Why You Should Consider Long Form Blogging

The trends in blogging change all the time, but one of the most recent trends that’s highly search engine favorable is long form blogging.  Google prefers content rich sites, therefore sites that produce content of 2000 words or more on average rank higher for keyword searches on the search engine (source).

While you may think that people don’t want to read long content, data actually shows the opposite.  People prefer long content over short content, and Google knows this.  It is all the more reason that you may want to strongly consider long form blogging in your blogging journey.

The “Why” for Long Form Content

People tend to view longer form content as more credible and legitimate, because there’s usually more detail included.  I know that I do, and I’m always a little let down when I go to a post and its short with little detail.  Its great to be concise and succinct, but important to include details so that readers walk away feeling like they’ve learned something.

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If I come upon a post that’s only two or so paragraphs, my brain automatically assumes the content isn’t very useful.  Its one of the main reasons why I feel its so important to produce long form content, because I want for it to be seen as useful and valuable.  I don’t want my content to look as if I just threw something up, just to have it up.  Many times if I’m not feeling inspired or don’t have the mindset to write a detailed post, I’ll forgo posting that day.  To me, it a better use of my time to post long form, detailed posts, especially considering the niche in which I blog within.

While I understand the importance of being consistent in my post frequency, I won’t sacrifice quality for quantity.  Skipping a day of posting might just give me what I need to put out the best and most valuable content, better serving my audience.  In addition, as much as my readers expect to see a post from me on a daily basis, I also know that they expect a certain level of quality in my content.  If I can’t produce it, I feel as if I’m letting them down and not being consistent.

Consistency is more than just frequency, its doing the same thing across the board all the time.  I’d rather be consistent in posting valuable, high-quality, detailed content than post frequently just to have posts up.

Serving Your Readers

When writing content, I really try to put myself in the reader’s shoes. I ask myself; what information are they searching for?  what do they want to know?  what’s the best way I can present the content for easy understanding? I try my best to post content that I feel will best serve readers and in a way that will as well.  When you write content that serves readers, they’re more likely to share it and refer back to it. Long form content results in better conversion rates, which means more traffic to your site.  Its a win-win for both you and your readers.

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Quality is Key

The key to writing good long form content is that it must be quality and and stay on point. I can’t stress enough that it must serve your readers in some valuable way to get rank.  It should always be your goal to produce quality content, which it long or short. However, if the content is long and not good then that defeats the purpose and advantage of producing long form content. It important to strike the balance between producing long form content and rambling, because no one wants to read unnecessary content.

Staying on point is crucial with long form content, so you have to get really good at making sure that your writing properly flows and transitions well. People are going to naturally skim over content and pick out the useful parts, whether short or long. As much as I love reading long content, I do exactly that. This is one reason why I ended up feeling let down with short form content, because with it there’s so much less to skim and take away form.

[Tweet “The key to writing good long form content is that it must be quality and and stay on point.”]

Use Discern

I’m not saying that its necessary that every single post you write be 1200+ words, because the subject matter may not call for it.  You have to use discern when gauging whether the subject matter calls for a long form or short form post.  Another thing to consider is that by the time you include graphics and call-to-actions, your post will end up appearing long even if its not.  If I have a post that ends up being 500-700 words, but says everything I want it to say and has gotten my point across, then I’m feel just as good about it as I do about a 1400 word post.

The important thing to take away is that your content needs to be detail, concise, and high quality.  Fluff and long-windedness won’t add to your content, and will only bore readers.   There is a way to be succinct when writing in long form, it just takes practice to get good at it.

[Tweet “Fluff and long-windedness won’t add to your content, and will only bore your readers.”]

Leave Nothing on The Table

When you write in long form, you leave nothing on the table.  It helps to increase your engagement, conversion, and builds authority. When you produce content that people can learn from and appreciate, then you’ve accomplished the goal of long form blogging. Don’t produce content just to produce it, produce epic content that people have no choice but to share and engage you on. You build trust when you’re seen as a valuable resource to others. Long form blogging shows your readers that you’ve done the work to supply them with the best, most accurate, and helpful content that you can produce. At the end of the day, people want to know that effort was put into what their reading and long form content shows them just that.

 What does you think about long form blogging? – Do you feel your readership could benefit from it?

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