Ranking for an information based query? Longer is better

Ranking for an information based query? Longer is better – Alexa Flash Briefing Skill (SEO Tips)

Did you know that long pages or posts of 3000 words get more traffic, shares, and backlinks vs shorter content?

Hello, thanks for listening to SEO tips today. 

SEMRush just released research focused on the impact of long-form content and it mirrors the outcomes of research carried out by Hubspot and Brian Dean.

The takeaway is that to rank for information-based queries, you really need to create comprehensive content and ditch the idea that 300 words per page is the web standard.

Here are a few stats from the study: 

• Long pages/posts of 3000+ words get 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than articles of average length (901-1200 words) and conversely shorter articles (under 900 words) more likely have 0 social shares. 
• Articles with long headlines (14+ words) get 2x more traffic, 2x more shares, and 5x more backlinks than articles with short headlines (7-10 words).
• Articles with list headlines get 2x more traffic and 2x more social shares than other types, followed by guides and “how-to” articles. This is similar to research I saw years ago from Outbrain related to click-through rate. 
• 36% of articles with H2+H3 tags have higher performance in terms of traffic, shares, and backlinks. I think this might be due to Google’s increased understanding of the text, and potentially the articles ranking for Fraggles (Google lifting chunks of text from the article and ranking it independently in search).

Ultimately, longer posts usually perform better on every level, 3000-word content gets 77.2% more links compared to 1000 words, and articles with a word count over 2,500 get shared the most on social media.

So here’s the takeaway: If your article contains less than 3,000 words it seems like there is only a 50-50 chance that you’ll get any social media shares. This is also why over 90% of all content gets NO traffic from organic search.

So your tip for today is to focus on how you can create comprehensive answers to your audience’s questions and concerns. Look at what is currently ranking for the term you want to rank for and ask yourself, “What can I create that is better and deserves to rank”.

Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.