Today’s web users are becoming smarter day by day. They want specific answers to their questions when they search for something on Google and so, they use longer search queries to find what they want faster. These types of searches are known as long-tail searches. Long-tail searches are the keywords or key phrases that are more specific and usually longer than more commonly searched keywords. But their length is not why they are called long-tail. It refers to the graph that represents how generally, they get less search traffic, but have a higher conversion value, as they are more specific.The number of long-tail searches performed have been increasing exponentially and so, in order to survive in the search competition, you need to create long-form content on your website containing some long-tail phrases, which definitely will improve your SEO. Keep reading to learn more about long-form content and how it can be beneficial for your website.

Long-form content is longer and more detailed information on a given topic. It generally contains about 2000+ words’ worth of high quality content. Examples of long-form content include eBooks, white papers, research papers, in-depth guides and resources as well as industry reports.

It always has been a question of debate in the world of SEO: Is it good or bad to have long-form content on your website? People consider writing long-form content as a time-consuming and costly process, but there are a number of advantages of having it on your website.

Here are some main benefits of having long-form content:

1. Long-Form Content Gets Higher Social Engagement:
   Writing long-form content allows you to take a reader from a beginner to advanced level of information on a topic within a post. Giving that kind of value not only attracts more people to your post, it also inspires them to share it with other people. Thus, in-depth content gets more shares, more hits, and more traffic than shorter posts. In 2015, Moz and BuzzSumo analyzed over 1 million articles and concluded that content over 1,000 words consistently receives more shares than short-form content. 
2. Long-Form Content is Great for SEO:
   The more shares you get for your content, the more traffic you will get to your site. Long-form content keeps visitors on your site longer because they are reading your detailed posts which eventually boosts your brand’s relevancy. Google factors this into their ranking algorithm by ranking those websites higher in search results.
3. Long-Form Content Gives Your Brand High Level of Authority:
   If you think of the most trusted names in your industry, you will notice the one thing in common. They create a lot of long-form content for their websites. For example, for the digital marketing industry, Moz, Kissmetrics, HubSpot, Quick Sprout etc. are the authorities whom we turn to get expert advice for SEO. If you notice, most of their blogs are like a mini eBook or a resource guide, written in multiple sections with detailed examples, links, images/infographics, and often have informative videos too. Writing that kind of comprehensive content that tackles a topic in detail helps establish you as a knowledgeable expert and marks your brand as a reliable authority in your industry. It produces more site traffic and attracts people looking to learn more about a topic, and it will remain an important source of information far into the future.
4. Long-Form Content Helps You Get More Backlinks: Backlinks have been an extremely important Google ranking factor. Pages with the highest number total backlinks tend to rank best in search engines. You can automatically get benefits of reaching new customers by having backlinks to your content from high-authority websites. Since brands have to face Google penalties for having low-authority backlinks on their sites, they are always looking for an authoritative source of content to link back to for better SEO. The goal is for your website to be this authoritative source for brands in your industry. This can be achieved by writing effective long-form content.
5. Long-Form Content Provides More Opportunities for Internal Pages to Rank Higher: You will get more opportunities to link internal pages of your website through the long-form content posts. That is not only a good user experience, but it eventually will improve rankings of the services pages of your website in search engines.

Keep in mind that quality is always better than quantity. Your main content goal should be to provide value to the visitor, no matter how long your posts are. Don’t try to pack your pages with irrelevant and repetitive words to expect great returns. There are many times when it might be better for your business to stick to short-form content. Just focus on doing justice to the topic and leave no questions unanswered.

Contact Robb Digital today to know how we can help you to improve your current digital marketing efforts. Have an SEO or Social Media audit performed on your web properties by our experts to find out areas you can improve.