There is a well-established fallacy that people generally don’t want to read long pieces of content online. The common complaints you may have heard to date could include, “I don’t have time to read all of this!” or “Why is this blog so long?” and possibly even “Nobody reads anymore!” While there may be a small population who still has hang-ups on long-form content, it’s best not to follow the stigma of those anti-long form bellyachers.
This current digital-age misunderstanding can demonstrate obvious negative effects on your business endeavors – including massive restraints on your search engine optimization. The grind to improving your overall SEO performance first begins with well-written, B2C-based blogs that focus on conversions and notoriety with compelling content. Abiding by these pessimistic beliefs won’t provide you with the results you’re looking for.
How Long-Form Content Improves SEO
There’s no debating that long-form blogs improve SEO visibility for your business, but have you ever considered why that is? The 1,200-word mark is the general rule of thumb that’ll hand you a competitive-edge against the massive amounts of short pieces that are floating around online. But here is a more in depth view on how long-form blogs can increase your businesses’ SEO performance, and how you can capitalize on the multiple benefits it offers.
Easy Application with Proven ROI
Creating long-form content is not difficult, but it will take a little extra time to create your final masterpiece. A common goal for any business owner is to easily see the return on investment (ROI) of their SEO endeavors. Longer content is also social-friendly. It’s been recorded that longer blogs accrue more social shares versus the average blog post. As social media shares your content, sessions and traffic will increase as a direct result. This inbound marketing technique is easily trackable and if done right, can provide clear ROI in terms of revenue increases or notoriety of the brand, product, or service. If you would like to learn more about this, take a look at these case studies for a hyper-focused view on how longer content is an effective means of heightening traffic and making your business a high-impact competitor within the market.
Expand on a Topic for In-Depth Focus
Without content, there is nothing. Blogging is a large determining factor on the success of content marketing. Since the goal of a blog is to answer consumer questions in an attempt to increase traffic, longer blogs will allow you to truly know your market. This grants you the opportunity to expand on a topic and provide an in-depth comprehension or explanation on a certain question or concern. You’ll be able to hone in and create a well-versed buyer persona that really speaks to your customer. At the same time, the expanded length of your blog will give you yet another opportunity to incorporate more keywords and keyword phrases to make the biggest impact on industry buzz words and trends for long tail search results.
Increased Engagement
Longer blogs allow you to utilize different engagement strategies other than the physical act of reading the words on the page. Instead of using one strategy throughout your blog, you now have the ability to incorporate more engagement strategies in your post all at once. With more rich and descriptive content accessories, your piece generally becomes more engaging and click-worthy. Here are just a few of the strategies you can use to increase engagement and meet your designated SEO goals:
- Visual content (e.g. infographics or interactive scrollers).
- Videos to increase information retention.
- Supportive documents to expand on a topic’s details.
More Backlink Incorporation
The larger the content, the more backlinking opportunities arise. Incorporating quality backlinks into your content is one of the most effective ways to improve your SEO rankings. This allows search engines to weight your content’s importance and popularity based on the referenced links within the page. Receiving and utilizing backlinks to and from other sites is a major metric that will determine the level of influence within the search engine. Google – for example – will reward a website with a large number of good backlinks on your keyword or keyword phrase and render it more relevant than other pages in a similar search query.
Google Says So
Why write longer content? Google says so – in fact they highly recommend it! Google rolled out their Panda and Penguin algorithm updates in 2012 with a focus on content quality. This search engine behemoth encourages companies to incorporate longer quality content that deeply describes a specific industry subject in order to avoid ranking demotions. As recent as late 2017, Google has even been eliminating questionable SEO practices and improving their algorithm for addressing unfavorable, thin content. Simply put, go big or go home! Your content is the lifeline of your SEO performance, and you’re going to need search engines like Google on your side.
Search Engine Optimization Services in Pine Brook, NJ
Your organic rankings are vital to both immediate and long-term business success. Investing in search engine optimization will provide your company with the resources necessary to leap into the heart of the digital-community and make a lasting impact. Rank for industry keywords and optimize for efficiency with Today’s Business if your business is in need of assistance. Contact us today to learn more about our digital marketing services and how we can make your business grow!