Search engine optimization takes time. It’s like building a house where each new addition strengthens your construction. Every blog post you write, and website page you add gives you more authority and ranking potential. Today we dive into strategies to build your evergreen content.
Covering trending topics and the latest news and stats is vital for remaining relevant, but those topics don’t rank in search engines for very long. Those topics receive a considerable boost initially, but you’ll see traffic die down as people move on to the next greatest thing.
Evergreen content is the opposite of that. This is a cornerstone topic that doesn’t go out of style. It just keeps generating more traffic. It ages like fine wine, becoming stronger the longer it’s alive. But, like fine wine, evergreen content requires care to hold its value.
We’ll explore what evergreen content is and how you can use an evergreen content strategy to build a solid online brand.
What Exactly Is Evergreen Content?
Evergreen content remains relevant and doesn’t go out of style. It’s the exact opposite of breaking news and trending topics.
It doesn’t expire, and people don’t lose interest in the topic over time.
Here are a few examples of evergreen content:
Educational Guides: How-to articles, tips, and steps for completing tasks are all examples of evergreen content. People consistently need tutorials for completing assignments and ways to sharpen their skills.
Fact Articles: Facts remain relevant for a long time unless new information emerges. For example, a post on the history of newspapers won’t change much over the years since no one is taking time machines to the past and changing history. Think about encyclopedia articles. People continually consult this content to learn more about a topic or cite research in an industry.
Industry Resources: Industry guides, case studies, and glossaries are necessary for employees to understand their industry and find solutions.
Here are some examples that are NOT evergreen content:
Current Events: If something is breaking news, readers will probably lose interest as soon as the next big event occurs. Suddenly, that article sounds outdated.
Reviews: People and businesses change over time. Just because Suzy loved a restaurant in 2014 doesn’t mean that the restaurant still offers the same quality food ten years later. People who want reviews on businesses, media, and products are usually only interested in recent reviews and testimonials.
Statistics: Statistics have a varied shelf life. For example, statistics from medical research studies done five years ago can still be relevant today because research studies are costly and don’t receive regular updates. However, social media usage statistics from five years ago are outdated and usually have a shelf-life of a year or two because that’s a fast-paced industry.
Technology: Content referencing technology usually has a short life because technology constantly changes. Something as simple as an image or mention of a smartphone can date an article since smartphones receive annual updates in appearance and function. References to how you can use technology and what technology is available will start an expiration timer ticking.
Most of your content will usually be evergreen, as that will be your primary traffic driver.
How to Turn Trending Topics into Evergreen Content
Here’s an insider’s tip on evergreen content. You can turn your trending content into evergreen topics through regular updates. In each update, check statistics, technology changes, and current event mentions so you’re referencing the most recent updates.
Here’s an example of an article Backlinko published in October 2019. Backlinko updates the article with the new year each year, updating any out-of-date statistics and adding new facts to the post.
Does this work? The article’s search traffic says it does.
You can see where those updates happened, as each update caused a jump in website traffic each year, keeping it relevant.
Trending vs. Evergreen Content Examples
Let’s look at examples of what evergreen content isn’t, followed by examples of what evergreen content is.
Here’s an article that appeared in February 2022 when the Rams won the Super Bowl.
Now, let’s look at this article’s traffic trends over time.
You’ll notice the immediate peak when Fox Sports published the article. It was breaking news, fresh, and exciting. People everywhere were searching for Super Bowl results. However, just a few months later, it nearly flatlined.
You’ll notice again that the columnist updated the article in 2023 in preparation for a new wave of searches as the next Super Bowl arrived. That update was delivered when another spike occurred. However, a year later, the article nearly flatlines again.
This is not evergreen content.
This is trending content. Trending content is crucial for showing you are relevant, connecting with new traffic, trending term searches, and being an authority in your field. However, trending content won’t bring in consistent website traffic.
That’s why most of your website should be evergreen content.
Let’s take a look at an example of evergreen content.
You’ll notice first that there are no dates or breaking news information in the title. It’s a topic that has stayed relevant through the years because people are still coaching sports teams today, just like in 2015, when this article first came out.
And the numbers don’t lie.
The organic traffic grew after Harvard Business Review published the article in 2015. It peaked five years later! It wasn’t until it had been out for five years that you saw a traffic dip. Even in 2024, nine years later, the article still brings in a trickle of traffic.
What Is the Best Evergreen Content Format?
Evergreen content can appear in any online format other than social media. Here are the most popular ways to publish evergreen content:
Blog Posts: Blog posts will be your SEO’s primary strategy. They usually appear on a resource or news page on your website. Visitors can search for specific topics, share posts on social media and emails, and see these articles appear in search results. You will also link to past blog articles through internal links.
Whitepapers: You can share shorter articles in a downloadable format using whitepapers. This is a way to attach a PDF to emails or use it for lead generation on a website. Whitepapers make excellent quick reference guides or research publications.
eBooks: If you have a comprehensive guide, fact book, or how-to article, an eBook would be your better option. They attract search traffic and can work as a lead magnet.
How Evergreen Content Benefits Brands
In what ways does evergreen content build your online brand? Here’s a look at the top benefits of regularly publishing evergreen content.
Generates Steady Traffic Over Time
Blogging increases your search engine ranking chances by 434% compared to static websites. In addition, 72% of content marketers say content creation is their best SEO strategy.
Let’s face it, posting blog posts daily would be EXHAUSTING! That’s 365 blog posts a year. Unless you are a news site, there are many better uses of your resources than that. But the average business doesn’t need that much content to rank.
Instead, focus on building an evergreen content library that continues attracting traffic. As you saw in the above examples, traffic GROWS over time.
Performs Well in Search Engine Rankings
Organic search produces the most traffic. But, attracting that traffic is no easy task as fewer than 1% of searchers will click on the second page of Google search results. That means the first page of Google is your golden ticket to traffic success.
Evergreen content performs well in search engine results. When people search for content, Google pulls what is most relevant. If your content covers a trending topic, Google will most likely push it far back in search results pages after the hype is over.
For example, when I searched “Oscar Awards,” all the top articles covered news about Oscar Awards from this year. Because the Academy Awards took place this week, every article on the first page was either an official resource or less than a month old. All those articles from previous Academy Award years are now collecting dust on some Google back page.
If you search for an evergreen search term like “best exercises for lower back pain,” I can find search results as old as ten years on the first page of Google.
Brings in Quality Leads from Traffic
Some of the best leads come from evergreen topics. That’s why 76% of content marketers use content in their lead generation strategy.
Trending topics can be a fantastic way to connect with new leads. If you time your posting correctly and are among the first to address a new trend or come at a topic from a unique angle, you can gain a considerable amount of new traffic. Within that traffic is sure to be several new leads.
