Snacky, short, bite-sized content has already overshadowed the grandeur of long-form content.
With the ever-shortening attention span of the common man, short and flashy content is always the one that attracts more audience and as a result appears to be more engaging and effective for regular marketers.
But, in the long run, short-form content often runs out of fuel.
So, it is high time for us that we recognise the value of long-form content and understand how important it is for any brand.
The main benefits of such kind of content are:
- They drive traffic to your website
- Build authority and increase trustworthiness for your brand
- Increase the value of your website
- Increase awareness for your brand
So, it is quite clear why link long-form content plays such a vital role when it is about link building. They generate more attention for your brand and help you establish your brand as an authoritative website for seeking knowledge in your niche.
Still a few questions remain unanswered. But worry no more as here we will be discussing how you can build more links with long-form content, why long-form content works so well when it is about building links, and how can you generate more links with similar content.
Why Long-form Content is Preferable for Your Business?
There are numerous reasons why long-for content works so well for any business niche, yet not many brands make good use of those positive points.
The reason behind the same is nothing but, the marketers get so engrossed with writing the original content that they often overlook the peripheral work that needs to be done along with creating content. Hence, they fail to make good use of the benefits that come along with long-form content.
So, if this is the case for you too, then stick to this writeup as now we will be talking about the reasons behind long-form content working so well and how you can make good use of its benefits.
Google bots Crawl Long-Form Content Easily and Understand It Better
Understanding long-form content is a very easy task for Google as well as for other search engines. And this plays a key role in differentiating is effectiveness compared to other forms of complex content which include, infographics and data visualisations.
The other forms of content might seem pretty beautiful and attractive to the naked eye, however, when it is about SEO, they really happen to make things tougher for Google bots to understand what is in them.
The reason behind this is nothing but, what these types of complex content are comprised of. They are often images, JavaScript or might even be complex data files.
It is quite easy for Google Bots to crawl in your content and index it, however, understanding these types of complex content like a human might not be a piece of cake for them.
This can affect a couple of areas. These are:
- The chances of those complex content such as visual-led content and interactive content to secure a top rank in the SERPs gets lowered. This is because, if Google bots cannot apprehend what the context of your page is, your page will never make it to the ranks that it deserves.
- The overall value of your website gets lowered as it contains pages that Google does not understand properly.
So, there is comparison with long-form content that is copy-led as it is a lot easier for Google bots to understand and is a lot more beneficial from the perspective of an organic search.
You Can Easily Target a Lot of Keywords to Get More Organic Traffic
Of course, long-form content is a lot more crawlable, however, that is not the only reason behind it being more potent for getting a higher rank in the SERPs. With long-form content you become able to target a good number of keywords as well as topics.
And that makes it easier for marketers to secure a top rank in the search engine result pages as well as keeping on generating more traffic for a good long time.
The process of optimizing your content for search engines, i.e., SEO has become a lot different than what it used to be. Today, you cannot just put keywords in your content and expect a high rank. However, that does not mean that keywords are of no use. Keywords are still alive and effective, and you still need to incorporate them in your write-ups.
When it comes to using keywords effectively, long-form content performs a lot better than short-form content. With such kind of content, you get a higher chance of securing a rank and generating more traffic for your webpage, unlike short, snacky content.
Today, there are Google algorithms that allow searchers to jump directly to a particular section of a webpage or content that is of the most use for them. This change in algorithms has opened the doors for users to cover more and more topics with a single piece of long-form content and get a chance to generate a lot more traffic for that particular page of a website.
So, it is quite clear that when it is about diving deep into a particular topic, long-form content offers you such chances to put up smaller details in your content. And such smaller details when crawled by Google bots, boost up your chances of generating more and more organic and fruitful traffic.
Long-form Content Is More Capable of Attracting High-quality Links and Becoming Reference Material
This is another mind-blowing advantage of long-form content which often gets quite overlooked. And that is nothing but, being able to attract more high-quality links from several third-party websites.
The reason behind this is, often writers, blog marketers and journalists seek sources to input as references in their write-ups. So, if your content is all-encompassing, enriching and detailed, besides having a high rank in the search engine results pages, then there is a great chance that they will pick your content as a source material and link it to their writeups.
These chances get even higher when your writeup contains important statistics and data points that often happen to be quite often used by other writers who come across it as a reference.
For instance, marketing biggie HubSpot is known all over the world for its rich resourceful content pieces that they provide for their readers. Some of their writeups even have been successful in attracting over a massive 10,000+ links to their webpages.
Such articles do extremely well when it is about ranking higher in the SERPs as they contain relevant keywords, and when people search with the same keyword seeking stats or data points, such articles are used as references. And this helps such writeups generate a good number of high-quality backlinks.
This high number of links not just refer to the fact that your content gets interacted by a greater number of audiences, but it also increases your chances of getting a high organic rank for relevant searches. And that is because links are now quite vital for search engine optimisation.
Long-Form Content Can Be Evergreen and Regularly Updated
With highly effective planning and having chosen a long-form topic that is evergreen, it becomes a whole lot easier for marketers to update such content and publish it over and over again.
For instance, you can perform research and craft a long-form content on an evergreen topic which focuses on a key topic of your industry in the year 2021, then moving ahead in 2022 if the same article stands perfectly relevant, then you can easily inform it for the latter year with minor updates in the heading as well as in the body content with fresh information and data.
