Our Attention Span is Less than a Goldfish - estimated in 6 secs (About Post Lenght)
Focus is Power.
But what happens when we are not able anymore to focus more than 6 seconds?
This is what Neil Patel declared on his latest webinar and I have to agree with him!
So, it seems that the average post lenght should pass from 1500 words to 450 or so!
I bring you my personal experience reading my collegues articles for the Site Comments.
They were full of informations, very well written, but after the second paragraph, I honestly wanted to quit the article. I just finished reading it to be ethical and fair, and leave a comment that could really help.
So, I made up my mind that - instead of writing so long articles all the time (and very well structured in terms of paragraphs and lists that will help you the reader to find faster the needed infos), I will experiment the more with shorter posts > 450 words, 1 concept only, mixed to longer ones!
What do you think about this? What will be your strategy?
Recent Comments
22
Great (short) article. In journalism which I was in for some 40 years, we were taught to make sure our article, column, etc. was written for people reading at no more then an 8th grade reading level. And as a former teacher, I know this was about the attention span of some of my students.
Thanks
Dan
Soumii,
Great article and valuable reminder, It brings me back to writing in High School and college, in WA, I'm not writing a story at times, me just remember tiring and long busy days, peoples mind not catching everything, just the points, Thanks for reminder in this post,
cheers
Clotilda
Thank you Clotilda!!! Yeah, we have always to remember we write for people and not for search engines :)))
We will test and share our experiences with short form content! I started yesterday by creating a post of 500 words, let's see what happens :)
You may have noticed we are moving more to short form videos. We have been finding that the average person is no longer capable of "sitting through" a class...probably myself included.
What will be interesting is to see if conventional schooling and universities start to adjust to our new attention spans.
Kyle, thank you so much for your comment! I am moving towards that direction too but...how do we adjust the lenght of our posts then?
Do you think that mixing longer posts with shorter ones could be a good strategy?
Hi Romy
I think the trend is moving more and more to short-form content written by real people, which is why so many searchers are gravitating towards user-generated-content like Reddit and Quora, despite the fact that it’s often biased or factually incorrect.
Search queries like “How to ___ Reddit” and “What is ___ Quora” are becoming increasingly common.
Google his stated that word count is NOT a ranking factor so it may be worth experimenting with some well-written 500 word articles. 😎
Frank 🎸
I agree Frank! And we have not even considered the AI impact! Now that more and more people use CHAT-GTP they are used to get lists of key points informations.
So in a very short list, they receive the main informations about a topic and THEN they expand the research.
This will change also they way we will deliver the infos too!
I predicted this would happen more than five years ago, Romy.
People have transitioned to consuming information very quickly. 😎
Frank 🎸
See more comments
I agree to an extent, because there are so many things vying for our time and attention. Posting a 1500-word article doesn't guarantee success; it hinges on your audience and content quality. Since browsers can read aloud, if the content captivates, you'll likely read the first few paragraphs and let the browser continue.
If you're using a bot to write without oversight, brevity may be preferable. However, if you're divulging intriguing details about a topic of interest, I'm all ears—just avoid unnecessary filler.
A practical method to gauge your content's length is to read it yourself. Act as your own critic; sometimes you'll notice omitted crucial points, or at times, excessive elaboration. Often, when seeking feedback, we're looking for thoughts on the topic, not the quality of the writing.
Ultimately, it boils down to understanding your audience, which is why we have niche sites. Some audiences have a brief attention span, while others, more scholarly, will read extensively, provided the content remains engaging.
yeah Kundi, I agree on your points! It all depends on which topic you are writing and the audience you are referring too!
Mixing short form contents with longer ones is a solution I like because it seems to cover all the readers needs.
Those who have short time could benefit from a short form content, those who really want to dive deep into a topic could benefit too from an extended content!