However, trending topics are like fast fashion. People jump on the trend but then toss it out and jump on the next one. There’s a chance quite a bit of your traffic might be people who want to know what the buzz is about and may not be serious leads.
On the other hand, Evergreen topics tend to attract more serious leads. You’ll want to perform SEO research to identify search terms within your industry. Many of those terms are what potential customers search for since there isn’t any trending news or buzz drawing them to that topic. So, the traffic is usually people already interested in that topic due to their industry or current needs you can solve.
Establishes Your Brand’s Authority
You need high-quality, valuable content to establish yourself as an authority in your industry. About 45% of bloggers create long-form content, which will make up the bulk of your evergreen content. Long-form content allows you to dig deep into topics and demonstrate your expertise.
Your content is one way you build a reputation in your niche. Clients see a demonstrated expertise and learn to trust you better. You can also create a relationship by investing in those clients’ education about the industry.
Your content also builds authority with Google. Google’s opinion matters because if the algorithm sees you as an authority, it will place you higher in search results. So, gaining that Google stamp of approvable is precious.
Google sees your authority in several ways, including:
Regularly published content
High engagement rates
Positive customer experiences
Authority backlinks
Trending content can bring in those backlinks and engagement, but it’s often fleeting. If you want to show Google and clients consistent engagement and regularly gain new backlinks, you need that evergreen content that stands the test of time.
How to Create Evergreen Content in 5 Easy Steps
We will share five steps for creating evergreen content that will build your brand authority and bring in regular traffic.
Step 1: Map Out Your Evergreen Content Strategy
A content strategy creates a roadmap for your evergreen content. Each piece should have a purpose and be relevant to your audience. That way, you can generate a return on investment from the content.
Ask yourself what you want your evergreen content to do for your brand. Are you using it to highlight specific products? Educate about the industry as a whole. Or do you want to promote events?
Your goal will dictate the type of topics you will cover.
Begin brainstorming some general topic ideas and areas. For each topic, ask yourself how long people will be interested in the subject. If it will change, move that topic idea to your trending content strategy.
Also, consider how in-depth you can go with each topic. For your evergreen content to shine, you will want it to be long-form, so the more meat there is on the topic, the better it may perform in the long term.
Step 2: Conduct Thorough Research on Your Chosen Topic
Once you have a list of topics, it’s time to begin researching each selected topic. This research will guide the SEO side of your strategy.
For example, if you are a vitamin company, you might have decided to write articles on the benefits of magnesium. SEO research then lists specific questions about the topic people are searching for. These questions both provide evergreen content ideas and help you with search engine ranking.
Step 3: Get Organized by Outlining Your Content
Now that you have your topic and keyword, you can create a roadmap through your content outline.
Outlining ensures your content has a structured flow and aligns with your content’s goal.
Since this content will hopefully continue ranking for over a year, you’ll want to put your best effort forward.
As you create an outline, include all the most critical sections. You’ll then break those sections into subsections and points. That way, once you begin writing (or hiring someone to write), you have a clear direction to keep you on track.
Step 4: Write and Edit the First Draft of Your Blog Post
It’s time to transform that outline into golden content to bring in that traffic. You can tackle this part yourself. But if you do, clear out several hours of your time. Again, this content will rank for over a year, so you’ll want to ensure you put plenty of thought and research into the post.
If you don’t have the time to do it right, consider hiring subject matter experts to create the post for you to ensure it’s done right.
Here are a few tips our experienced writers provide for crafting your evergreen content:
Take Your Time: Creating content takes time. About 21% of content marketers take 2-3 hours, while 57% take over three hours to create content. Don’t rush the process.
Save Editing for Last: Don’t try to keep up with editing as you write, as that can mess with your groove. Your first step is to get your thoughts on the paper. You can edit once you completed the post.
Remember to Optimize: Remember that research you performed? Work those keywords into your content, use quality backlinks, and disperse internal links to help it rank in Google for months to come.
The writing process can be stressful. Be patient and take the time you need to do your best. The return will reflect the effort you put into it.
Step 5: Periodically Update Your Evergreen Content
While evergreen content has a long lifespan, it doesn’t last forever. Even the best content will eventually be outranked by newer content. But the good news is you don’t need to trash the post once that happens.
As we did with trending content, you can refresh evergreen content to expand its life. Review your evergreen content every two to three years and give it a little spring cleaning. These minor updates will be enough for Google to see it as new, relevant content and keep it near the top.
The refresh should include:
Checking that all the links still work
Updating any facts or claims that might be outdated
Adding new research or ideas
Refreshing any writing that feels clunky
Adjusting SEO for changing search trends
Generate Steady Traffic with Evergreen Content
Evergreen content can be one of your most powerful ways of generating consistent traffic if done right. But turning evergreen ideas into well-ranking content may feel like a mountain of a task.
Express Writers can help in every stage of the process. From content strategy to content creation, we have experts ready to help.
Why wait? You have traffic out there that you could be drawing to your website with the right content in place.
There’s no denying that long-form content is where it’s at when it comes to the world of online content. That’s why we had to host a #ContentWritingChat all about this topic that’s so crucial for content creators. If you’re ready to learn more about the benefits of long-form content, how to create it, and how to promote it, you’re in the right place! Now, let’s dive into the recap!
#ContentWritingChat Recap: Long-Form Content: Distribution & Promotion Tactics, & Best Examples with Lisa Dougherty
Our guest host this week was Lisa Dougherty. Lisa is an entrepreneur and she’s also the Blog & Community Director over at Content Marketing Institute. CMI is one of our favorite resources and we were thrilled to have Lisa join the chat and share her expertise on long-form content.
Q1: Why should you consider long-form content in this age where so many talk about short-form content?
You’ve likely heard that we as human beings tend to have short attention spans. So, if this is true, then why are people pushing brands to create long-form content online? Here’s how longer, valuable content can actually benefit your brand:
A1a: Long-form content (2k+ words) typically performs better on social, increases website authority, plus links. #ContentWritingChat
— Lisa Dougherty (@BrandLoveLLC) May 2, 2017
A1b: Long-form content is more likely to generate backlinks signaling search engines quality content that ranks higher. #ContentWritingChat
Sarah feels long-form content allows you to go deep with your customers and strengthen your relationship with them. After all, when they fall in love with the valuable content you create, they’ll truly appreciate your work and become big fans of your brand.
A1: If it’s meaty, long-form content gives readers a lot of value. Still needs to be concise, actionable. #ContentWritingChat
— Darcy De Leon (@darcydeleon) May 2, 2017
Darcy knows longer content can provide readers with tremendous value, which they’re sure to love you for. Make sure that you keep your content concise and actionable to ensure they’re engaged.
