Until 2013, 500 words was the perfect length for any piece of content. It was long enough to be crawled by Google and short enough to be relatively cheap and easy to create. In 2013, Google changed their algorithm, so that longer format content was favored over shorter content. This meant that the longer your post was, the better it would perform. This is not necessarily true today. When it comes to creating content, most people assume that longer content is better—because that is what the algorithm prefers. But is longer content always the best choice?
The most important thing to know about the length of your content is that length, while important, is not as important as keyword usage or quality of writing and information. If you have the information, quality, and keywords, your content will likely perform well, no matter how long it is.
Longer Content
Anything that is around two thousand words or longer is usually considered to be long-form content. In this category you will probably find ebooks, guides, webinars, videos, resources, whitepapers, etc. The positives of writing longer content include:
• Google uses a special ranking mechanism specifically to look for and rank longer content
• Longer content has the ability to keep people on your website for a longer amount of time, hopefully increasing their engagement
• Is more likely to be in depth and therefore evergreen
• Usually gives a more inclusive, broader view of the topic you are covering
• More likely to generate backlinks
• Lends itself to building credibility and authority.
But long-form content also has a few negative aspects, including:
• Many people do not have the time to read longer content thoroughly and are actually just looking for short, to the point content
• The average consumer today has a short attention span
• Longer content is less likely to be shared via social media
• Longer content is also less likely to go viral
• The length of the content does not guarantee a better ranking
While there is a great deal of utility in longer content, it simply is not the best choice for every single subject and every single situation. You’ve probably read an article in the last month that used a thousand words for something that could have been said in two hundred words. Long content simply for the sake of long content is more likely to be boring. When done well, it performs better than short content. When done poorly, however, it can do much, much worse.
Short Content
Did you know that most posts on WordPress blogs run an average of less than three hundred words? This has actually been the average for the last three years. This is what some would call extremely short-form content, while anything less than a thousand words will also fall into the short content category. List posts, infographics, and Vines will also fall into short-form content. Here are some of the benefits of shorter content:
• Most people scan, rather than read content, and shorter content is easier to digest in this way
• More likely to be shared via social media
• Is more amenable to small mobile device screens
• Is more likely to be read in its entirety because it seems more manageable to those with short attention spans
• Is more likely to go viral
The negatives of short-form content include:
• Is more likely to be rewritten and redone by other websites
• Short content can appear more formulaic and therefore boring
• Does not provide you enough words to really delve deeply into a topic
• Often a shallow representation of a topic
• Cannot always provide adequate answers to the searcher’s questions
• May not provide adequate information about a topic
There are many professionals that will claim that short-form content is always better than long-form content. While it does have a wide variety of benefits, those benefits are situation. If, for example, you have a young, disengaged audience, short content will likely be the better choice. It is probably not the best choice, however, if you are trying to create content for those looking for in-depth information about a topic.
Which Type of Content Is for Me?
This is the heart of the matter. Both long and short content have their place, but which has its place on your website? Here are some questions you can ask yourself to decide which is best for you:
1. At which stage is your business? New businesses may not have the resources to create longer content, while established businesses may have those resources.
2. Which length of content speaks to your readers? Are your readers more likely to be looking for very in-depth content or are they more likely to be looking for bite-sized content?
3. What is your goal for this content? Do you want it to go viral? Do you want to increase your social signals? Is it simply to inform whoever comes across it? Are you using it to increase your search engine page rankings?
4. Where are you posting the content? On social media, shorter content is always going to be better than longer content. It is what the consumer expects on social media. On your company’s website or blog, however, longer form content is usually expected and short content may come across as superficial or simply not provide the length you need to fully cover a topic, if your goal is to build credibility.
Until 2013, 500 words was the perfect length for any piece of content. It was long enough to be crawled by Google and short enough to be relatively cheap and easy to create. In 2013, Google changed their algorithm, so that longer format content was favored over shorter content. This meant that the longer your post was, the better it would perform. This is not necessarily true today. When it comes to creating content, most people assume that longer content is better—because that is what the algorithm prefers. But is longer content always the best choice?
The most important thing to know about the length of your content is that length, while important, is not as important as keyword usage or quality of writing and information. If you have the information, quality, and keywords, your content will likely perform well, no matter how long it is.
Longer Content
Anything that is around two thousand words or longer is usually considered to be long-form content. In this category you will probably find ebooks, guides, webinars, videos, resources, whitepapers, etc. The positives of writing longer content include:
• Google uses a special ranking mechanism specifically to look for and rank longer content
• Longer content has the ability to keep people on your website for a longer amount of time, hopefully increasing their engagement
• Is more likely to be in depth and therefore evergreen
• Usually gives a more inclusive, broader view of the topic you are covering
• More likely to generate backlinks
• Lends itself to building credibility and authority.
But long-form content also has a few negative aspects, including:
• Many people do not have the time to read longer content thoroughly and are actually just looking for short, to the point content
• The average consumer today has a short attention span
• Longer content is less likely to be shared via social media
• Longer content is also less likely to go viral
• The length of the content does not guarantee a better ranking
While there is a great deal of utility in longer content, it simply is not the best choice for every single subject and every single situation. You’ve probably read an article in the last month that used a thousand words for something that could have been said in two hundred words. Long content simply for the sake of long content is more likely to be boring. When done well, it performs better than short content. When done poorly, however, it can do much, much worse.
Short Content
Did you know that most posts on WordPress blogs run an average of less than three hundred words? This has actually been the average for the last three years. This is what some would call extremely short-form content, while anything less than a thousand words will also fall into the short content category. List posts, infographics, and Vines will also fall into short-form content. Here are some of the benefits of shorter content:
• Most people scan, rather than read content, and shorter content is easier to digest in this way
• More likely to be shared via social media
• Is more amenable to small mobile device screens
• Is more likely to be read in its entirety because it seems more manageable to those with short attention spans
• Is more likely to go viral
The negatives of short-form content include:
• Is more likely to be rewritten and redone by other websites
• Short content can appear more formulaic and therefore boring
• Does not provide you enough words to really delve deeply into a topic
• Often a shallow representation of a topic
• Cannot always provide adequate answers to the searcher’s questions
• May not provide adequate information about a topic
There are many professionals that will claim that short-form content is always better than long-form content. While it does have a wide variety of benefits, those benefits are situation. If, for example, you have a young, disengaged audience, short content will likely be the better choice. It is probably not the best choice, however, if you are trying to create content for those looking for in-depth information about a topic.
Which Type of Content Is for Me?
This is the heart of the matter. Both long and short content have their place, but which has its place on your website? Here are some questions you can ask yourself to decide which is best for you:
1. At which stage is your business? New businesses may not have the resources to create longer content, while established businesses may have those resources.
2. Which length of content speaks to your readers? Are your readers more likely to be looking for very in-depth content or are they more likely to be looking for bite-sized content?
3. What is your goal for this content? Do you want it to go viral? Do you want to increase your social signals? Is it simply to inform whoever comes across it? Are you using it to increase your search engine page rankings?
4. Where are you posting the content? On social media, shorter content is always going to be better than longer content. It is what the consumer expects on social media. On your company’s website or blog, however, longer form content is usually expected and short content may come across as superficial or simply not provide the length you need to fully cover a topic, if your goal is to build credibility.