn’t anything new either, but on the whole content creators are still favouring frequent, shorter pieces over more detailed but intermittent, long-form content – often because it’s quicker to create several short posts than one detailed article.

Hubspot research suggests that most marketers spend 2-4 hours producing a 500-word blog post, which isn’t enough time to research and produce authoritative original content.

The correlation between long content and better Google visibility has been the subject of study for years, and there’s increasing evidence that audiences prefer long-form to short-form content.

But does long-form actually work?

Here’s a quick example. The below is a breakdown of the shares by length for articles on the Guardian in the past six months, using BuzzSumo:

It’s clear that the most shared articles are more than 3,000 words. Not only is this supported by many other studies, but various sources looking at data sets across different platforms agree that, generally, posts of at least 1,500 words achieve more shares, likes and better visibility in Google.

For example:

·       Backlinko’s research that showed that the average length of a top-ranking post on Google is 1,890 words, and serpIQ conducted research way back in 2012 that concluded that results across all top 10 positions averaged more than 2,000 words in length.

·       Medium, the popular blogging site, conducted research into the most popular articles which found that the most popular posts took 7.3 minutes to read, with an assumed average speed of 275 words per minute and time added for images. So, the optimum length of a Medium article is around 1,600 words.

So, let’s look at how and why long-form can be beneficial for content producers.

From a technical perspective:

Google is now more focused on context than on specific keyword targeting, and the search engine’s Hummingbird algorithm means Google understands the topic of every page, so it knows what you’re writing about and in what detail you’ve covered it (links, length, and yes, keyword density).

It measures quality signals to gauge audience interaction (clicks, dwell time, actions on site, links again), and it’s around these quality signals that long-form content can start to have an effect. Long-form content also generates more inbound links, which could have a long-term impact on domain authority.

From a user perspective:

When consuming long-form content, your audience is likely to be in a receptive mindset. They’ll probably have a good base knowledge of your subject area, having already read and digested related short-form content.

They’re looking for more. They want added value. Greater knowledge. Richer and more useful information.

Long-form content is your chance to provide that – in detail.

Long -form content tips and tricks

Want to know more?

Read our full blog post to learn:

• More case studies and stats into the success of long-form content in recent months and years
• More pros and cons for long-form content vs. short-form
• How to structure long-form content on your site for optimum results
• The importance of promotion for all content, whether short or long-form