A1 Long-form content offers a more complete narrative, which means you have to stay lively to keep attention throughout. #ContentWritingChat
As Jim mentioned, you’ll have to work in order to keep the attention of your audience when creating longer content. You don’t want them to tune out before finishing your post.
Q2: How do you ensure longer blog posts are captivating and hold attention all the way through?
With longer content, you’re going to have to hook your reader in the very beginning and then hold their attention to get them to read through your entire post. What’s the secret to making that happen? Check out this advice from Tuesday’s chat:
A2a: Capturing attention is hard in a noisy world. Tell your story w/ emotion. Use personal experiences. #ContentWritingChat
— Lisa Dougherty (@BrandLoveLLC) May 2, 2017
A2b: Write for your reader, not search engines, so they’ll keep coming back. #ContentWritingChat
Lisa encourages you to tell your story and infuse it with emotion. Share your personal experiences. It’s this kind of content that will leave people wanting to read more. She also said to write for your reader, not the search engines. While it’s fine to optimize your content for search engines, you need to create with your reader in mind. It’ll help you develop a stronger connection with them and they’ll continue to come back and read more.
A2c: Headlines attract attention. Intros lure readers in. Keep both interesting and short. #ContentWritingChat
— Lisa Dougherty (@BrandLoveLLC) May 2, 2017
Lisa also shared some great advice when it comes to writing your long-form content. As she mentioned, headlines will attract attention. They are what will get people to your content in the first place. What will get them to read is your introduction and the content that follows. Make sure you keep it interesting and drawn them in.
A2 Put drafts aside for a day or two. Then read with fresh eyes. If your long-form content bores you, you have problems. #ContentWritingChat
When it comes to editing, Jim suggests letting your drafts sit for a day or two. Then, once you’ve had some time apart, you can come back and edit with fresh eyes. As he said, if your long-form content bores you, you have problems. You need to find a way to change it up before you hit publish.
A2: Long blogs require strategic formatting to keep reader interest: graphics for visual support, a captivating voice #contentwritingchat
— Elizabeth Greenberg (@BettaBeYou) May 2, 2017
Elizabeth knows longer blog posts will require strategic formatting in order to keep your reader interested and to lead them through the post. It’s also important to showcase your brand’s captivating voice.
@writingchat A2: Format them properly with headings, subheads, etc. Make sure blog posts have a good flow from 1 point to the other. #ContentWritingChat
How you structure your blog posts also plays a major role in keeping people hooked on your long-form content. You’ll want to use headings and make sure everything flows. Headings are great for separating individual ideas and it helps to break up big blocks of text. And making sure everything flows is important because you want to have high quality writing on your blog.
A2: Break up content with pictures (worth a 1,000 words) & subheadings can help keep the audience engaged. #contentwritingchat
— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) May 2, 2017
Pictures are another great way to break up text and they can also grab attention and keep people interested. You’ll want to add at least one eye-catching visual to each of your blog posts.
Erika knows subheadings and visuals are great, but she also suggested using bulleted lists. Bulleted and numbered lists are an easy way to make text scannable for your reader, which they’ll surely appreciate. And as she said, don’t write just to make your posts long. Only write as much as you feel is necessary to get your point across.
Q3: Once you’ve created an amazing piece of long-form content, how do you promote it to maximize your readership?
Once you have an amazing piece of content published on your website, you can’t just let it sit there to gather virtual dust. Instead, you have to be proactive about promoting the content you’ve written. Here’s how you can promote a piece of content and attract plenty of new readers:
A3a: Have a popular post widget on your website so top posts are front and center and can be easily shared. #ContentWritingChat
Lisa knows just how beneficial a “popular posts” widget on your website can be. If there are any posts you’d like to showcase, they can be featured in your popular posts section, which is great for keeping people on your site and reading more.
A3: Share it where your audience is! You should know where they are & what content they want. #contentwritingchat
— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) May 2, 2017
This advice is simple: share it! If you have something new that you’ve created and you’d like to send some more traffic to it, you can absolutely do that. It all starts with knowing who your audience is (and where you’re from) and also knowing what they want.
@ExpWriters A3 Pin it to your social media/groups, repurpose pieces of it for various social posts, SlideShare, video, more blogs #ContentWritingChat
Julia said you can share a great post by pinning it to your social media pages, repurpose it for social media posts, SlideShare presentations, videos, and more.
Elizabeth recommends sharing content through social media and your email list. Make sure you’re repurposing content for the platform it’s been shared to so you know it’ll perform its best.
A3: I started promoting new post the day before they are published. That way people know it’s coming compared to day of. #contentwritingchat
— Mind of a Diva (@MindofaDiva) May 2, 2017
Teasing your content before it goes live is a great way to share a sneak peek and leave people wanting more. They’re sure to be excited about what you have coming up when they find out.
A3: Socia media, email, influencers, organic promo, media partnerships.. lots of options and opportunies!! #ContentWritingChat
Promote your content on social media or to your email list. Ask influencers to help you spread the word or team up for media partnerships. And finally, organic traffic will do you wonders if you’ve optimized correctly.
A3c: Go visual with it! Can it be the basis for a live video? An infographic? A series of graphics? #ContentWritingChat
— Sara Tetzloff (@que_sara) May 2, 2017
Sara encourages you to find a way to repurpose your content. You can do so in a visual way, which means you could create a live video, an infographic, a series of graphics, or something else. It’s all about finding what works best for your brand and your audience.
Q4: What are other creative ways to promote long-form content for maximum mileage?
If you really want to increase the readership on a particular piece of long-form content, you’ll want to get creative with how you spread the word. Here are a few great ideas you can try out:
Lisa likes the ideas of sending email previews to those who contributed to a post or those who are mentioned in a post. You can send them the publish date, the URL, and any pre-written tweets to make it easy for them to share. When you take out the hard work for them, they’ll be more likely to spread the word!
Lisa also mentioned using the Click to Tweet feature to create ready-to-share posts for social media. This makes it easy for readers to spread the word about the content you’ve created. You also want to link to older, relevant content to keep people on your site.
With the popularity of live video, Leah is spot on with her suggestion of turning a longer blog post into a Facebook Live. You can also use Instagram Live or Periscope.
A4 – I’m really excited to start repurposing some long-from content into videos, slide shares, and podcasts! #contentwritingchat
— Elizabeth Greenberg (@BettaBeYou) May 2, 2017
Elizabeth is repurposing her content into videos, SlideShares, and podcast episodes. This will really help her reach a wider audience.
@writingchat A4 Seems counter-intuitive, but breaking up long-form content into smaller pieces helps promote the bigger piece. #contentwritingchat
You can even share it in relevant social media groups, on Reddit, various dedicated forums and discussion platforms, create infographics, and promote it via Quora.
