(Newswire.net — February 26, 2018) — Content holds the center stage in SEO and even the most seasoned SEO practitioner will admit that today content is King. It is quite some years that content has drawn all the focus in SEO and has evolved a lot. If you look at the content published on websites five years ago and the type of content published currently, the difference would quickly catch your eye. Search engines too have changed their liking for content.
The earliest form of content used to short and crisp, usually ranging between 350 to 600 words and it continued for many years. This was the only form of content that dominated the online space even until about a few years ago when things started to change. The length of content was determined by keeping in mind the short attention span of viewers. It was presumed that viewers would be happy to consume content that was short and condensed that took less time to read.
The change
The attitude of the search engines towards content has changed over the last one year as the SEO experts at Boston SEO would admit. Google is not happy with short content anymore. This is evident from the quick spread of long-form content that is at least two-three times longer than the short form content. Google’s liking for long-form content will be clear on scanning the search results page that bears testimony to the fact that long-form content rank well in search results. Naturally, the demand for long-form content is growing, and short-form content is still alive courtesy the demand from a small section of the audience.
Long form content
The length of the content is the determining factor whether the content is long or short. Any content that has 1,000 to 1,200 words can qualify for long-form content with the upper limit hovering around 2,000 words. However, going by the trend, it appears that content is getting even lengthier. It will not be hard to find the content of 3,000 words and the more ambitious content creators are even aiming to touch the magical figure of 10,000 words.
Why did the change happen?
You may be wondering why search engines turned to long-form content. If you look closely at short form content, you will discover that since it is easy to create content of 500-600 words, the internet is flooded with such content. There would be nothing wrong with it had the quality of content been satisfactory. Unfortunately, the average quality of content that you come across the internet is so inferior that Google became concerned about it. In came the Panda, Google’s algorithm update aimed at weeding out poor quality content from appearing in the top search results. Marketers lost no time in picking up the signals and turned to long-form content. If you scan the top ranking websites, you will find that all carried content of at least 2,000 words.
Beat competition with long-form content
Long-form content has become a weapon to beat the competition. The quality of long-form content is usually much better than short-form content, and it conveys more value to the audience. Therefore, it is quite natural that for the same keyword, long-form content easily gets past its shorter rival and goes up the ranking ladder. Since there is a link between the competitiveness of the keyword and the content quality, highly competitive keywords generate high-quality content.
The length of content also influences search engines. Despite the best optimization done to short-form content, it can never match the quality of long-form content. The change in content size has changed the frequency of publishing content. As long-form content takes time for creation, marketers are publishing fewer contents every month but passing on higher value to the audience.
Creating long content is a challenge
Long form content is not as easy to create as short content because it needs proper structuring and authentic information obtained through research that constitutes the value. Since the content is lengthy, its structure is responsible for making it interesting to readers. You cannot just create long content if it does not have sound preparation behind it. Since the information is authentic and relevant to the audience, it carries good value.
Better SEO performance
Since long-form content acquires high ranks, the SEO performance gets a boost. Since the posts are long, you can use long tail keywords that further improve the prospect for better rankings. Viewers’ engagement time also increase, as they have to spend more time on the website to consume the content. There is an overall improvement in SEO performance.
Long form content is the order of the day, and if you have not yet got used to it, it is never too late to start.