The question, “Why long-form posts are good for business?,” came up in a conversation with a client this week. In addition to video marketing, we had been reviewing strategies for building their digital footprint through more periodic blog posts.
The idea is simple: the more content you have that is relevant and engaging to what folks are searching for online, the more you will be recognized by the search engines, like Google or Bing, as being the expert on that topic.
Folks like Hubspot, a popular marketing tool, have cited various studies over the year that showed the more a business published blog posts, the more visitor traffic to their website they received, and therefore the more business they received.
Is there a magic formula for the perfect blog post length?
So the question will always be what is the magic formula? Is it one post a week or three posts per week? Is it a post with a video or large picture, or just a text-based post? Every time we marketers think we have figured out the formula, Google and the other search engines tweak it.
In one of the latest iterations of that formula, over the past year, has been the recognition that long-form content can benefit your site more than just a post that is only a few paragraphs long.
To many, this seems counterintuitive to everything we have been hearing over the last decade or so.
But as the Internet has grown and changed, and we’ve come to rely on it more for research and information, long-form content has become incredibly important.
Here is some data that backs this up.
First up is this research from Capsicum Mediaworks infographic that saw a correlation on content length and search engine results.
Quicksprout also found that longer length posts also resulted in more social shares.
And the folks at Moz found a strong correlation between blog length and number of links the post received.
Of course, just writing “I will write long” over and over again 1,000 times is not going to cut it. And this doesn’t mean you should abandon shorter posts or ignore using video, pictures infographics, or podcasts either. Like cooking a favorite recipe, you will find that it takes a little bit of this and a little bit of that to come up with a dish your guests will love.
So what is the recipe you should follow to create your long-form blog post?
I like what Pam Neely from Act-On, another marketing tool, wrote on this topic, “Serve your readers first. Serve yourself second.”
Research your long-form blog posts
What that means, is do your research. That could come from a range of sources, including reading our Seven G Media posts on keyword research.
Another benefit to the research is that you will come up with a list of very similar keywords and keyword phrases. In the past, if you were strictly writing short posts, you would only have one or two opportunities to get those keywords into your post in a natural, conversational way.
But by writing longer blog posts for your business, you will have more opportunities to get those terms into the post. And that is important, too. Type in a keyword search term into Google and see what results you get.
I got these results for “How to Write a Blog.”
- How to Write a Blog: The 12 Dos and Don’ts of Writing a Blog
- How to Write a Blog Post: A Simple Formula
- How to Write an Awesome Blog Post in Five Steps
- Writing a Good Blog – For Dummies
- How to Start a Successful Blog Today
- How to Write Great Blog Content
In addition to researching your topics, you should make a note of the URL, author and title of all the other existing posts there are out there on the topic. This can be used when you get down to doing your own writing.
Write what you know
Research is one thing. But you should also write what you know. With a bit of research, I could probably write a ton of blog posts on figure skating, but those posts would likely late authenticity. And writing authentically is critical when writing long form posts with the hopes that folks will keep on reading and be engaged.
And as you identify topics from your research, your own experience will help you group those topics into one or two posts, as well as the converse and help you identify when to narrow down a topic into several long-form posts.
Similarly, think about how your research matches with the experiences with your clients and prospective clients. Perhaps there is an opportunity to interview a few folks to get their take on an issue. These could be experts you reach out to on the web, or the customers that you deal with on a daily basis.
Always ask yourself how you are adding value by writing long-form posts
In addition to your research and your expertise, you should also be asking yourself how your topic would help, inform or engage your audience (whether they are prospective clients or existing customers).
Long-form content is an excellent opportunity to provide actionable steps for your readers.
Outline your blog posts
As I mentioned earlier, you don’t want to write a lot of fluff. One way to avoid that, as well as help you fill out what needs to be covered in your long post is by outlining your article. I recently participated in a workshop to write a novel in eight weeks. I was stuck in the driveway on that project until I spent a few days outlining the novel. From there, I was able to refer to my outline as my guide on that successful journey.
Make complimentary additions to your long-form posts
You can also think of ways to pair other marketing tactics and content to your long-form article. This includes identifying quotes from your post that can be highlighted for folks to share socially (by the way, you should make sure you have added sharing tools to your blog post).
Other fine pairings could be video, graphics, slide decks, infographics, or relevant photos.
Plan your long-form blog posts with an editorial calendar
Get down to the business at hand, and WRITE your post.
This is my business and I have a hard time finding time to regularly write. What helps me and what will help you is to take your time with your longer posts. Perhaps you are only doing to do a long post once every month, or once a quarter.
Over the holiday weekend, invest an hour into your business and plan out your editorial calendar for the next quarter.
Other option to help you write your blogs – long, short, and in between – would be to outsource the work. If you’re not a writer, and you don’t have an employee willing to take on the task of writing lengthy site articles or blog posts, you may want to consider outsourcing the content creation. We would be happy to discuss doing this for you. You can take a look at our blogging services.
In summary, longer blog posts has shown to improve your search engine rankings (which in turn, improves your business’s bottom line). Long-form posts do this in a couple of ways, including increasing the number of links to your website, as well as being very socially shareable with your audience.
Beyond the search engine results, long form posts also help show off your expertise.
So follow this recipe for
- Research
- Write what you know
- Value Add
- Outline
- Complementary Pairings
- Plan with an Editorial Calendar
Additional third-party posts on this topic:
- https://blog.kissmetrics.com/create-long-form-content/
- http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/03/31/how-long-should-each-blog-post-be-a-data-driven-answer/
- http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/05/05/longform-content
- http://www.brafton.com/blog/seo-hack-long-form-content-provides-thought-leadership-traffic-wins
- http://www.quora.com/For-SEO-is-it-better-to-write-one-really-long-blog-post-or-to-separate-the-material-into-multiple-long-blog-posts
- http://blog.performics.com/optimizing-long-content-benefits-of-keyword-research-from-an-seo-stance/
- http://www.gobloggingtips.com/ideal-word-count-for-seo/
- http://www.digitaltomorrowtoday.com/2015/04/long-form-content-can-prove-attractive-for-seo/
- http://blog.act-on.com/2015/03/how-to-optimize-a-blog-post-no-seo-wizards-hat-required/