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Long-form content is often blocked out by other forms of execution that may be brighter or more appealing. You may have seen many times on Twitter, that case studies, conference decks, and big bold content is often what our attention is drawn towards. With the right knowledge and expertise, you can surely execute both.

The truth is that the worth of long-term content should not be overlooked because it can do numerous things for a brand:

• Generate traffic
• Build authority and reliability
• Surge value to the website as a whole
• Targeted link building

The ultimate point is that a survey was done and digital marketers were asked what they think is the best form of execution for a link-building campaign.

Take their advice and work on link building as it will help in surging traffic on your website, and will also help increase your website’s ranking.

When it comes to the implementation of this idea, which of the following do you find the most useful in generating links? There are various forms of writing, for instance, long-form, report-style content, interactive pieces of content, blog posts, static infographic, press releases, and real products.

The results were quite shocking as the long-form, report-style content ranked number one. This is a great reason as to why businesses should invest more in long-term content.

Let’s go deeper and understand what link-building is, the methods of link-building, and how it works. Will it be any help in your business and will it increase your ranking on google?

Why Does Long-Form Content Work Well?

There are numerous reasons why long-form content executes well and how brands benefit from them. While writing, you can get so indulged, that the actual topic of your content may get forgotten about, and the related work you need ends up with no benefit. So take extra precaution while writing. Always try to make notes of keywords and gather all of the important information before-hand, so that you are stuck on the important part of your topic.

Let’s take a look at how we can take advantage of long-form content and why businesses must invest more in them.

Easy for Google to Search and Understand (Benefits of Long-Form Content)

Long-form content is easy for the Google search engine to understand. With long-form content, all of the information can be taken from one place rather than moving from one website to another. Visualizations and infographics might look more attractive and alluring, but they are more complex and difficult to understand for Google as compared to simple wordings. Many of the assets that power all these kinds of data are images, javascript, and data files and it may seem easier for humans to understand, but crawl for Google.

• It can affect your ranking on search engines and will not lead to traffic as Google is facing difficulty in understanding your content and may not show up on the top of the results page.
• The value of your website may decrease as you are just surging the pages on your website which are difficult for Google to understand.

Target Versatile Range of Keywords and Attract Organic Traffic on Your Website 

Long-form content allows you to target a versatile range of keywords and these keywords can help you escalate traffic on your website, but it is not as simple as it seems to be. You cannot just drop keywords and think that your website ranking will now rise up.

Proper keyword research should be done and used accurately in writing content. Always try to use an adequate number of keywords, as fewer keywords will not show up in the Google search engine and may feel stuffed. It is better to highlight the keywords so it becomes easier to search for clients, audience, and for Google.

Unlike short content, long-form content has more chances of ranking well because you can write much more keywords as it has a higher word count. You can also add it in headings and sections, and it gives you vast knowledge about the topic.

With link building in content, the user jumps directly to a specific page that helps them understand the topic more and increases organic traffic to your website, hence a surge in ranking.

Long-Form Content Can Be Long Lasting And Regularly Updated

Long-form content can be evergreen and it can be updated regularly. For instance, if you have written any topic related to your industry in 2021, it can easily be updated with new changes in 2022. Updating this content can also help in escalate more organic traffic on your webpage. This is not easy in the case of video or visual content because it is more time-consuming and may not be cost-effective.

One of the examples of this is:

They have been updating this page every year for the last several years and this helps them increase traffic on their page and certainly ranking as well. The audience also starts feeling trust in the website when they see regular updates and updated content.

As you can see, there is no date on the page, hence it becomes easier to update the page in the same year and in the following years. This merges all of the historical social shares and links in one single page, making it easier to gain popularity over time.

Long-Form Content Can Captivate Links And Become Reference Material 

Long-form content can attract more links from third-party websites such as, journalists, bloggers, and writers. They often share links to their webpage for reference and if your page is has complete information and a good ranking, then they can easily choose your page to link.

