As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to impact shopping habits in every country throughout the world, the use of blog posts has grown ever more important as the years have gone on. Google looks to decide whether your content is both relevant and rich in information. Therefore, the blog posts you create should form a key part of your SEO strategy. But how long exactly should they be to have a real impact on your website?
For your blogs to rank with the search engines it has to be at 300 words in length, but the longer a post the easier it is for it to rank. However, a longer post is harder to create and it can be difficult to make it readable or keep the reader engaged with your content. Hubspot conducted some insightful research on their published blog posts throughout 2020 and concluded that the ideal length of a content piece should be between 2,100-2,300 to rank well. However, Google will always assess the quality of the content and the user-friendliness over the quantity. There is no value in adding irrelevant content in order to get a lengthier article!
In short, posts that contain more than 1000 words have a chance to rank higher with Google than a post which only contains 300 words. They can also really help the growth of organic traffic to your website. It also pays to be aware of ‘thin content’. This is an industry term that refers to the lack of content on a page which may affect that page’s ranking. Search engines simply want to provide the best possible answers to the questions posed by their customers. ‘Thin content’ pages are at risk of not offering the most complete information sets as there is not much of it and in turn, Google and other providers will overlook these pages when ranking.
Why do longer blog posts rank better with search engines?
There are various reasons why posts and blogs with 1000 words or more rank better with search engines. One of the biggest factors is that if your content is lengthy Google has more chance to determine what you are writing about.
Therefore if your copy is properly optimized with the keywords you wish to rank for, they will appear more often, and hey presto no need for keyword stuffing. Chances are your keywords will appear in headings, links, and pictures. Purely because of the length of the post. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is all the rage with Google at the moment and a longer blog post gives you the opportunity to write more naturally about the topic you are trying to rank for. When aiming for a longer article, you’re likely to not only provide a more in-depth analysis of the original topic but address the subtopics and more precise snippets of information that searchers may be looking to consume.
Alongside this, you are also likely to rank for a range of long-tail search terms relating to your main keyword. This means your blog or post will turn up in search results for a range of variations. This in turn grows the amount of organic traffic to your site.
Keeping your content fresh
It isn’t easy creating content of such length and making it engaging to your audience.
If your posts are poorly written and structured readers are likely to click away from your website, people will not share them on social media platforms and they may not bother returning to your site to read any more blogs.
The best way to avoid these kinds of issues is to structure your content in a way that makes it easy to read and looks appealing to your readers. This can include putting an index at the beginning of your post, keep your paragraphs short and use subheadings and images to break up the text. Headings and subheadings are not just important for SEO value, but also user experience. Perhaps the reader does not need to know all aspects of the blog and wants to find the required information quickly – headings are a perfect way to dissect your content.
Combine this with clear, concise vocabulary and you have a post that will rank well with search engines but also keep your audience engaged to the very end.
But always remember the first rule of writing which is the quality of your post is of paramount importance.
If it’s a great blog that is only 500 words in length, don’t stretch it out for the sake of it. If you have 1000 words or more worth of information then use it to the best of your abilities.
Tips for writing great lengthy blog posts
We’ve established that when writing blog posts of a greater length, the key is quality and readable content. Google has recently released its E.A.T guidelines for assessing blog posts and pages across websites. Google E.A.T stands for:
Expertise
Expertise looks at the knowledge of the content creator. You must clearly communicate your topic in a way that audiences will find engaging.
Authoritativeness
Google assesses the authority of the content and the domain. Therefore, it’s essential to link to other relevant websites and authoritative sources that Google already recognizes.
Trustworthiness
Google also assesses the authority of the content and the domain. When building trustworthiness, it’s crucial to be transparent, ensuring that your website is safe and secure.
This means that your extensive blog posts need to be readable, nicely structured, and original in order to convey these three critical elements that make up this wonderful acronym. Like we said, writing high-quality content is not easy but if you have the E.A.T mindset and keep your copy original and relevant, you cannot go far wrong.
