Long-Form Content for SEO
Introduction
If you’re looking to boost your SEO, it’s important to have long form content on your site, sometimes up to 2,000 words or even more. In this blog we’ll walk you through some of the benefits of long-form content in terms of SEO and why it’s so important to your marketing strategy. We’ll also go through examples and how you can write your own long-form content.
What is long-form content?
Long-form content is any piece of information that’s longer than what you’d typically find on a blog post or landing page. It is a term that refers to any piece of written information that is longer than 1000 words in order to provide more value to the reader.
Think about it, the average blog post is about 600 – 700 words, which makes it pretty short in the grand scheme of things. Landing pages usually contain around 400 – 500 words. How are you keeping your readers engaged? How your content interesting and keeping them on your site and also keeping them coming back?
Think of long-form content as one piece of the puzzle in your overall marketing strategy—a way to provide a deep dive on a subject to your readers by answering their questions in detail rather than giving them just a few bits and pieces.
Long-form content examples
Blog posts: The first thing that comes to mind when you think of long-form content is a blog post. It’s by far the most common type of long-form content, and it can be structured in any way you want. For example, if you are with an agency, you could write about different types of marketing strategies or how to use social media for your business.
Whitepapers: A long and detailed blog article that services to go into depth on a particular subject.
Ebooks: An ebook (short for electronic book) is essentially a gated document covering indepth information on a specific topic that may have been introduced in a blog, so it makes sense that they are often created as downloadable content for your reader to digest.
Tutorials: Tutorials are another form of great long-form content because they provide step-by-step instructions on how to achieve something specific (like this tutorial on how website builders work). They’re especially useful if you have something technical to teach your audience – but even if not, tutorials can still be useful in teaching more general topics too!
Why you need long-form content
While there are many reasons to create long form content, here are the top two:
Longer pages rank better in search engines. While a single word or phrase can be valuable for SEO, longer content is often more practical and easier to digest. And if you’re writing about a longer topic, it’s likely that you need more than just a couple hundred words to fully explain what you want to say. Longer copy means more space for research, organization and detail—which all contribute positively toward search engine optimization (SEO).
Longer pages are more engaging for users (and therefore better advertising opportunities). Google considers engagement as an important ranking factor for search rankings; if your site has lots of visitors who spend time on your page reading through content rather than clicking away quickly because they lack interest or have found what they were looking for, then this shows high user engagement which Google takes into account when ranking sites with its algorithm. (The same goes with social media platforms such as Facebook: the longer someone stays on your page/post/video etc., the higher chance they’ll share that content with their followers which again helps boost visibility across other platforms too!)
How to use long-form content for your SEO strategy
So you’re ready to start writing your long-form content? Here are a few things to keep in mind:
First, perform keyword research and identify what keywords you want to use on each page. If a page is about the history of the Roman Empire, for example, there might be a lot of people searching for “roman empire”; but if that same page were about how Julius Caesar died (and how he was murdered), then perhaps people would search for something more specific like “how did julius caesar die” or even “how did julius caesar get murdered by his friend mark antony.”
Next, make sure these keywords are part of your keyword map! It’s important that all the relevant terms are included so you remember your strategy that will help Google to understand what type of content is being presented and rank it accordingly. If there is any doubt as to whether or not certain terms should be included (for example: does “Julius Caesar” refer more towards his life story or death?), then include both variations in order to cover all bases. This will also help with relevancy ranking when someone searches either term individually (e.g., both “Julius Caesar” and “how did Julius Caeris…”).
Thirdly – use those keywords! Make sure they appear naturally throughout each piece––in titles, bodies and meta descriptions––so that Google can recognize their importance without having them repeated over-and-over again within one paragraph (which would be considered spammy). You should also try using synonyms where applicable so readers get some variety while still getting what they need from reading through your text.
Long-form content advantages
Long-form content has many advantages:
It’s a great way to educate your audience. Longer content allows you to explain concepts and give advice that may not be possible in shorter content or even video.
There is more room for experimentation with long-form content because there is more time devoted to each topic. You can include everything from infographics, images and videos as well as links back to other relevant articles on your site or others. Plus, Google rewards this kind of originality with higher rankings on search results pages!
Longer pieces tend to get shared more often than shorter ones since they’re usually more interesting or helpful when shared—and those shares can lead directly back into traffic from social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook which helps boost SEO efforts in the longrun too.
Having long form content on your site is important!
Long-form content is important for SEO, user experience, brand building, conversions and content marketing. Long-form content helps you to rank high in search results and drive traffic to your site.
Long-form content simply works because Google wants to show the most relevant information to its users. If a user searches for something on Google, visits your website, and it’s not what they wanted or expected then they will leave your site quickly. This means you have not only lost an opportunity to convert that visitor into a customer or at least get them interested in your product or service, but Google will note that this user “bounced” off of your site shortly after clicking on it. If this happens enough, it can hurt your SEO in the long run.
Conclusion
By writing long-form content, you’re targeting more keywords, and also getting the chance to show off your expertise. You’ll be able to post content that really helps your readers—which in turn will help you establish trust and authority in your niche. Remember: Google rewards those who provide valuable information! There are many SEO benefits of long-form content. So if you haven’t started implementing it yet, it may be time to start thinking about how this can work for your business.