There are various examples that show that long-term contact attracts third parties as their information and ranking both acts as a boon for the audience. Not only does this give great exposure to your brand, but it can become a word of mouth.

Long-Form Content Can Carry Small Stores And Many Angles

Often, brands have their personal relationship (PR) manager gather content with the idea of it being long-form content, as this is a great idea in terms of a promotional angle. In long-form content, they will have multiple stories and they can write from various angles.

Rover is a good example of this, as within one single piece of content, they show numerous angles. Here is one about video games and their impact on dog names:

  From another angle they are inspired by celebrities for dog names:

This is a great idea from the viewpoint of PR, as they can show single content in multiple ways and there is also less risk if the angle fails; then you can try your content by reaching more audiences from a different angle. This gives you more websites to target with your outreach.

How To Implement Long-Form Content

We have already discussed how long-form content can help your brand. Now let us look out at some of the key points to remember if you or your team are going to create such long-form content.

Core Topics:

It is very easy to go off track while writing content, so start with the basics and try to remain on a single topic so that you follow a structure. It is not a bad idea to work in numerous fields but the structure of your topic is the most important.

• What Topics Will Reverberate With Your Audience

The best idea is to connect with your audience by stepping into their shoes. This will give you an idea of what your audience wants from you. Try to find the topics that will help educate your target audience. Figure out the challenges and problems they might be facing and think about what they want to read on your website.

• What You Want To Be Known For

Always remember what your brand is and its perspective. What message your brand wants to pass to its audience. Your audience should get the same thing in mind that you want to make them understand. You may be good at writing those topics, but your brand should match the content. So be a little careful while writing.

• What Do You Have The Credibility To Talk About

You should write only about topics which you can talk about for hours and have vast knowledge of. The topic which you are writing should match your brand. Always check your collective knowledge, wisdom, experience, and credibility before writing the content.

What is the right Implementation?

Long-form content is only suitable if your audience wants complete and detailed information about a certain topic. Ask yourself if you want to produce a 3000-word article. Do you have that much information and can you write about it? Make sure your audience does not want short and concise information. If that is the case, then your audience may not be willing to read it.

A good way to execute long-form content is to start planning the structure. You will get an idea of what you want to share with your audience if it quickly grows into various points and angles that fit the mainstream topic.

Search On Google For Information

Google is very good at understanding what the audience is asking for and which type of information they want and crafts well with the search result.

Be sure to access the information that is already in and during the course of the duration of what Google is showing on page one. It could be a video, long-form content, e-commerce, short-form content, research papers, etc. Ask yourself, does long-form content fit well with the search? In addition, if it is in demand and can increase traffic on the page.

You can also use the tool Thruu, which can take your keyword and tell you a bunch of things about page one of the search results, including things such as:

This gives you great insight into the types of pages that Google is already ranking with this particular keyword.

Additionally, you should assess if you can write a better article than the one already written and ranked as number one. If you cannot, then it is better to focus on another topic and try different ways to expand it and write in such a way that you excel in that subject. This will help prevent the audience from going to another site.

Check Your Resources

Are you sure that this type of content is good and can you actually write it? Are you a self-efficient writer and designer, or do you have a team that can help you produce good content?

Every problem has a solution and if you think that you need help, then you can hire a freelancer for your work. Do not hesitate to work with a specialist, as it will only help you with creating better content.

Conclusion

To conclude, we hope it is now crystal clear to you that long-form content can escalate your brand value in multiple ways. It may not be immediate, but the end result or future result is a surge in traffic on your web page due to complete information.

The increase in traffic and link building will make the audience stay on your webpage for a longer amount of time, your page ranking will increase, and your brand will become word of mouth for your target audience.

Always research what your audience wants you to write about and in which form. Focus on your audience and their problems and challenges, and try to be in their shoes when writing. You will notice the end result will always be great. 

If you need help from professionals, we have a team of excellent content writers and content marketers who can help you with content creation. Simply contact us and we can discuss a strategy.

               

 

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