It's not that long ago that blog posts were used by companies as a digital marketing strategy to attract audiences and ranking on Google. With topics that address the persona's problems, doubts or dreams, the information-rich content engages the reader within the blog and can generate conversions for companies.
For the content to reach you, it goes through a long production process. Within this process, there are many doubts and myths about how to achieve the coveted first page ofGoogle, and that's what we're going to talk about today.
After all, how do you write a successful blog post? Is it better to produce long content with more information or shorter and more objective? If you're just starting to invest in your company's blog and want to know how to rank on Google, this is the right post for you!
It's time to dispel some myths about blog posts and discover the best tactics for producing quality content that performs well in search engines.
Here you'll find
- Content length: long text or short text?
- Content for blogs: what is the ideal number of words?
- How does content length affect website performance?
- What is website optimization and how to do it?
Shall we read on? Follow along!
Content length: long text or short text?
When it comes to producing content, this is a very common question - after all, how many words to write? Before we get there, we need to explain a few important points about short and long content.
Firstly, it's essential that you bear in mind that short texts are usually no more than 1,000 words long. They are more objective and quicker texts. But that doesn't mean they're low-quality content, okay? Just more succinct and specific.
Long content, on the other hand, can exceed 2,000 words. These texts cover the content in more depth, with a focus on educating the reader and clarifying all the points on the subject. It's not the kind of content you read in a minute, you know? However, once you've read it, there are no doubts left.
An example of long text is evergreen content, which are posts where the subject is of constant interest to the consumer and is not restricted to a specific time. Even with the passage of time, it always has "new" information to add and therefore has increasing search traffic.
But let's get down to business, shall we? Which of the two types of text performs better? If this is one of your doubts and you want to see your site at the top, find out the answer in the next topic.
Content for blogs: what is the ideal number of words?
If you use social media, you've probably noticed that we're part of a fast and connected generation, right? Instagram captions are getting smaller and smaller. But does this faster generation reflect on blog production too?
This is a common question and there are those who believe that short text has come to dominate all channels, but can we tell you the truth? That's a big myth! When it comes to producing content, it's clear that the amount of text can also have an impact on its reach and should be part of your strategy.
At the time of production, the size of the text needs to fit in with the objective of being in line with the types of content. But when should you define the ideal amount? It's when you're planning your content that you'll define the target number of words. In other words, if your focus is on creating a blog, which, as we mentioned above, aims to answer readers' questions and engage them, it's impossible to summarize it in a few lines.
If we put a complex topic into a blog post of just 300 words, would you be able to understand it or put it into practice? The knowledge you gain from a longer post is, in fact, more in-depth, and generally those looking for this type of content are looking for just that - richer, more detailed content.
After all, as research by PoderData shows, the internet is the main means of information for the population, including blog posts like this one. It's important to remember that the number of words is not the general rule. As mentioned above, you have to analyze your focus.
See also:
- Digital content: future trends in social communication;
- SEO training: the checklist for ON PAGE optimization;;
- 4 tips for audiovisual production of digital content.
How does the size of content affect website performance?
Now that the difference between a short and long blog post is clear, let's look at the performance data. As research by Backlinko shows, when it comes to backlinks, posts with longer content have around 77.2% more links than shorter texts.
Another survey by SerpIQ shows that when it comes to presenting search results, longer content also generates more shares than short posts.
But it doesn't stop there! If you want to know how to rank on google with your content, according to research carried out by Semrush on the best performance of posts, it shows that a long blog post generates four times more traffic and around 43% more shares than a short post. The same analysis also reports that articles with 7,000 words stand out in terms of performance.
How does Google search work?
If you're thinking of investing in producing content for your website, you've probably heard of keywords. In short, keywords describe your content and are the main term in a search. It is through them that the engines present your blog post to the user according to their search.
Imagine the following situation: you are researching how many words a good blog post should contain. According to the keywords used in the content, the search engine will identify that this page is relevant and will help answer your question.
But calm down! It's not because they can contribute to better positioning that you should abuse them, right? Too few or too many keywords can cause your blog to suffer some kind of penalty.
So, if you were thinking that all you had to do to do SEO for blogs was repeat the words to get a good performance, know that this won't work. Search engines identify the overuse of these terms and instead of bringing credibility to your content, it can have just the opposite effect.
Okay, but how does your site appear in search engines? If this is one of your doubts, rest assured that we're going to explain how Google indexing works.
When the search engine finds a post like this one, it goes through a few stages, such as the indexing phase, which in a nutshell means making your site appear on Google.
In other words, through Google's algorithm, some checks are made, as well as the qualification of your page. After this process, it is listed on the platform and is visible to the user on the search engine results pages (SERP).
What is website optimization and how do I do it?
At this point, you're probably thinking: "how do I get my website to the top of Google searches", right? If you already write long-form content and invest in in-depth knowledge, but still don't know how to get on the first page of Google, it's time to review your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques.
SEO for websites is a set of optimization techniques for search engines. The focus of blog SEO, especially ON page SEO, is to improve your site's ranking in search engines like Google and consequently increase traffic. But beware. Don't forget to do SEO OFF page too.
By optimizing your site, you'll not only get a better ranking, but also qualified traffic, save on your investment, strengthen your brand's authority and improve lead capture.
But how do you do SEO on a blog? At this point, Google's own platform can help! With Google Search Console, you can monitor your blog and, through various reports, identify and correct your main errors, as well as checking the performance of your page.
Not to mention that with the constant reports provided by Google Search Console, your online marketing team can gain insights into how to generate more leads through your blog.
Did you like this tip? This is a great first step to optimizing your website, but if you want to know how to attract more leads and delve deeper into the world of Inbound Marketing, follow our blog and subscribe to our newsletter!