Long Content at All Cost Can Backfire – Why and What Is the Solution

One of the most frequently encountered problems that SEOs and freelancers are facing repeatedly is how to make a service page longer when the service itself is boring, straightforward, vague or some nauseating combination of those elements. Then the average SEO specialist finds comfort in the mantra: “Google loves longer content”. Well, that's not necessarily the case.

While it's clear that on average, long-form content wins engagement, climbs the SERP and triggers sharing, it does not make long-form content attractive. Or from another point of view, if it was true, then it would be like the false notion that books are better when they have lots of pages. Imagine if William Shakespeare only wrote poems about peasants toiling for the Crown, and if he used only the same fifteen or twenty words in every single poem. So what can we add up here? It is clear that:

Longer content doesn't equal great content;
Writing longer content shouldn't be your primary goal;
Longer content is not the one and only factor for higher rankings and more shares;

There are many factors that show the downside of that overall trend. It's the constant rise of abandonment rates, the shrinking attention spans and the modest percentage of people who actually read long content to its end. Furthermore, many of the latter not only skip the end paragraphs – they also scan through the body, without reading every word or sentence.

So what are the characteristics of readable and sharable content:

The right content answers the queries of the visitors and help them complete their goals;
It gives great user experience no matter what is the visitor's choice of browser or device;
Saves time by delivering the sought-after information and experience quickly;
Combines the aforementioned elements better than the competitors;

Now let's see some examples. First, you should create content that helps people and do it efficiently. You should match your content to your audience's needs and your business/personal goals. Hundreds of additional words will not help you reach your goals any more than ten more words. Never write an ultimate guide where a single image could more powerfully convey the same value. Just like actions speak louder than words, a single relevant picture is worth a thousand words.

Next, you should always made a clear distinction between user-friendly, content-friendly and SEO-friendly characteristics. These are three different nuances of your website and if one of those three pillars is crumbling, the end result will never be satisfying;

While content is king, the audience is the queen. And just like the queens from the classic novels, the audience wants the relevant information. And it wants it now. So if you still think that those long and detailed guides are worth more than shorter and smarter pieces of information, which are keyword-rich and have lots of multimedia, please reevaluate your strategy before it's too late.