It can be tough for marketers to craft an entirely new content every time, be it a writeup or a video or visual content as resources tend to be more and more expensive with every passing year.
You will come across such kind of content on a good lot of high authority websites. Those websites create content that stays relevant for years with the help of just a few tweaks and updates. This not just provides with a new chance to promote the same content and generate more traffic to their website, but also makes it easier to establish their authority on the same topic as their target audience becomes aware of their presence when it is about providing valuable information on the given topic year after year.
Try having no date mentioned in such articles, this is because when it about updating it for the consecutive year, you will be able to update the page without having the hassle to create an entirely new one.
And, even if you have mentioned the current year in the headings or body content of your blog, you can just edit it as per requirement.
All you have to keep in mind is not mentioning the year in the URL of the page as any change of URL will eradicate all the previously acquired feats.
This helps in accumulating historical social shares, existing organic search engine rankings as well as links all in a single web page. This is an extremely effective technique of building strength over time.
Long-Form Content Can Contain Mini Stories and Several Angles
This one particularly is the favourite of brands or companies that have an in-house PR team. Yes, this is that one part of comprehensive long-form content that they cannot help falling for.
Yes, and, this is because, long form content provides enough space to writers to churn out their expertise in showing a story from several angles and incorporating such elements that can be greatly used for promotional purposes.
Being of a great help for the PR team, this benefit of long-form content helps them by providing them with numerous ways of promoting a single piece of writeup or content.
If you’re working at a brand or agency that has an in-house digital PR team, they’ll love you for this one.
A long-form piece of content allows you to spin out multiple angles and stories that may be used for promotional purposes.
This helps the PR teams by not just more websites to target but also brings down the risk factors as if one of the ways fail, they will still have a good lot of other ways to get their job done.
How To Craft Long-Form Content Properly
Now as you already know why long-form content is so important for your brand and how it can help your brand grow exponentially, let’s get stated with the key points that your content team needs to keep in mind if they are looking forward to crafting such content.
The Core Topics You Want to Focus On
Before getting started with the writing part, find answers the question, “what do you wish to write about?”. People often deviate from the main focal point while they are brainstorming with their fellow team members.
You can definitely connect ideas, but make sure to focus on the particular topics that follow this below mentioned structure.
Where Can You Establish Credibility?
Has your company secured a collective knowledge and experience about a particular business niche? If so, then is there any particular topic or set of topics that you have gained expertise in but no other business or marketer or just a few of them talk about? If there is, then focus on the same. However, try to avoid topics that are far from what product or service your brand deals with.
What Topics Can Your Audience Connect to More Easily?
If you have gained enough knowledge and experience in your business niche, then you should start with gaining knowledge about the topics that your potential buyers or readers would love to know more about. Also, try to find out what problems they face and how your content can help them solve such pain points.
What Do You Want Your Audience to Know You For?
Is there any particular niche or topic relevant to your niche that you can cover better than your competitors? Then you might also be quite eager to become popular among your audience with the same topic. Start writing on the same.
How to Execute Properly?
It is not mandatory that every topic that comes to your mind will be suitable for a long-form content. And, when you get started having “I will create a 5000-word article with it” idea, then you are surely going in the wrong direction.
This is because, even if the topic is not for a long-from content, you will forcibly stretch it to go that long and will end up creating something bad and wasting the topic itself.
The best way to get started crafting a long form content on a particular topic is by starting with a plan of how the entire structure of the content will look like.
This approach will help you with an idea about what you can cover within this topic and how many different angles can be incorporated in order to present the content in the best way.
Moreover, with a topic for long-form content, you also get a chance to step into the shoes of your audience and find out what additional information would they want to know which is relevant to the given topic.
Check What Comes Up for A Relevant Keyword
Having said the above, you should also keep in mind to check what blogs, articles or other writeups are already there when searched with a keyword that is relevant to your topic.
And, speaking of the same, you should keep a keen eye on what writeups are popping up in the first page of the Google searches.
This is because, Google has a very good understanding of their users’ search intent. And that is why they always come up with such writeups in their SERPs which meet the expectations of their searchers.
While you perform your research about the same, check what the first SERP shows. There could be several types of articles, blogs, e-commerce results, videos, long-form content, bite-sized content, and whatnot.
When you have seen all of them, ask yourself if your long-form content can provide enough value to your audience and secure a high rank in the relevant SERPs.
Evaluate Your Resources
Having the wish of crafting comprehensive, detailed long-form content to enrich your readers and place yourself as an authority in your niche is a good idea. But, before that, you have to check if you have the necessary resources to craft such content.
Crafting long-form content is not everyone’s cup of tea. You need to have highly skilled writers, editors as well as designers in your marketing team who are capable enough to bring the entire idea together for a perfect execution.
You can also opt for hiring skilled freelancers to get your job done, but before that assess what you already have in your pocket.
So, it is always better to have hired a specialist to get your job done, rather than wasting the opportunity by relying on someone who lacks the necessary skills.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly long-form content is treasured and can add a lot of value to your business as well as to your brand name. A good lot of these are known to most of us. However, there are a lot of points that a lot of marketers lack the insights of.
So, evaluate what you have, check what’s already out there and get started with a crystal-clear idea.
What are you waiting for?