Q5: Should you syndicate a great piece of long-form content on another site? If so, where is a great place to start?
To maximize readership, many turn to syndication as a way to repurpose content they’ve created. Is this really worthwhile though? And if so, how do you go about syndicating content the right way? Read these tips:
A5a: Be careful of syndicating your content. @Google may not like it. Do your research. #ContentWritingChat
As Lisa mentioned, Google may not be a fan of content syndication. You’ll want to do some research before trying this out for yourself. To help, she shared a post from Content Marketing Institute so you can learn more about syndication.
A5 Develop a good, trusting relationship with another site, being sure of syndication terms in writing.Then try it. #ContentWritingChat
If you decide to move forward with syndication, keep Jim’s advice in mind. He suggests building a trusting relationship with the site first. You also want to make sure you’re aware of their syndication terms before getting started.
@writingchat A5: If it’s a relevant & reputable site, then yes. I look at the quality of writing they publish before deciding. #ContentWritingChat
— Restaurant Hot Spot (@Restaurant_wifi) May 2, 2017
You’ll also want to make sure the site you syndicate with has a reputation for publishing high-quality content.
A5: If your audience is there, sure. Make sure it isn’t seen as duplicate content though; that can get you in trouble. #contentwritingchat
Also, make sure your target audience is reading this site so you can actually reach the right people.
@ExpWriters A5. Yes, you should syndicate your blog post on another site because they might have a much better chance to be seen #contentwritingchat
— Cheval John (@chevd80) May 2, 2017
On the plus side, syndication is a great way to get your content seen by a wider audience.
A5: You have to avoid the duplicate content issue, consider REPURPOSING for another site or platform #ContentWritingChat
Because Google could see it as duplicate content, you may want to consider repurposing the piece instead. Find a way to make it fresh and difference so it isn’t repetitive.
@ExpWriters A5 ? Rule of thumb: Syndicate with care so you don’t dilute. Oversyndication (cloning) cheapens content. #ContentWritingChat
— Julia McCoy ? (@JuliaEMcCoy) May 2, 2017
One final piece of advice to remember: don’t overdo it. This can cheapen your content, so do all syndication with care.
A5: Don’t syndicate duplicate content across every platform though, that can become boring and lose follower interest #contentwritingchat
Hank agrees that you shouldn’t go overboard when syndicating. Choose wisely which platforms you want to post your content on.
Q6: What are ways you can repurpose written long-form content? At what point in the process should you start planning for repurposing opportunities?
To truly make the most of your content, you’ll want to repurpose it. This will help you breathe new life into older content and you’ll be able to reach a wider audience. So, how can you get started with this strategy? Check it out:
A6a: Extend life of posts by creating social assets such as YouTube videos, SlideShare, infographics, & quote images. #ContentWritingChat
— Lisa Dougherty (@BrandLoveLLC) May 2, 2017
A6b: Start planning right away. Find your evergreen content. Check your site analytics to find top-performing posts. #ContentWritingChat
Lisa suggests repurposing your content in the following ways: YouTube videos, SlideShare, infographics, and quote images. All of these ideas are great and are sure to help you get more mileage out of your content.
She also suggests getting started right away when it comes to planning how you’ll repurpose a piece of content. You can do this by finding your evergreen content and determining the best way to repurpose it based on your brand and your audience. Think about what they’d most like to see! It’s also wise to repurpose the posts that are performing the best.
You can even compile multiple blog posts on one topic into a single eBook.
@ExpWriters A6) Take tidbits from it & create social media posts, memes, quotes, infographics, more granular blog posts, etc. #ContentWritingChat
— Jason Schemmel (@JasonSchemmel) May 2, 2017
Create social media posts, memes, quotes, infographics, and even more blog content.
Erica suggests considering what will work best for the other platforms you want to share your content on. You might choose to create infographics, timelines, videos, pictures, or Moments.
A6 Write content with repurposing in mind. Then you’re less likely to write yourself into a literary, seasonal corner. #ContentWritingChat
— Jim Katzaman (@JKatzaman) May 2, 2017
Jim likes to write content with repurposing in mind. This surely helps him to make the most of his content.
A6: I think of repurpose planning once I’ve created the original piece. That way I can step back & plan big picture. #contentwritingchat
Elizabeth begins thinking about repurposing once she has created the original piece.
@ExpWriters A6 Don’t let the LFC get stale. Update sections of it in blog post form months or a year later, as appropriate. #contentwritingchat
— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) May 2, 2017
This is great advice from Martin. Don’t let your long-form content get stale. You can make updates months or a year later to keep the content fresh and accurate.
Q7: What’s an example of long-form content you loved recently? Share the link!
To help you get some inspiration from amazing long-form content, we asked our chat participants to share a link to a post they loved recently. Here’s what they shared with us:
— Traffic Jam Media (@trafficjammedia) May 2, 2017
And our own guest host, Lisa, does a pretty fantastic job herself! Join us every Tuesday at 10 AM CST for #ContentWritingChat! Follow @ExpWriters and @writingchat to stay updated on topics and guests.
There’s no way around it, if you want to publish content that truly works for your online presence. Long-form content is more valuable, more exciting, and more relevant to readers than shorter-form content. It’s also less common.
While it might sound insane to start creating long-form content while we’re living in a world of increasingly short attention spans, swimming upstream is sometimes the only way to the goal.
Here’s some real inspiration for you on the subject. Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute, and a leader in content marketing, wrote this in an exclusive CMI subscriber email this month (read the actual email here via PDF):
“…Nearly every marketer we talk to has run to shorter posts, shorter social media updates, shorter videos, shorter podcasts … thinking that audiences don’t have the desire to invest themselves in content for a longer period of time. But they absolutely do … if the content is worthwhile. Those marketers who take a longer form approach can immediately position themselves and their stories as differentiated simply because of the length. When all your competition is going small, maybe it’s your time to go big.”
In the same email, Pulizzi points out that:
Huffington Post has recently doubled down on its efforts to create long-form content.
All-star Youtubers are creating videos that are 10 or 12 minutes long.
Tim Ferriss’s recent bestselling book, Tools of Titans, is a whopping 671 pages.
Today, long-form content is the best way to stand out online.
But why, truly, long-form content–why does it work?–and how can you create it for your brand?
Let’s discuss this timely topic.
[bctt tweet=”Why, truly, are we pro long-form content for a strong online presence? Why does it work? And how can you create it for your brand? Read @JuliaEMcCoy’s guide ? ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Long-Form Content, by the Numbers
Long-form content isn’t just important because it’s different – it’s important because it works.
By providing more space to include relevant information, and giving audiences a chance to settle in and get comfortable with your brand, voice, and content, long-form material manages to convert at higher rates, provide a higher ROI, and earn more engagement. Here are a few fast stats to prove it:
The average length of posts in the top 10 spots of Google is 2,000 words. While it’s possible for short-form content to rank well, long-form content is the winner when it comes to front-page results.
