The SEO And User Science Behind Long-Form Content

Are you struggling to rank some keywords that should be easy? Are you having trouble attracting an audience to your site, even though you think you’re offering some great information? If so, then maybe you should consider adding more long-form content.

To put it succinctly, long-form content can make you look like more of an expert in your field, increase the likelihood of engagement and sharing, improve your search engine results page (SERP) rank, and increase your audience; because of your content, you will be viewed as an “authority” on the subject. All of that works to your benefit and translates to better brand awareness.

What Is Long-Form Content?

Long-form content is variously defined throughout the Interweb. However, the consensus is pretty clear on one point: If you’re just looking to get past a 500-word mark so that the search engines take notice of your content, then you’re not publishing long-form content.

My personal rule of thumb is that anything less than 1,200 words isn’t long-form content. I’d advise to aim for over 1,500 words, since 1,200 is (in my opinion) the minimum. That way, you’ll have a competitive advantage with the extra cushion.

But why not go all in? Set a goal of 2,000 words for your long-form content. I haven’t published a post less than 1,000 words for some time. I am generally going for 1,500 to 7,000 words now.

A Recently Recognized Benefit

The benefits of long-form content in the digital sphere have only recently begun to gain recognition. Believe it or not, it was long believed that digital long-form content was a bad idea:

When readers started moving to the internet, media analysts thought long-form journalism was in trouble. Attention spans were going to shrivel. Readers wanted short, they wanted snappy, they wanted 140 characters and not much more (though a listicle on the side couldn’t hurt). Who would want to scroll through an 8,000-word article on an iPhone screen?

Many are now realizing that the inevitable “death” of long-form content was greatly exaggerated, and digital marketers are discovering that long-form content is extremely valuable for both users and search engines alike.

The SEO Benefit

The exact algorithm that Google uses to determine which pages should go straight to the top of the SERPs for a given query is, of course a mystery (at least, it is to everyone outside of a certain corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California).

However, curious engineers can tinker and experiment — as much as the search engines will allow them — to gain some insight about what ranks well.

Long-Form Content Ranks Very Well

Back in 2012, serpIQ conducted a study involving more than 20,000 keywords. The results showed that the average content length of each of the top 10 results was more than 2,000 words. The average number of words for the content in the #1 spot was 2,416. For the #10 spot, the average number of words was 2,032.

Long-Form Content Garners More Backlinks, On Average

Not only do the search engines seem to intrinsically love long content, but you’ll find an additional SEO benefit from writing a couple of thousand words: more backlinks. Of course, those additional backlinks will help you rank with the SERPs, as well.

A study conducted by Moz shows a direct correlation between the length of the content and the number of backlinks pointing to it. It’s further evidence that long-form content is great for SEO.

Still, Only Death And Taxes Are Guaranteed

Before you trot back to your content management system with this newfound knowledge, thinking with certainty that if you speed-type 2,078 words about how to lose 50 pounds in six weeks you’re going to be in the #1 spot on Google’s search results, keep in mind that you’re not guaranteed to rank well just because you use long-form content.

The fact of the matter is that the search engine algorithms look at a lot of factors. I could, of course, go on about all the factors, but that is not really what this post is about.

Still, all else being equal, quality long-form content should increase the likelihood that you’ll rank for relevant terms. And that’s what it’s really all about, isn’t it?

Ranking your content for a particular keyword is a probability game. You increase your odds with long-form content. That’s the only promise here.

Long-Form Content Can Increase Conversion Rates

If you’re operating a blog that issues some type of call-to-action, whether you’re looking to build your email list or sell something, then you’ll find that long-form content can play a role in your conversion rate.