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Long Articles Or Short Articles? What Strategy To Choose For A Blog?

Long Articles Or Short Articles
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A few days ago on “Medium”, KissAime read an article with a very captivating title: The 500-Word Post Is Dead. But longer content won’t automatically be better. The author of this blog post gave me food for thought on content marketing and why, on many occasions, certain content-based marketing strategies fail miserably.

 

Long Or Short Articles

When it comes to content for the Web, there is no shortage of articles that praise the intrinsic value of long-form posts in determining the correct positioning of a blog and consequently of a site in the SERPs of search engines.

Long-form articles are those blog posts consisting of more than 700 words this mainly consists of writing articles for the web.

However, these boundless articles are often a long list of topics that will be covered in more depth within other posts; in other words, it is about those contents that are often referred to as cornerstones and, that is to say, virtual intersections along the customer journey thanks to which the reader can orient himself within the contents of the site.

This means that, in all likelihood, these posts will not be well-argued or exhaustive. Rather, it will be an introduction to the topic that will direct users elsewhere on the site.

This will certainly reduce the bounce rate – at least in the short to medium term – but it could negatively affect the percentage of returning users and therefore the retention of your site.

The common sense right now is that long-form articles generally receive a higher ranking than short articles and that longer articles are more likely to be shared via social media. I think that one of the purposes is that longer articles have the chance to be also specific, use more keywords (especially long-tail keywords), and serve to receive more organic traffic and more organic backlinks and this strategy is often used by essay writing service UK providers, their preference for long essays explains that. 

The short articles, for their part, have the advantage of being easily accessible and allow you to quickly focus on key concepts. However, they do not allow to deepen the concepts exposed and are often considered a sign of listlessness, laziness, or lack of competence (at least by search engines).

In any case, some are starting to understand that often the length is not everything, but there are other parameters to follow to reuse to position themselves against the competition.

 

Also read, Best Ad Networks For Blogs With Highest CPM

SEMrush

 

Length Isn’t Everything

What emerges, especially after the latest update to the Google algorithm ( BERT ), is that it is not so much the length of an article that determines the rank within Google, but rather the potential satisfaction that readers can derive from. that specific content.

This means that rather than weighing words per kilo, some basic parameters should be taken into account:

  • The composition of the reference market/segment/niche;
  • The behavior of competitors;
  • The type of Keyword for which you want to position;
  • The characteristics of your readers/customers.

In other words, the focus of attention should be on the target and purpose for which we are writing the content.

By analyzing the context in which the article must be placed and studying how our audience behaves with what we write we can understand what is the appropriate length for our content.

There are contexts in which 600 words are few, others, however, in which they may be sufficient or even excessive.

The purpose for content and its suggested length is the concern of the organization and those who are charged with its marketing plan. If a screenwriter is hired to create marketing content, they should be given knowledge about the marketing persona and the company’s intentions or design for producing it.

 

The Importance Of Context And Purpose

What I would most like to emphasize, in my reflection, is the importance of the role that context and purpose play in writing articles for the Web.

Writing without knowing the audience for which you are doing it is tantamount to suicide. The same can be said if you throw yourself into writing an article without knowing what the strategic objectives you want to achieve are. Especially when you do not write for yourself but produce content for a client, who expects work to be done in a workmanlike manner and in line with his expectations.

Commercial/advertising writing has very specific rules which, like all rules, cannot be ignored. It is necessary to take into account factors that on the one hand have to do with creativity, but on the other are strictly dependent on results (therefore on numbers).

The most important thing is not the length of the article, but rather its adequacy concerning its topic, its consistency with the client’s objectives, its relevance for the receiving public, respect for the general register of brand identity.

Not taking these factors into account and focusing solely on the number of words will necessarily lead to poor customer service.

 

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