10 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD WRITE LONG-FORM BLOG POSTS

Jan Limark
Jan Always Writes
Published in
8 min readJul 14, 2020

Keep It Short and Simple (K.I.S.S.)

This only applies to some aspects of life. But in writing a blog post, the longer you make, the better. You may have even heard someone saying: “No one watches videos which can be over 3 minutes, so always keep your videos brief…”

At once, there have already been others on the market that have stuck with their strategy that was preached almost every time, “Keep it short and brief”. While others go with very long blog posts which is full of sub-content.

The facts are both styles of communicating can operate. Seth Godin averages about 200 words; Social Media Examiner in a post is usually in the 1500 words range, but both websites are extremely successful versions for content creation.

1 | The Content Arms Race Enjoys Huge Weapons

I began saturating their marketplaces with content and talking about the “content arms race” over last year and more than ever I see only how competitive businesses and businesses of sizes are beginning to compete with each other.

As this occurs, and businesses are consistently putting out new articles, videos, eBooks, etc. — there’s one primary thing that distinguishes the average from those that stand previously — quality. And is the understanding that content that is longer is of better quality, but generally speaking, writers are given the chance to dive and educate on any given area by span.

Because they’ve been in this kind of competitive space, HubSpot has spent a good little bit of time over the past year creating content-rich eBooks to raise their pipeline, a thing that can be a great deal more strong after website post than only composing site post. Yeah, I understand, it’s not the most intimate analogy but it’s not false.

2 | ROI

As those in advertising and sales start to comprehend the power of content they’ll also begin to recognize bigger and better content, when used up, can have a remarkable impact on prospective customers and consumers. Considering I make a 250-page eBook. Lots of folks will tell me it’s stupid to have a 250-page eBook because it’s not overly short and thus turns off most readers.

What these people don’t comprehend is the fact I know the eBook will remove lots of subscribers. Actually, I need that. Why? Because the eBook is meant for businesses that need to control online through content marketing. And because they would like to function as greatest, they’re not unwilling to put the time into learning about how these aims can be achieved by them. 250 pages might appear like an excessive amount of content for some, but for my company and me, it’s the key to then locating the appropriate customers and greatly training.

Because it’s a demand that the eBook is read by my customers, it’s become my best single sales tool, qualifier, and filter. In addition, it ensures I’m working with businesses that are great on a regular basis. And isn’t this just what every company needs?

3 | More Visual Abilities

It’s become an established fact the more visual parts an article or piece of content has the more likely be read and it’s to attract attention. Going back to Social Media Examiner, you’ll see that not only do they typical over 1500 words per post as I mentioned before, but in addition they have at least 5 pictures (and/or video) with every post too.

That is an editorial rule for SME writers as it ensures that textual and visual students can use up information within their preferred approach and it’s a great one to have.

This magazine-style strategy is powerful and quite computed, and it’s one of the significant reasons despite the fact they’re only over 3 years old.

4 | Penguin, Panda, and Google like Huge Content

When Google updated their algorithm with Panda and Penguin in 2012, the complete internet was turned on its head. Many of the Search Engine Optimization practices that were most disgraceful were coming back to haunt firms that had danced with the devil, and a brand new age of content quality” that was “ was born. Also, when one actually realizes how search engines work, additionally they realize that “time on societal shares and site” have become more significant metrics of Search Engine Optimization success.

If Google has a selection showing two posts for the exact same key word, which one are they going to pick? Now given, this really is one of many variables that order search engine positions, but I’m certain you comprehend my purpose. Google needs to demonstrate excellent content that provides their users a delightful encounter. That’s their target. And more content that does a deep dive into a topic definitely has an improved possibility of fulfilling this target.

5 | Longer Content Gets More Societal Shares

I bet you have tried this. One blog post I made was over 2500 words and took over 8 hours to compose, but the time was worth it, and was more successful than if I’d written 5 other posts of small size and minimal impact. When people sense that the author has spent lots of time creating value, they may be considerably more likely than they would to share it if it was a smaller post — one of “quality.” that is equivalent Although I’d like to believe the posts I’ve composed that weren’t as long were still great, the fact cannot be dismissed that there’s a direct correlation between duration of content and societal sharing — a truth that many companies and bloggers are beginning to be aware of.