Long-form content gets people to stay on pages 40% longer.Kissmetrics reports that, in addition to staying on their long-form pages longer, people exposed to long-form content also viewed 25% more pages than other visitors.
Long-form content earns more social shares. When it comes to social media, long-form content earns more shares and engagement than standard blog posts.
Longer content helps position you as a leader in your industry. It’s tough to bluff your way through 10,000 words, and readers know that. When you create quality, long-form content, you position yourself as a leader in your industry, standing out even further from your lazy counterparts who would rather get by with 300-word blurbs.
The Long-Form Guide Revolution
One great place to see the power of long-form content is in guides. Today, long-form guides are doing incredibly well. While it’s tough to earn great results if you’re not writing specific, targeted, honed guides, ultimate guides are another thing.
Instead of rambling and losing readers, these guides target in on one topic and dominate all facets of it. Covering things like InDesign and landing page lead generation, these guides are killing it in the online world right now.
Because they’re extensive and in-depth, these long-form guides have longer lifespans than other forms of content. This is because they can be reused again and again. After they’re researched and published online, it’s easy to make a large book from them, for example, or break them down into a long-form SlideShare presentation.
Need a real-life example?
Consider Joanna Wiebe, who wrote a guide to copywriting formulas. It’s called “The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever).” The piece sits at 5,000 words and takes more than an hour to read! It also includes a table of contents to follow:
Useful, extensive, and helpful to readers, this piece has earned more than 6,000 shares and 151 comments. It also ranks well at the top for “copywriting formulas” in Google.
5 Examples of Bloggers Rising Above with Long-Form Content
Now that you know why long-form content is so critical, let’s take a close look at a few prominent bloggers who are putting out excellent long-form content today.
1. Tor Refsland
Tor Refsland, the face behind TimeManagementChef.com, has been featured on top sites like Lifehack, JeffBullas.com, Ahrefs, Post Planner, and Blogging Wizard.
On his own blog, he’s famous for consistently publishing 10,000-30,000-word monster blogs. Thanks to the time, energy, and effort these blogs take, he’s been recognized as an award-winning, top blogger who was first invited to speak at key events just 18 months into blogging.
For an example of what Tor Refsland is capable of with a blog, check out this piece, titled “Business Coaching, 20x My Revenue and Being Slapped by Frank Kern.” It clocks in right around 13,000 words and features so many segments and sections you’d think you were reading a novel!
While the piece is long, though, it manages not to be overwhelming. This is because Refsland does a few things beautifully. For one, the entire article is broken into highly digestible segments and short paragraphs, so you’re never faced with a brick wall of text. Example:
He’s also funny, and his humor feels like a trail of bread crumbs, leading you through the story step by step. He’s a pro at using punctuation, formatting, and headlines to help usher people through these monster blogs, so you never get bored or discouraged.
Try this post: How To Attract the Right Clients By Doing Business Nude.
It’s seriously funny.
Tor’s incredible copy is a large reason he was on my podcast last year!
2. Adam Connell
The founder of Blogging Wizard, a site that helps people learn to grow their sites “like magic,” Adam Connell has made a name for himself in the world of long-form content.
For an example of what he and his team create, check out this recent blog, titled “How I Got 8k Followers on Tumblr in 5 Months Without Logging in Once.”
Written by Eli Seekins, this blog is just about 3,000 words long. While this piece isn’t as massive as Refsland’s aforementioned blog, it’s no less important.
Here are a few things this blog does right: It visualizes almost every step.
If I had to guess, I’d say this post has an image every 300 words or so. In addition to the custom cover they’ve created for this post, the piece is also littered with in-depth screenshots,
overviews,
and tutorials.
Without these images, readers would be facing a dense stream of text, which would be intimidating and off-putting. With these images, the long-form content feels like a picture book, which is welcoming and informative.
It uses catchy headers and subheaders. The title itself is a great example of this. “8k followers? On Tumblr? In 5 months? Without logging in once??” You can’t help but click once you’ve gone through that mental process. Beyond the title though, his headline mastery is evident throughout the piece. Each subheader is descriptive, succinct, and compelling for readers. This helps move people through the piece and keep them interested.
It encourages reader engagement. The last subheader in the piece reads “Over to You.” The author uses this segment to ask audiences about their Tumblr blogs, follower numbers, and actions they’ve taken to drive traffic to or from the blog. With 24 comments and more than 700 shares, the approach seems to work!
3. We Live What We Preach at Express Writers
Here at Express Writers, we’ve always been dedicated to long-form content. It’s been the name of our game since I launched the site with a $75 out-of-pocket investment, back in 2011.
Throughout the six years that have elapsed since then, content has always been the #1 source of our revenue, marketing, and leads. We’ve never invested in PPC marketing (that’s right – not once) and we’ve always created our content without a thought to a sales funnel.
As a result, we outrank all of our major competitors on Google by 5%.). We claim more than 4,100 keyword rankings in Google and have organic traffic worth about $13,200. To top it all off, we also serve upwards of 1,000 clients around the globe and write more than 300 pages each week. I broke exactly how in my case study last year:
Of the more than 785 blogs we’ve published on The Write Blog since 2011, the average word count of just one of my posts is 1,500.
Some are longer, at around 3,700, while some are shorter, clocking it at more like 800 words.
Curious about how we use long-form content to drive results? Here’s a breakdown.
Each month, we post about 32 long-form pieces across the web. It takes five people, including myself, to make that happen (myself, three of our writers to assist me with editorial deadlines, our designer, and our Social Media Manager Rachel to social share everything). That doesn’t include the writers that periodically guest blog on our blog, including my staff, like Tara Clapper. These include posts on our own blog and posts on my various guest post columns. Here are the standards that allow us to maintain that level of content:
Research. I use Quora, BuzzSumo, and SEMrush for research. I’ve even created a Twitter chat (#ContentWritingChat) to find out what people on that platform are talking about and what they’d like to see in the coming content. Finally, I always pay careful attention to the comments I receive on my blog, and the conversations I have with other people in the comment threads of other blogs, as well as the conversations I have in LinkedIn and Facebook groups. Many times, these serve as the basis of my research or learning for a coming post.
Scheduled posting. In recent years, I’ve ramped up our publishing schedule to include a blog each day except for the weekends. That’s five blogs a week. I schedule each to post on WordPress at midnight the day of, and I tend to stay one week ahead. This allows us to stay consistent and high-quality, no matter how busy things gets.
Custom images. We create custom visuals, screenshots, and GIFs for each of our pieces. As you saw in the Blogging Wizard example, lots of visuals help readers stay engaged in long-form content, so we use them to help guide people through our posts.
