Does your marketing agency produce blogs for its website or your clients? Have you ever wondered about the benefits of short-form blogging versus blogs of a significantly longer length? Here are several things to keep in mind about shorter blogs compared to their long-form counterparts.
Shorter blogs are easier to read
Most people tend to skim when they read. While some may absorb every word, the average reader tends to words.
Did you notice we skipped the word “skip” there? You probably still realized what we were trying to say. That’s because our brains are trained to read fast. Headers tend to help with this, drawing attention to the key points even if they don’t catch every word.
Short-form blogs are more likely to be shared
This may raise a few eyebrows, as long-form blogs are more authoritative. However, if a person finds your content helpful, they’re more likely to share it. This is true of your social media posts, free downloads, and yes, your website’s blogs.
Long-form blogs can absolutely be helpful, and we’ll unpack that usefulness shortly. However, if you’re always producing longer blog posts, it’s unlikely that every one of them will hit the mark. A shorter blog has a higher chance of doing so regularly and therefore increases the likelihood of a social share from your website to the reader’s social media profiles.
Engagement levels are higher
It’s a simple fact that many enjoy video content. This might dissuade some from blogging altogether.
However, a shorter blog makes the content easier to consume. For example, a given header should have no more than 300 words between it and the next header. If you go much beyond that, it lowers your readability and makes it harder for your audience to grasp the important details.
This, in turn, lowers the engagement on your blog (known as “Time on Page”). It could potentially lead to a bounce rate, which Google then notates within its analytics. The higher your bounce rate, the lower your engagement score — which lowers your brand’s authority.
(In case you were wondering, not counting this sentence, this section had 110 words — far below the maximum recommendation).
A few pros of long-form blogging
This isn’t to say that long-form blogging has no place. Blogs that are greater than 1,000 words demonstrate your knowledge of a given topic. And blogs of a 2,000-word length (or more) are known as “pillar content.” These have a higher likelihood of becoming the authoritative answer on Google when a user searches for a particular query.
In addition, long-form blogs have significant SEO value and can help boost your overall rankings within search engines.
Long-form versus short-form blogging
Our purpose today wasn’t to discredit the value of long-form blogs. Rather, it was simply to highlight the value of shorter blogs. There are significant benefits for both styles of writing, and the important thing is that your company publishes new blog content consistently.
Do you need assistance with this particular task? Learn more about our premium content production here or contact us for more details.