PAGE 1 – Going Long Pt. 1: Long Form Content
PAGE 2 – Going Long Pt. 2: Long Tail Keywords
PAGE 3 – Strategy Pt 1: Keyword Placement & Importance
PAGE 4 – Strategy Pt 2: Creating & Using Links + Backlinks
I remember when I first started writing website content, I was so concerned with getting high Google rankings. But now I do not worry about it so much, mainly because what I do to achieve it has become pretty much routine. It seems that one character trait I have has translated over to my website content and has paid off well in SEO rankings.
GOING LONG
According to the experts who have been blogging for quite some time and who rank quite well, they all have one thing in common, they write long form content. What actually is long form content? Quite simply it is content that is no less than 1,500 words long. Now I know what you are thinking, but if you want to rank well with your website content, you better start thinking of going long with your content.
Actually 1,500 words should be the bear minimum and your content should really be no less than 2,000 words. A couple of years ago serpIQ ran a study on about 20,000 different keywords and came up with the top 10 ranking pages of content and how many words each one had. The results can be seen in the graph below, with the number 10th position coming in at about 2,050 words in length.
As you can clearly see, all pieces of content are over 2,000 words in length. Think about all of the top-ranking websites, they are all using long form content. It should be obvious by now that Google and the search engines crave lots of content and it only stands to reason why those who write long form content are getting higher rankings.
So often when I review the websites of people wondering why they are not seeing any major change in their rankings, they mostly have pages of content with under 1,000 words. Writing long form content has advantages in many aspects for your overall SEO and if you want better rankings you should start writing longer content.
NEXT UP = Using Long Tail Keywords also Increases SEO
It makes a huge difference when trying to establish authority.
People also like to share long-form content. It makes them look and feel smarter to the people they share it with even if they don't read the whole thing.
Reply
What I have in mind is:
1) Proven that long articles are good for Google.
2) Are they good for readers? I have been watching one guru which always have huge articles and have proved his ranking performance But, I have newer managed to keep reading after 30-50% of the article. I read a lot, but I must think about my time too, and it´s floating in excellent articles on the internet (and very bad articles too). And when I have an article, even so it's well written, which take a circle to come to the point I don´t have time.
3) If people don´t read it, they newer come to the end of the article where the affiliate link, recommended by many like Jay, for example, are so they will not buy.
4) If the articles are shorter and more focus on getting the point, it looks like it´s not ranking well. With point 1) in mind.
So, what is the right way to do? I´m confused!
Short answer: longer the better and use good headings :) Sprinkle in lots of creative pictures too.
1) Long articles are definitely good for Google. Why? Because Google indexes content and not just keywords and you get rankings and traffic based off of your content as a whole and not your keywords.
2) Long form is good for readers, especially when using proper UXO (User Experience Optimization), so that your content is created for both the visitor that reads it all and those who skim through the content. Always create your content with that in mind.
Don't create content based on how you feel it will be comfortable for you. More information is always better for SEO. In one of the Bootcamp lessons, Kyle says to go back into content which is thin and add more to make it more authoritative.
There are many authority content posts online that I do not fully read either, but I will bookmark them to come back to when I have more time. Neil Patel is one who I read a lot from and I hardly ever read all of his content in one sitting and his content is LONG Long Form.
3) This is not always true. Again if you are using good UXO, you can still capture people near the end. Plus you do not have to put your affiliate links always at the end. I always utilize the sidebar so it appears higher on every screen.
4) Providing good UXO can solve a lot of issues. Plus you also must understand that not every piece of content on your website needs to be Long Form. About a 50 percent ratio is a good start.
And a happy new year.
ps. Neil Patel was the person I had in mind for beeing with so long articles I have newer finish them even so I have interest and bookmark!
Lots of good information in this tutorial. What do you think will be the biggest factor in SERP rankings in 2016?
I think semantic search and indexing will become a bigger factor because that is where Google search is headed.