Content audits. Every month, I audit our content in SEMrush. If the content there is showing as low-quality or low-engagement, it gets updated and improved immediately.
While this all takes a lot of work, I’ve found that content is the single most valuable source of online traffic, and that paying careful attention to building and maintaining it is a smart way to boost your online business and earn incredible leads.
4. BuzzSumo
The BuzzSumo blog is authored by the team at BuzzSumo, including Susan and Steve Rayson, and others. What this team is great at is specificity. Unlike so many other places on the web, they consistently publish exclusive statistics, which is a fantastic way to win at blogging, as well.
They’re also great at ultimate guides.
In fact, their guides are frequently my go-to sources of research for material I publish on The Write Blog, and virtually any piece you click on has dozens of comments, and hundreds of shares. Take this piece, for example: “Ask the expert: Mari Smith Answers 56 Questions About Facebook Marketing,”where author Susan Moeller asks the so-called “Queen of Facebook” about how to increase Facebook reach and improve presence. Exhaustive, exciting, and interesting, this piece hits it home on many levels. Or, one of my frequently quoted pieces, “The Future is More Content.”
BuzzSumo levels up continually and gets hundreds to thousands of shares per post, because they’re able to add exclusive research to their content performed using their insightful software.
5. Neil Patel
Ask virtually any expert content marketer for an example of a long-form king or queen, and they’ll mention Neil Patel. His company, QuickSprout, is the online leader for super in-depth guides and his blog on this topic, why long-form content matters, is a go-to for content in general.
Within this blog, Patel breaks down why he thinks long-form content is valuable. He quotes this powerful serpIQ study:
He also breaks down how his about page is 2,000 words long, and how values like substance, style, frequency, purpose, and format all help inform his company’s long-form content strategy.
When you visit QuickSprout, here’s what you can expect from their long-form blogs:
Organization. His posts make any Type A personality happy. They’re organized, well laid out, meticulously formatted, and incredibly easy to navigate. Between his relevant headers and subheaders, and his use of bolding, italics, and bullets, you never have to worry about getting lost in one of his posts.
Information. Like BuzzSumo, Neil Patel is a great source for original information. He publishes his own research, his own statistics, and his own findings. All this contributes to a truly unique content experience readers can’t expect to find anywhere else.
Personal voice. Neil Patel is great at making people want to work through these long blogs with him because he’s so conversational and approachable. He addresses the reader as “you” and calls out their personal struggles and difficulties. He also shares many of his own!
Visuals. Patel’s blogs are highly visual-dense, featuring screenshots, overviews, and charts and graphs to help readers grasp his points and synthesize the information he’s offering.
Because of these things, Patel has consistently stood out as a leader of long-form content, and he continues to dominate the web. A great person to look toward for an example of why long-form works, or how much it matters, Neil Patel promises to continue his charge as a leader in long-form.
How to Create Long-Form Content
So, long-form content matters.
It converts better, differentiates you from the competition, and puts you in the ranks of some of the best bloggers out there. But how do you create it for your site? While the task may seem daunting, long-form content isn’t as tough as it might seem. You simply need to have a plan of attack.
Here’s a detailed outline to help you create your own long-form content in the coming year.
Step 1: Define your mission
Think of long-form content like a long, long sailboat trip. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re going to wind up somewhere you don’t want to be. More specifically, you’re going to wind up wasting time, money, and lots of effort, without anything to show for it. With this in mind, you must define your purpose first.
To do that, answer this simple question: Why are you writing the long-form content?
Got an answer? Good – now get more granular. Who is it for? What will “success” look like? What goal does this material need to achieve?
Once you’ve hammered these things out, you’ll have a functional roadmap with which to begin the long-form journey.
Step 2: To gate or not to gate? That is the question.
Long-form content basically comes in two varieties: gated and ungated. Gated content requires readers to give you something in return for the content, like an email address. Ungated content comes for free, on your website or in the form of a download.
Gated content helps you learn about your readers by collecting relevant information, like their names, ages, job positions, and email addresses. It also helps you build your email list and introduce people into your sales funnel.
Ungated content, on the other hand, may encourage more engagement since it comes with less commitment. Both approaches have their benefits and drawbacks, and the next step in deciding whether to gate your content is simply evaluating rather its smart for you.
Different influencers have different opinions about this. CrazyEgg, for example, advocates for un-gated guides, since they can help you build relationships without a “catch.” The final decision, however, depends on your business, goals, and outlook.
Step 3: Create a topic and reinforce it with keywords
The biggest battle in the process of creating long-form content (aside from the actual writing) is deciding on a topic and keyword strategy. Remember that long-form guides can be 5,000, 8,000, or 10,000 words, so it’s critical to pick a topic that leaves you plenty of room to run.
Having trouble with this step? Here are a few tips:
Pick a topic that allows for simple keyword optimization. You want to be able to align your long-form content with keywords people are searching for. Bear this in mind as you research and develop your topic.
Check out your Q & A section. If there’s a certain question customers ask repeatedly, consider expanding it into a long-form guide or post. This can kill two birds with one stone: providing an in-depth answer to the question and giving readers a place to turn before they ask it.
Do your research. As I mentioned before, I use sites like Quora and BuzzSumo to do the research for The Write Blog, and these are great resources to tap into. Look for trending content, questions your readers are asking on Quora, or any unmet needs your target audience may have.
Step 4: Write it out
Next comes the biggest part of the entire process: writing. Writing a long-form guide can take weeks or even months, depending on your purpose and channel, so it’s essential to leave yourself enough time to execute this properly. If you rush it, you’re going to wind up with unsatisfactory material that doesn’t fulfill its purpose.
If you don’t feel up to the task of writing the guide yourself, consider hiring someone to do it for you. A freelancer or content agency like our own here at Express Writers can manage the entire process, taking your material from outline to final draft in a reasonable timeframe.
Once you’ve gotten the guide written, you’ll also want to invest in design services to make it visually appealing, no matter how you intend to distribute it.
Long-Form Content: The Most Important Type of Content to Create in 2017
As 2017 wears on, long-form content becomes more and more critical. In addition to helping brands stand out from the content sea, long-form ranks better, earns higher ROIs, and gives you a chance to solidly position yourself as an authority in your niche.
While it may seem counterintuitive to create long-form content in a time when attention spans are shorter than ever and mobile is king, readers are hungry for something that provides them with real value, real passion, and real effort.
Long-form content is one of the only things on the web that provides all of this, all at once.
Do yourself and your readers a favor, and commit to long-form content in 2017.
You’ve likely heard of the phrase “above the fold,” if you’re even slightly into internet marketing and copywriting.
