Every digital marketing agency is aware of the importance of developing an effective content strategy, which improves performance and conversion rates. With the right type of content, your digital growth can be exponential. However, there are some misconceptions in the content marketing world.
Read this article till the end to understand if short form content is the right choice for you or long form blog posts.
What is Short-Form Content?
In the world of SEO & blogging, any content that is less than 1200 words in length is considered to be short form content. However, a digital marketing agency may also consider 1000 words as the maximum word count of short form content.
From a reader’s point of view, the shorter and more precise the content is, the easier and quicker it is to consume. This is specifically true for content that covers only a particular area of a topic.
Some examples of short-form content includes:
- Short blog posts
- News articles
- Infographics
- Social content
- Emails
- Press Releases (in some cases)
Short-form contents are easy and light to read and may attract a larger audience who love content that doesn’t take long to consume. A digital marketing agency also benefits from short-form contents as they serve the purpose of introducing a particular topic in brief, and are easy to create & distribute.
In many cases, short-form contents serve the purpose of distributing a single message effectively & quickly. These types of contents are mainly about keeping things simple and sharing a single idea.
What is Long-Form Content?
Typically, long-form contents include any content that has more than 1200 words. However, some experts consider 1000+ words to be long-form content too.
A digital marketing agency uses these types of contents especially when it wants to dive deep into a topic, cover everything important and educate the readers.
Some examples of long form contents include:
- Detailed blog posts such as “How-To” guides
- Evergreen pages or posts
- Guides and tutorials educating readers
- eBooks & Whitepapers
- Pillar pages
- Virtual events & webinars
These contents are especially curated to truly engage readers because of the detailed discussion of the topic it covers. Long form contents are not made for quick consumption or light reading but are intended to educate & inform readers looking for a specific question or learning about a topic.
Does the Length of Your Content Matter?
This question is common among SEO experts and in each digital marketing agency. This question, therefore, deserves to be addressed to intrigue readers to find out the truth and learn the intrinsic relevance to the difference between long form & short form contents.
So, the short answer to this question is yes, the length of the content you create and publish matters for your digital marketing strategy and growth.
However, as we said, it is a short answer, the more detailed answer is that content length is not the only factor that decides your digital marketing growth. Because the length of the content depends on the marketing strategies a digital marketing agency adopts.
So, while creating content you should always keep in mind the purpose you are trying to serve. This is why a digital marketing agency would always take time to research and understand your business to learn the right format of the content and the right length. Different purposes & strategies require different formats of contents.
The Pros and Cons of Short-Form Content
Some pros are:
- Effective and quick way to spread a single idea without committing a huge chunk of your time or commitment from your audience.
- An audience with a short attention span would love these contents and that’s why short-form contents are so effective on social media
- Helps to ration your resources to create content
- In many cases, these content pieces are mobile-friendly and hence, easy to read and consume
Some cons are:
- It becomes difficult to cover a topic or answer a question in detail
- These content pieces, if not carefully created, might become less valuable and hence, can put off your audience
- These are usually not evergreen, this might reduce effectiveness and performance over time.
The Pros and Cons of Long-Form Content
Some benefits are:
- Typically, these content pieces rank higher on search engines. This is ofcourse true in cases the search query of a user demands a detailed content
- Long form contents also rank for multiple keywords because they cover topics in detail
- Long form contents, that offer value, attract more backlinks than short-form content. This, in turn, improves the post’s performance and ranking.
- Businesses may observe lesser bounce rate and better conversion rates
- Long form contents may also help you to stand out as subject matter expert
Some cons are:
- The major disadvantage is the intense resources it requires to create a long form content. This usually means spending more time researching, writing, proofreading, creating images, etc. Or if outsourcing, it may incur a larger fee.
- In some cases, long form contents may not be displayed nicely on mobile devices. This creates creative complexity and ease of reading.
- These content pieces may be ignored by an audience that loves skimming and has a small attention span
