Is anything over 1000 words too much? Ain’t nobody got time for that!
Think again!
Believe it or not, the advice that your blog post should “only” be around 600-1000 words is somewhat of a lie.
In reality, both forms of content are considered to be vital.
As different as they may be, each serves a specific purpose to help you create valuable content and grow your business.
Table Of Contents
What is Short From Content?
What is Long Form Content?
Does the Length of Content Matter?
Pros and Cons of Short-Form Content
Pros and Cons of Long-Form Content
Which Form of Content Should You Use?
What is Short Form Content?
When short-form content is mentioned, it is done so while talking about social media or short blog posts.
Short content is usually created with less than 1,200 words in length. Some even make short-form content faster than that.
You’ll find many blogs only post 600 words per post.
One reason to use short-form content is to provide readers with information that is easy to read and digest.
Short-form content aims to relay a single message without having to go into too much detail.
Short-form content is meant to be delivered quickly and efficiently.
Regardless of length, short-form content should still engage your audience and persuades them to take action.
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Examples of Short-Form Content-
- short blog posts
- news articles
- infographics
- social media content
- emails
What is Long Form Content?
This kind of content engages audiences with in-depth and researched topics.
Long-form Content is NOT meant to be a quick read.
Rather long-form content is intended to provide education and inform your audiences.
Research is critical when outlining and creating this type of content.
You want to be aware and answer what problems your audience is looking to answer.
Keep in mind that long-form content takes a considerable amount of time to research and write.
However, the results of engaging your readers with your long-form content are beneficial for ranking on SERPs and within Google.
Another key factor essential to long-form content is being more specific with your keywords.
By doing the research, you’ll know exactly what your audience is searching for.
For example: How to braid hair?
Long-tailed keywords are how you really zoom into the actual problem your audience is specifically looking for.
This, in turn, helps you to target the right people.
Examples of Long-Form Content-
- detailed and educational blog posts
- evergreen content and pages
- guides and how-to’s
- white papers and e-books
- pillar pages
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Does the Length of Content Matter?
According to Ahrefs: “Longer content gets more organic traffic and backlinks.”
Zenbrief.com states the reason you should think about using long-form content is for your SEO. (Search Engine Optimization).
Based on upon evidence presented in the article: Why long-form content matters for SEO and how to do it, there is a positive correlation between long-form content and better rankings in search engines.
Quite often, long-form content can attract more social shares.
Something to keep in mind.
Though, short-form content has its purposes as well. For one is easier to create than long-form content.
When it comes to the length of your articles, Neil Patel of Quicksprout, ran a study on how many shares he would earn with content longer and shorter than 1,500 words.
What he discovered was his longer post received an average of 68.1% more engagement on social media.
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Pros and Cons of Short-Form Content
The Pros
Readers’ short attention span
The short attention span is not a problem here, and short-form content is easily consumable.
Mobile Friendly
Think about it, people everywhere on buses, trains, planes, doctor’s offices, and wherever are looking at their phones, either reading or watching something.
Google also loves mobile-friendly content, which helps you to rank higher.
Post more Frequently
Consistency is the key in life as well as in creating content. Your readers/audience will begin to rely on a steady stream of content from you.
With shorter content, you can be sure to stick to that; deadline-perhaps posting once a week-much easier.
The Cons
Too Shallow
Where’s the value? This type of content may turn some people off because they can not see the value in writing.
To them, the short content is merely shallow.
Doesn’t answer search queries or solve issues.
When the audience does a search engine search, it is usually to answer a question. Such as: “How to braid hair.”
Short-form content doesn’t dive deep enough to help anyone looking for solutions. This is also the reason why short-form content doesn’t rank as high as long-form content.
Pros and Cons of Long-Form Content
The Pros…
Build Authority
A major benefit of using long-form content is building authority, which is great when you’re trying to educate and demonstrate your value.
Generally speaking, people want to learn more about something they are invested in, and having a long piece of writing will be valuable to these people.
Ranking higher in Search Engines
Another benefit is Search Engines love long-form content. To the bots that crawl your site to them, this establishes your authority.
As long as the piece is well written and the grammar is on point. If you need tips on how to elevate your writing, read all about my post, Simple Ways to Elevate Your Writing.
Long-Form Content gets you more Backlinks.
When you demonstrate your authority and expertise on a topic well, other bloggers and writers will want to use you as a source.
While Google “says” they do not use backlinks to rank you in SEO, it is still a great way to prove your expertise, and hey, word-of-mouth advertising doesn’t hurt either.
The Cons…
Attention Spans
That’s right, our attention spans are shorter than ever, and aside from that, many people just don’t take the time to read long content.
Long-Form Content Takes a While To Create
Coming from a girl who loves to write and read, long-form content is not for the faint of heart.
You have to be really invested in researching and coming up with good content if you want your article to be read.
Not a lot of writers, bloggers, or businesses want to invest that kind of time.
This is why you hire writers such as myself to help you with your content needs.
Which Form Of Content Should You Use?
Determining which form of content you should use will depend on what is best for your business.
Each business is different; however, there are a few details to consider when deciding which form of content you should use.
- Your business goals
- budget
- resources
- Your industry/products
- Your audience/customers interests and education
- Customers’ experience
- The customer’s expectations
- your products and services
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