According to collective wisdom, we’re supposed to top-load the content that appears “above the fold” if we want to succeed.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term “fold,” it essentially means the place that a reader would have to scroll to see more content or the bottom of the visible page.
For years, this has been a battle cry in the world of SEO, and it’s one that’s rung loudly with writers, web designers, and others. But what if that call is wrong? What if “the fold” has fallen out of vogue and, today, it’s nothing more than a myth that you don’t need to worry about quite so much. Today, we’re going to dig into this, and help you understand why “above the fold” could be a dead term.
Read on.
What “Above the Fold” Content Looks Like
Whether you know it or not, you’ve seen above the fold content. You can find it on virtually any small software company’s website.
It looks like this:
On the FreshBooks website, which sells small business accounting software, the viewer gets a visual, a headline, a few sentences of text, and a call-to-action button – all without having even to touch their mouse.
That’s it. You can’t scroll down.
Let me take this moment to say that there’s not anything wrong with this layout. The website is visually appealing, uncluttered, and compelling. That said, though, there is something wrong with the intense declaration that every call to action on every web page in every industry must exist above the fold.
This has been going on for a few years – this insistence that everything should be above the fold. In fact, Kissmetrics explored it in a 2012 article:
Kissmetrics question to their audience is:
“What if the premise is wrong? What if calls to action below the precise work better?”
Let’s explore why that may or may not be true, by today’s standards.
Death of the Fold: The Real Benefit of a Below-the-Fold CTA
CTAs tucked into the bottom of pages may perform as well if not better than their above-the-fold counterparts. In fact, a page with a CTA tucked into the bottom footer of the page out-converted (by 20%) a page with a prominent CTA positioned above-the-fold (Unbounce).
While it may seem contradictory that a CTA tucked down low on a page (where presumably nobody would see) it could out-perform a CTA placed in the most prominent portion of a page, it’s true. I know, it seems even more unbelievable when you consider that the majority (80%) of people read headlines, while only 20% click through to read body content. So, what’s this fascination with below-the-fold content?
The answer comes down to a few things and, surprisingly, the fold isn’t one of them.
At the end of the day, the all-powerful fold is just a technicality in the content conversion process.
Here’s why: users are happy to keep scrolling to reach your CTA, if the material they see above the fold interests them enough.
In other words, the conversion rates of above- versus below-the-fold content has less to do with the actual position of the CTA than it does the quality of the content on the page. In other words, readers will keep going if they feel motivated to do so, and this has nothing to do with the position of the CTA. Instead, it has to do with how motivational your content is and how much it drives your reader toward your CTA.
According to the aforementioned Kissmetrics article:
“Higher conversion rates have nothing to do with whether the button is above the fold, and everything to do with whether the button is below the right amount of good copy.”
How Much Copy is Enough Copy?
Now that you know why the fold is a myth let’s talk about how much copy you need to provide your readers with “good copy.” Of course, there’s no one-size-fits all rule for this, and the answer depends on your various audience segments. Assuming you’re dealing with calls-to-action on landing pages or websites, here’s how you should arrange your content to appeal to each different audience segment:
1. Leads who are ready to buy.
These people get it. They know what you’re offering, and they know why. They also know they want it. They’ve read enough of your content to feel compelled by it and convert at the highest rate if you stick your CTA at the top of the page.
2. Information-gathering prospects.
These leads are relatively familiar with your company, and they just need a bit of a nudge to hop in and convert. For best results, give them a bit of educational text and a prominent CTA. This isn’t so much about positioning your CTA above the fold as it is ensuring that the content you offer them is prominent and educational enough to convince them to dive in with your company.
3. New leads.
If you have someone who is brand-new to your landing page or product, you’re going to need to do more legwork. This will mean that your CTA coincidentally falls below the fold, although, again, this has less to do with placement than it does the amount of content you’re offering before the CTA. To hook these readers, give them a solid value proposition, well-written educational copy, and a precise definition of benefits, costs, etc. A compelling CTA at the end of all of this will help seal the deal.
Why Scrolling Isn’t so Bad After All
Today, people scroll almost intuitively.
Think about it: we scroll in everything we do. We scroll through the contacts on our phones, our text messages, our music libraries. We scroll through books and magazines on our Kindles and scroll down product pages to locate what we’re looking for online. Scrolling is second-nature, and people aren’t nearly as afraid of it as they once were.
Because of this, people aren’t automatically turned off if they need to scroll to locate your CTA. In fact, they may be more automatically turned-off if they navigate to a top-heavy landing page that’s apparently been designed to cram everything into the top six inches of a page!
Still not convinced that people don’t mind scrolling? Here are some stats to help you get your head around it:
According to Chartbeat, 66% of people’s attention on webpages is dedicated to the content below the fold.
76% of people scroll on web pages, and 22% of people scroll to the bottom of a page, regardless of how long it is.
50% of mobile users begin scrolling through a page within 10 second of landing on it
Apple removed their visual scrollbar from their Mac OS X software in 2011, proving that people of today are scrolling natives, and don’t need to be reminded to do it.
The Death of Above-the-Fold Content is Upon Us
While it used to make sense to position content above-the-fold, the rise of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets has changed the way that people interact with web content. It’s also changed the way they think about scrolling. Today, scrolling is natural, and most people don’t bat an eyelash at the thought of doing it.
As such, it doesn’t matter where a CTA lives (as long as you’re taking your various audience segments into consideration as you lay out the page) or how long the page is. Instead of seeing a CTA crammed into the top of a page, people only want to see some valuable content they can interact with. By delivering this, you can easily grab your readers’ interest and keep it, regardless of where you put your CTA.
That said, don’t discount space above the fold. It still matters! It just doesn’t matter as much as people once thought it did. Instead of seeing all your content crammed into the top few pixels of your site, readers want to land on a site that is laid out according to their stage in the buyer’s journey. They also want to feel as if a page is dedicated to featuring valuable and informative content, rather than just focusing on stacking all of a its content into the top few inches.
Death of the Fold: Let us Know what You Think!
So, there you have it: while above-the-fold content served a purpose once, it’s less important today.
Right now, readers are looking for value and relevance rather than SEO tricks. If you create great long-form content, it will still get read. If you put your CTA at the bottom of the page, it will still get clicked.
With that in mind, ditch your concerns about staying above the fold and focus on being informational and valuable through your content, instead. Readers will thank you and your conversion rates likely won’t suffer!
What do you think of this not-so-new-trend? Let me know in the comments!
At Express Writers, we serve nearly a thousand international clients monthly by providing content pages that are 99% web-based (utilized on blogs, as landing pages, website articles, etc.). This means that we have to keep up on the latest and greatest know-how to provide our clients with the best, highest quality content possible—closely tied in to how well the content will perform on Google and search results.
