I love long form content. Of course, I would say that wouldn’t I? It keeps me employed. Well, that may be true, but I also love it as a reader, researcher, and consumer. It shows, someone has taken the time to sit down and really consider the subject, put some thought into it and decide what’s worth mentioning and what’s not.
It adds detail, embellishment, visual flavour. If done properly, it’s not just the basics but provides answers to a multitude of questions under one umbrella. It builds trust, provides value, and helps cement your website as the go-to place for knowledge on a given subject – and if people are on site, they may well be tempted by your other offerings.
Outside of this though, it may also have more tangible effects in terms of search metrics, and soon, Search Generative Experience (SGE). It establishes authority, credibility, and a knowledge base so that readers can return time and again to find answers that they trust.
When it comes to the written word, size matters! People trust longform content because they see the length of an article and feel they get more value from it. Google recognises this and pushes it to the forefront of their pages – after all, first page space is limited so pushing pages they think
are more valuable are of a benefit to them.
There is a common misconception that people don’t read longform content anymore. I’ve heard it from clients and colleagues alike but that’s simply not true. The perception is that, with time short life styles we all now want instant answers and are looking for the quickest route to said answer. Whilst there may be some truth in this, we also want reliability.
Longform content can provide that for us because it can expand on its answers, covering grey areas and offering up the reasoning behind the results. It can teach and inform far better than a single line answer can, and so, people who are truly invested in the subject they are searching for
want that contextual seasoning to the answer salad they have searched for.
If the content is providing value, it can reduce bounce rates from your site by keeping a user engaged and directing them to your products and services that assist in their needs and wants.
Essentially, it gives people more reasons to stay on site and navigate to other pages. It offers up a
more natural way to direct them to pages rather than just insisting (or hoping) they click about.
A study by HubSpot backed this up by showing that articles with more than 2,500 words get the most traffic from Google. This also seems to be the case with social shares too with longer blog content outperforming shorter, according to Baclinko.
Longform content also allows the writer to target longer keywords and search terms with ease, offering up the opportunity to answer multiple questions (within the context of the article) so more of what people are looking for can be addressed rather than a very specific term or phrase. In
short, the more you have to work with, the more content you can/need to produce.
Google are bringing in Search Generative Experience (SGE), which uses the power of generative AI to assist in getting you more accurate and to the point answers for your search terms. It will help you find the answers you are looking for rapidly, allowing you to jump to relevant points in
articles to extricate the information you need.
Longform content will have an advantage by being able to answer more questions and provide the relevant context around them, so users may not consume the whole thing but can refer back to it for multiple purposes.
In a market where search terms are similar, and possibly extremely competitive, longform content can target many at once, as well as meeting Google’s E-E-A-T requirements of providing expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. These are the tentpoles of great content and the longer a piece of content, the more likely it is to hit these marks.
The skill of a good content writer is being able to turn your hand to many subjects, providing insight with authority and accessibility. You may not think this is possible within your niche, unless that writer has experience in your field, but with the right amount of research and insight, a content writer can delve into the questions being asked of your business.
For one thing, it’s their job to learn about your specialism, so they start out by asking the questions that others will be asking of you. This gives them the ability of knowing what customers will want from your content, and then they can generate it with the added advantage of SEO insights and keywords to hand.
Honchō can help you with creating longform content, thanks to our collaborative content approach that uses information from all areas of search to tailor an all-around strategy. With content writers that can delve into your target market, and potential interest in your products, our team can lend their skillset to creating the right tone of voice for your customer base whilst responding to their needs.
Looking for help with your content? Get in touch now.