How Essential Content Length is for SEO and Conversions in 2020

Writing articles and content for a blog in itself is very important. A well-written content increases user engagement.

The user visits your site because he/she is interested in knowing more about that particular topic, so the article should be clear and detailed, it should be filled with interesting information and resourceful staff. The long-form of content has more impact than short-form content when it comes to SEO.

Avg content length of top 10 results

According to the research done, the content having more words was ranked first followed by the contents having lesser word count. The contents having a word count of more than 2400 were ranked 1st, followed by the word count of more than 2300 words were for 5th position, and the sites ranked 10th were having contents with word count more than 2000 words.

So for the blog post to rank higher, it should have a word count in the range of 2000-2500 plus words. With an increase in the word count, the ranking of the webpage increases with proper SEO manipulation.

Long-form content not only increases user engagement but also generates traffic and increases sharing.

Avg content length by domain age

The domains which are more than 10 years old are having a word count of 2700 plus words, it was observed that domains ranging between 1-10 years have lesser word count about 2100 words, while recent domains have an even lesser word count that is roughly about 1800 words.

How content length affects SEO

1. Longer contents earn more backlinks

Backlinks are links that created when one website links to another, that is when we click on these links we are taken to another website. These links are super useful in SEO (Search Engine Optimizer ).

If your content is having a detailed explanation for that particular topic, it will definitely have more backlinks, as other websites will refer your page for the extra information. A blog having more than 2000 words will attract more readers than sites having less than 1000 words.

2. Longer content gets more social share

Longer and relevant contents are very informative which increases user engagement. The audiences provide good feedback if they like the content you have written, they also share it among their colleagues and friends, gaining more social shares.

3. It provides long term SEO value

Good quality content last long, the long detailed contents outweigh short contents in long term SEO value. This is because these contents are referred by many and kept updating, so the contents remain fresh even after a long time.

4. Long-form content creates stronger brand signals

The articles written after a lot of research are more valuable and make the audience more engaging. Most of the top websites have in-depth, research-based articles and have original data, which have helped them gain more trust from the audience and establish themselves as experts in the field, enhancing stronger brand signals

5. Google’s rank brain rewards long-form content

Google uses RankBrain which is a machine learning-based artificial intelligence algorithm for search, it sorts the search results and helps Google understand complex search queries. This makes Google easily understand your topic through the keywords and phrases provided thus providing best search results for users in the search engine results page, making your page rank higher as compared to others.

6. Long-form Content Helps Increase Dwell Time

Dwell time basically indicates how much time the user is spending on that particular article, if the article is not good or irrelevant then the user would not spend much time there therefore short dwell time indicates negative user experience whereas the increase in dwell time indicates positive user experience.

7. Longer Content Helps Boost Click-through Rate

Click-through rate is the ratio of the number of times the page is visited by the users upon the total users who view the page. If your website appears on the search result, and if the users do not click on it to view or read the content then it is of no use and all the efforts will be wasted.

Longer content tends to have more keywords and long-tail keywords, a long-tail keyword is 2-3 words long which are more search specific. These help your website secure a better position in SERP (Search Engine Result Page) and boost click-through rate.

8. Longer Content Helps Boost Audience Engagement

It is observed that user like long-form content because they need not switch different sites to get full information as the current blog is providing with all the necessary information they are looking for.

Also if the article is written after a lot of research and making it look interesting with proper images along with relevant content it gains the readers’ trust and through this, it increases social shares and conversion.

9. Longer Content Helps Increase Email Subscribers

Most of the sites offer interesting long contents this acts as a sneak peek to something more interesting that is in store for them and if the reader is interested in knowing more about the topic, upgrades are provided in the form of pdf files or ppts etc which can be accessed through subscribing to their sites.

10.Longer Content Reduces the Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of the number of users visiting the site and then leaving it, rather than viewing more related information available on the same site, having higher bounce rate means the reader is not satisfied with the information that you have provided.

To reduce bounce rate, the content should be highly relevant and should have valuable information which is again given through long contents.

How Content Length Affects Conversions

1. Longer content generate valuable leads

More informative the content is, more audience is targeted. With proper explanation and understanding, the readers show more interest in your site. Most of the leading websites are making use of marketing to increase leads and click through rates.

2. Longer content drives more referral traffic

As we know longer content earns more backlinks as they provide an in-depth explanation of the topic, they are considered to be valuable and attracts readers, when these readers find these content resourceful they share it along with other and drive more referral traffic.

3. Long-form content has the ability to go viral

Long-form content are liked and shared by most of the readers along with original data, infographic information, stats and images they add on to the blog and increase user experience and has higher ability to go viral.

4. Long-form content helps establish trust

Long-form content have a lot of information, this information will not be the same as other articles written for the same topic on different sites. As these articles are published on well known branded sites, written by experts which helps the audience build better trust.

Conclusion

Publishing a content involves considering many factors that would affect SEO, ranking, conversion rate etc. It is advised to keep your content length long having in-depth and research-based content, as readers expect to find relevant and detailed content on a single page, rather than shuffling through the search results page to know more about the topic. This would result in getting higher rank to your page.