Long-form content is crucial to creating a deep connection with your target audience.

What is the ideal word count for written content for websites and blogs? 

It is a question more and more marketers are asking as they try to drive performance in an online environment bursting with information.

Research shows that the average length of published blog posts has increased significantly over the past ten years from 500 words to more than 2,000.

According to a survey of over 1,000 bloggers by Orbit Media Studios, 63% of bloggers publish posts exceeding the standard 1,000-word count. Of these bloggers, between 30 per cent and 36 per cent write more than 1,500 words and report ‘strong results.'

Specifically, they say longer blog posts improve Google rankings, social shares and backlinks. The message is clear: in 2023, longer-form content outperforms shorter posts.

What is not so clear is just how long long-form content should be. 

Whilst HubSpot has pegged the ideal blog post length for SEO at between 2,100 and 2,400 words based on the average length of its 50 most-read posts in 2019, the reality is that hitting on the right word count comes down to three key elements: the complexity of the topic, the needs of the user, and how helpful it is.

What is long-form content for SEO

Long-form content is content that tries to explore topics in depth. This typically involves writing upwards of 1,000 to a maximum of 7,500 words. 

As marketers, focusing on quality and helping users is essential – not the number of words. Long-form content is about writing with purpose, not writing for the sake of writing and padding articles to make them seem important and impactful. As their recent helpful content updates demonstrate, even Google focuses on helpful content.

When done well, long-form content provides information that readers want and need, Thus, propelling your content and brand to the top of search engine results pages. Backlinko discovered that word count was evenly distributed among the top 10 results. The average Google first page result contains 1,447 words.

What is helpful content for SEO?

Google stresses that helpful content is compulsory instead of 'quality content'. Google's recent core updates declared that helpful content was not only an update but a permanent change to ranking signals. 

The helpful content system aims to reward better content where visitors feel they have had a satisfying experience. In contrast, content that does not meet a visitor's expectations will not perform as well.

Google's search engines now generate a site-wide signal that they consider amongst many other signals for use in search rankings. Google's algorithms now automatically identify content that appears to have little value, low-added value or is otherwise not helpful to people.

Any content—not just unhelpful content—on sites with relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in search rankings, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that's better to display. For this reason, removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.

Advantages of long-form and helpful content

Long-form and helpful content:

• Improves search engine rankings.

• Engages readers and increases the time they spend on a site.

• Boost social sharing.

• Drives website traffic.

• Increases conversion rates.

• Enhances a brand's credibility as a thought leader.

• Builds trust by providing readers with content that teaches them something and brings value.

• It helps build a brand's backlink profile. Also called off-page SEO, this strategy is about building trust in your brand by earning links on other websites. Your backlink profile is one of the most critical ways Google's algorithm determines quality. The more quality websites your site is connected to, the more likely you will rank above your competitors on Google.

• Allows brands to repurpose material for future posts and other types of content.

Whilst the benefits are powerful, they are also time and resource intensive. The key is to be strategic and produce the type of long-form content your target audience wants, with a proven track record of driving engagement and conversions for your brand.

Examples of long-form content

• Case studies are detailed examinations of how a brand helped a customer solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity.

• White papers allow brands to showcase their thought leadership by bringing readers up to date on a topic and sharing expertise.

• E-books are in-depth, downloadable online publications that serve as resources to help readers navigate complex topics.

• Definitive guides and tutorials: These step-by-step tutorials walk readers through how to address a challenge and implement a solution.

• Year-in-review blogs, articles or newsletters: These allow brands to show readers their achievements over the past year.

• Roundups include information and resources a brand's audience will find helpful.

• Webinars and virtual events.

Best practices to create effective long-form content

1. Establish clear goals

This is critical for any content development strategy. 

• Are you trying to sell a product? 

• Drive people to your website? 

• Improve your Google ranking? 

• Be known as a leader within your industry?

A well-defined objective will help you determine the topics and types of content that will help you realise your goals. It will also help you develop an effective outline and create the headings and subheadings that will attract Google's algorithm and readers' attention.

2. Keep the narrative informative, readable and helpful

To this end, here are five tried and true professional tips:

1. Use headings to move the content from one idea to the next.

2. Include images to break up the content. The images should enhance and not distract from the text. The key is to ensure that any images you add are relevant and support the long-form content you have produced. Sixty-four per cent of marketers say original graphics and video content perform the best.

3. Use numbered lists and bullet points. About 43 per cent of people will skim through an article to get the basic message.

4. Add links to take readers to additional valuable information.

5. Develop long-form content that sets you apart as a thought leader in your industry by providing expert advice and insights. 

3. Be deliberate when deciding on topics

Consider the kind of information your target audience wants. Answer questions as fully as you can. This will allow you to create long-form content that resonates and, as a result, performs well from an SEO perspective. 

The only way you can do this is to know your audience, their challenges and their needs. If your website has existing topics, can you update your existing long-form content to keep it fresh and valuable?

4. Optimise content for user intent

Google and other search engines' algorithms are focused on answering users' questions and ranking content based on how well it achieves this objective. Google will highlight content that directly answers a user's question as featured snippets or in People Also Ask (PAA) sections ahead of the first organic search result.

5. Conduct a helpful content audit

A content audit is where you analyse your content's performance to find improvement opportunities. Many content audits focus on SEO performance, but a full audit also considers the content's business performance and purpose. If the content is poor-performing, one of the reasons may be that it is unhelpful. Assess it - can you make it helpful and longer, or is it worth combining it with another piece?

6. Do not waste words

More is not always better – mainly if you are adding words to make content appear more substantial than it is. Avoid repeating the same concepts and facts. Make a clear argument or point, and then move on to the next one. Do not use ten words when five will do. 

Stretching out statements does not help the reader or your positioning on search engine results pages. Ensure that the information you share is directly connected to the topic you are writing about and provides value to your target audience. This is how you will build engagement and establish trust.

Long-form content is emerging as an essential tool to establish a deep connection with your target audience and drive SEO performance. Brands that develop long-form content that educates and informs their target audience are setting themselves apart.