7 Reasons to Create Long-Form Content

May 30, 2023 | Content Marketing

7-Reasons-to-Create-Long-Form-Content

The online audience doesn’t have an impressive attention span. How many times have you heard this claim? Of course, there’s some truth behind it. Many Facebook users just scroll down the feeds without paying attention to anything past the headline. When some of them follow a link and land at your website, they will be reading the headline and subheadings, and they will take a look at the photos you present along the way. Statistics show that the average attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds, but it dropped down to 8.25 seconds by 2015. The average website visitor reads only 28% words on the page.

This may lead you to a conclusion: if you want to say it well, you need to say it quick. Does that mean you should stop bothering writing elaborate articles? Of course not! In fact, long-form whitepapers, articles, eBooks, newsletters, and blog posts provide everything the target audience is looking for: depth, practical solutions, and authoritative opinions.

When Does Short-Form Content Work?

Short articles work well in many situations:

  1. People who are searching for humor, light storytelling, and testimonials prefer short content.
  2. When someone is looking a specific answer to a specific problem, they prefer reading an article that goes straight to the point. Thus, they opt for shorter publications.
  3. If your blog is focused on a large, more general audience, you might want to consider their short attention span.
  4. Recipe blogs. Let’s face it: no one likes reading personal stories about how the blogger’s grandmother loved chili peppers before getting down to the cake recipe represented on the photo. Why do food bloggers keep doing that? Just get straight to the point, people!

Why Do We Still Need Long-Form Content?

We should always stay aware of the fact that some of our website visitors do read. They want us to value their time, and they want us to provide as much information as possible within a single article. Anyone can write 250-word blog posts, but not everyone can be a successful researcher and writer of valuable long-form content. If you make the effort, your audience will start seeing you as an authority in the niche. Isn’t the status of an influencer what we all strive for?

In the continuation, we’ll give you 7 reasons for creating long-form content. They will convince you that the time, effort, and energy a long article demands is a worthwhile investment.

1. Google likes long content

There’s a simple fact that supports this claim: you can naturally infuse more keywords in long-form content. That’s a SEO benefit we cannot neglect. Google relies on keywords to decide which pages it will present as the top search results. Back in 2012, serpIQ published the results of a very interesting study: the average content length of the first Google results was around 2500. The top 10 results were all promoting content of 2000+ words, and there was a drop in the content length as the results moved from the second towards the tenth position.

If you’re still having doubts, check out what Google’s technical staff says: up to 10% of the daily searches are related to learning about a broad topic. That’s why the search results are focused on helping users find in-depth articles that provide the needed solutions and information that users need. The algorithm looks for in-depth, high-quality content, so it’s easy to understand why most of the top-ranked sources come in the shape of long-form articles.
In other words, if you want your blog or website to rank well in Google’s results (and you do want that), then you should definitely start including in-depth articles in your content plan.

2. More conversions!

Long-form content is more effective in generating conversions. We’re not saying that as a statement based on personal experience; we’re saying that as a fact based on a well-known case study on the Highrise marketing site. The results of the A/B testing were as clear as they could get: 37.5% more people subscribed for Highrise with the long-form version of the design. The study also showed that the design that featured a person performed even better than long-form content. Still, the website visitors need to find all information they need, and they want you to present the content, even if it’s not on the landing page.

Here is another interesting case study for you: an A/B split test for Crazy Egg featured a new page that was about 20 times as long as the control page. The results were surprising: the long page was more successful by 30%. The visitors got all their questions answered right at the home page, so they were definitely not bored or overwhelmed by the length. In fact, the content cannot be too long if you keep it engaging and non-repetitive.

Needless to say, no one can guarantee that long-form content would be better for your site and your audience. That’s what makes A/B testing such a cool idea. Create a longer version of the landing page and conduct your own case study to see what happens.

3. Readers prefer quality; not quantity!

When you have a great idea for a post that answers important questions, you might get an idea that it would be better to publish 4 articles of 500 words instead of a single one of 2000+ words. More articles mean more social media posts and more visits at the website, right?

Well, let’s try to get into a reader’s mind. If you have a question and you want to get an answer ASAP, would you be satisfied with partial information? Would you wait for next week to read the continuation, and then wait another week for the rest of the information? That’s hardly what a reader would choose to do. They would rather hit Google to find an in-depth source of information that solves their issue ASAP. Readers always opt for high-quality solutions. They are not interested in the number of posts you publish.

Let’s take an iconic piece of long-form content as an example: Chevrolet’s 100 Years of Icons. The headline makes the readers expect to see Chevrolet’s most iconic vehicles throughout its history, and that’s exactly what the piece provides at a single take.

4. Long content gets more love on social media

Would you rather pin an in-depth article, or would you create a Pinterest board of brief blog posts? The truth is; you can read short content at the moment, so you won’t pin it for your library. In addition, you want your Pinterest boards to feature high-quality articles that give you all information you want.

Pinterest is not the only social media network where long-form articles shine. Long-form content is more shareable on all social media, due to the simple fact that it provides value. According to the results of a study published by NewsWhip, in-depth publications can gain huge popularity across social media. One of the most popular viral stories was a transcription of Neil Gaiman’s lecture on the importance of reading, which was over 3500 words long. This article is still popular, and it currently has more than 600K shares on different social media.

5. Longer content = more backlinks

Long content gives you an opportunity to infuse more keywords throughout the text and make them look natural, but it gives you another important SEO benefit: more potential for backlinks. More backlinks lead to better status in search engine results.

A study conducted by Backlinko showed that backlinks were an extremely important factor for Google ranking, and the overall link authority of the site was directly related with higher rankings. Due to the fact that long-form content rules the first page of Google’s results, it’s easy to understand why it gets more backlinks, too.

As a blogger, you always choose to feature high-quality links that support your words. Those links usually lead to authoritative, valuable sources that provide effective solutions. That’s the type of content you want to write if you want to get backlinks.

6. Value makes you stand out

All bloggers understand the value of long-form content. Still, not many of them are capable to do produce it. Maybe they don’t want to invest the time that goes into an elaborate piece, or they are afraid all that such an effort wouldn’t yield good results. Their precaution goes to your advantage.

The founders of BuzzSumo analyzed the number of social shares of over 100 million articles. The results showed that short-form content was provided in much greater volume (there were 16 times more articles with less than 1000 words when compared to the number of articles with 2000+ words). Despite this fact, longer content outperformed short pieces regarding shares on social media.

It’s easier to stand out among the crowd when you provide truly valuable, in-depth articles. That makes you seem like a writer who has done enough research and provides valuable information to the target audience.

7. Long-form content is long-lasting

Let’s face it: you’re not going to write a 2500+ word article on Kardashian latest style pics. You can, however, write an elaborate piece on the pop culture and Kardashian’s influence over it. Do you see the difference? Long-form content is more meaningful on the long run. That’s why Neil Gaiman’s lecture is still getting attention and shares, even though The Guardian published the transcript back in 2013.

When you create a gem of content, it will keep giving back over a longer period of time.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re maintaining a blog for promotional purposes or you simply want to share your knowledge and thoughts with the audience; one of the main goals is to become better at writing. A long-form content piece triggers your researcher mode. You have to pay attention to every single detail, and you mustn’t turn it into a repetitive piece. In other words, you have to give your best. With this practice, you’re becoming a better writer. Isn’t that the whole point of writing?

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