6 | Data says it all

Yup, just like what this sub-topic says. Data says it all. And data does not lie. As stated on the intro of this article, Seth Godin has an average of 200 words per article. And look at the number of shares, likes, and feedback he has. You’ve probably been reasoning out, this is because humans have small attention spans, and people don’t wish to scroll through long posts. But you see, you are not Seth Godin. In fact, data collected by Google’s Top 10 search results show that it has allergy to short content.

Most people are creating fewer number of words per blog post, nowadays, so to stand out from that, put in that extra effort to write the more words than other. Don’t let yourself blend in with others.

7 | More Social Exposure

According to studies, and data gathered, the longer the contents of a blog post are, the more social engagements it gains. More likes, more shares, more social interactions put the blog in publicity and exposure through the targeted readers or the keen eyes of the media. Having a large number of social feedbacks, creates an impression to others (customers, readers, media, other companies) that you are a big time blogger and you have a great number of followers or readers that mirrors the success of your blog.

From a study conducted by Moz and BuzzSumo, when they teamed up and analyzed millions of blog posts, long and thoroughly written articles, which contained information and helpful data were shared by readers to their friends and family while short articles were just left as they were, read or not. Analysis of data showed that 85% of web content, which is less than a thousand words long were not shared at all, or received low rate of social interactions. While the remaining 15%, composed of long blog posts, over a thousand words long, gained more social interactions with the readers and created more traffic for the blog. As a conclusion by Moz and BuzzSumo, blogposts having 3,000 to 10,000 words gained twice as much social interaction as short, less than a thousand word article do.

8 | Long content gets more links

Longer content ranks higher in search engines. While searching, people do not bother to even move on to the second page of the search results. Instead, they stick to the first ones that appear on the front page of the search engine. And guess what? The kind of blog posts that top the search engines are the longer ones, containing a thousand and more words. A few years ago, short content used to top the search engines, those blog posts containing 400–500 words only. But that’s not the case for today.

Today’s a lot different as the longer the articles, the higher it ranks on search engines. With a few exceptions of high-profile or authority websites. But you see, long blog posts are all the rage for today.

Brian Dean and Backlinko analyzed millions of Google search results and found out, that among the factors of being in high rank of search results, longer content topped the charts. Longer content beat shorter content in terms of ranking in search engines. And in fact, here is something to prove it, Brian Dean noted, “The average word count of first page Google result is 1,890 words.” And to back-up this fact, a study done by SerpIQ a few years back showed that results on the 10th page, have a 400-word count average while those in the first page have more than a thousand word count average. It is important to understand and keep in mind however, that longer data, does not always equate to higher ranks in the search engines. But this fact, however, gives an idea of how much words you need to make it to the top searches.

9 | People tend to read longer content

While reading the sub-title of reason number nine, you are probably frowning as it’s a known fact that people do not like to read long content, but rather, they prefer shorter ones. But you see, there are a number of those people who are researching, looking for information, understanding things, and where else would they get this information from other than long and thoroughly written blog posts?

People who are searching for answers to their questions, would most probably want longer content with much substance. They are looking for a blog post that they can learn from, a blog post that gives them knowledge from such things that they are curious about. But sometimes, for people who just wish to past time, or just decided to read because they just passed over the content, they would wish to read something that is in between. Not too long, not too short. Just enough words that contain the right amount of information but does not burden too much.

10 | Long but contains information

It is hard to write a long article. But a long article doesn’t necessarily mean repeating your words, re-wording it just so you could add to the word account. A long article should not only contain words but it should also contain some information and substance. People do not wish to read an article that repeats itself over and over again like a broken record. But instead, invest some time into writing long content by researching and actually including some helpful things inside your blog posts so that your readers can learn something from it. After all, the purpose of reading and writing is to learn something.

Note: If you’re looking for a freelance writer who specializes in online marketing, check my portfolio blog and let’s talk about business.

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