If you’re an Internet Marketer, you most likely know very well by now that the Internet is ever-changing, and Google’s guidelines for ranking web content have significantly re-formed in the past 12 to 24 months. Big names in algorithm updates were Google Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird.
Since these algorithm updates, we’ve seen some solid trends favoring specific attributes of content that were previously overlooked in rankings. Specific attributes now being favored by the SERPs include:
Long content is given preference above shorter content
Less focus on keyword-optimization in the content and more of a real-world, researched, and reader-friendly oriented focus
Well-formatted and visual-oriented blogs that get shared
Let’s delve into the first attribute. Why and how, exactly, is longer content preferred and given a front row seat by the SERPs versus the previous standard of short, 1-page content?
What Is Longer Content?
Before we can successfully make an educated comparison of long versus short content, we need to fully comprehend just what long content is. Copyblogger first put a finger on it by writing a blog, “How to Write the In-Depth Articles that Google Loves,” in mid-2013. They called it “cornerstone content.”
Cornerstone, or longer content, is the kind of content that is both thoughtful and in-depth. It is well researched and presents a battery of proven facts, much like an essay. Long content comes in different styles, strongly dependent on the company or brand creating the content. It is primarily conversational, educational, and informative. Some of the most SEO successful long content pieces range from 2,000 to 2,500 words, which is approximately a 5-page piece of writing. Let’s see what some experts think about long vs. short content.
The Conundrum: Long vs. Short
According to the Rank Correlation 2013 Study on ranking factors in 2013, published by SearchMetrics.com, “Content factors correlate almost entirely positively with good rankings and were apparently – when compared with the previous year – partially upgraded.” This fact proves that Google’s updates did indeed change, or upgrade, the system for ranking web content.
A good percentage of ranking factors in 2013 went to quality content. According to SearchMetrics.com, the average number of words in the text was 576, which was up from 2012. The trend of rising word count in content has continued into 2014.
A QuickSprout.com contributor, Neil Patel, decided to test out the new waters favoring long content. He swam to the newly popular deep end of the pool and created a test homepage of 1,292 words versus a second homepage of a mere 488 words. Both pages had a fill out form at the bottom. Although he initially thought the longer content would decrease his conversion rate, the results of his test were intriguing:
The long content converted 7.6 percent better than the shorter.
The leads resulting from the long content proved to be of better quality.
The long content boosted conversions and SERPs.
Patel concluded, through his research and case study, that longer content is indeed better for rankings, engagement and more versus short content. He also concluded that in 2014, content truly is king and if we’re wise, we’ll invest in the creation of well-written, authoritative, and engaging content.
The Express Writer’s Long Content Case Study
After identifying the trend to longer content and seeing what the experts had to say, we decided it was our turn to join the deep end of the pool. We put this trend to a wheel-grinding test just before Christmas 2013, by writing 2,000-word, highly researched, niche topic content blogs, and posting them on our blog. The results were phenomenal: Google loved our content and we gained significant keyword rankings that grew steadily.
Screenshot of our rankings Dec 2013:
Screenshot Jan 2014:
The rankings were closely tied to the actual blogs we posted, for example this blog on how to deliver compelling content, that was ranking for the keyword web content writing tips:
Lastly the Feb 2014 Rankings:
How Can You Jump Into The Deep End?
Now that the experts have waded into the deep end and shared proven results, the rest of us can jump right in. But how? Where’s the diving board?
One of the most common questions we hear businesses asking is how do I write long content without overdoing it (being wordy, boring, etc.)? If you’ve asked this question, you’ve pinpointed the biggest obstacle to long content: HOW THE HECK do we come up it? Even Internet Marketers are asking this question.
SearchEngineLand.com published eight means of creating what they refer to as long tail content for SEO. The article drives home the point that while SEO isn’t dying, it is evolving. You cannot create content merely for the sake of keyword searches and traffic. You have to “shift toward a more user-content-centric view of the world.” You can accomplish this feat and generate great long content by:
Gathering your best people and brainstorming. You know whom we’re talking about. Those elite few within your fold who have a talent for brainstorming fresh, cutting-edge ideas. Pull these folks together and start brainstorming content ideas. Let creativity get a foothold, and then move to the research phase.
Become familiar with the needs of your audience. Pinpoint the top 5 to 10 needs of your audience. Then, brainstorm topic ideas that allow you to cover each need and the solutions you offer in a lengthy, well-researched piece of content. When you delve deeply into the needs of your audience, you’d be amazed at how quickly you’ll compile pieces that exceed 2,000 or so words and need to be trimmed back or split into two distinct pieces of content.
Give your audience more than just your solution. Once you’ve pinpointed the needs of your audience and derived how you can provide a solution, research complementary products and services. At first, this might seem counterproductive. But remember that content needs to be “user-content-centric.” By introducing them to the part you solve, and pointing them toward complimentary avenues of solving an aspect to the problem you don’t, you build credibility and authority. The user will be impressed and see you as a business looking out for their needs over your profit margin. As a result, you’ll begin building trust and loyalty alongside sales conversion.
Check out the competition. It’s a good idea to research your competition. Your goal is to do better than they do. Avoid copying their content strategies. Instead, plan your own geared toward excellence.
Test the waters. Once you’ve brainstormed, researched, and planned, it’s time to test the water. Create a few pieces of content and an initial design. Test them with your audience. Use the feedback to improve before initiating your final content strategies.
Is Short Content Still Valuable?
We hear this question a lot; it isn’t, is short content still valuable, it’s where is short content still valuable? No lie—it still has its value. Not only will you still find short content all over the World Wide Web, but you’ll still be creating it in 2014. Here are some examples of where shorter is still better:
Specific marketing content, such as e-mails
Product descriptions
Social media posts
Video presentations
Podcasts
Webinars
Infographics
Today’s audience is pressed for time, which is why short content is still very much valuable. Yet, our audience also knows when to spend a little extra time reading content that presents value. And that is really what the long versus short content conundrum is all about. For years, we’ve stuck to publishing short articles and content, thinking it was the best way to blast a message to our audience and see results. It worked, for a time. However, today our audience is demanding more.
Case study after case study is proving that our time-strapped audience will not only take the time to read lengthy, well-written content, but they also demand it. As a result, Google is pushing the primary use of long content in 2014. There’s no doubt that we will continue to see the evolution of search engine optimization and content as the year progresses and the next 2 to 3 unfold.
Yet, based on the information we’ve just covered, we can state one thing with certainty: the ultimate trick to staying ahead is to always keep your audience at the center of every piece of content you create and publish. If you’ve done this from day one, adapting to the trending change of long tail, cornerstone content will be as simple as expanding word counts to offer even more user value. Continue to keep your audience as your true focal point, and you’ll easily transition as the Internet world keeps on evolving.
