People form their first impressions of you-and possibly your business-in less than a second. It’s horrible. Fortunately, online articles have more room for manoeuvre. Most web pages have less than a minute to explain their situation and allow visitors to stay or jump out.
However, this is still not a big time. If you have less than 60 seconds to convince a new user that you deserve their click and share, you’d better make it short and sweet, right? Actually, no. It turns out that the short is not always good. If you want to stand out in the ocean of content and keep users on your page, long articles are the way out.
What is a long article?
Long articles refer to content that is longer than a typical ordinary article. Although the standard article length hovers around 1100 words, long articles are usually at least 2000 words and often extend to areas of more than 2500 words. Long articles are about telling stories and attracting readers.
Compared with standard 500-word articles, more in-depth articles are usually more interesting, more attractive, and more worth sharing. In addition, they can be easily converted into evergreen materials. Long content helps a marketer attract nearly 250000 visits to four sites with very different audiences in a year. Speaking of the benefits of SEO.
But full-length content is not just for marketers. If you have a website, you are likely to make money from a well-positioned article. And if you’re using WordPress, it’s very easy to create some real highlights. In this guide, we will discuss what long articles are, why you should write them, and what tools you can use to take full advantage of your site’s first impressions.
Is full-length content suitable for everyone? No, most people will benefit from giving a long article a chance. If so, we strongly recommend that you test long-format articles on your website to see what happens.
- Devote yourself to a long article
- The benefits of a long article
- Long articles have a huge SEO impact.
- 7 WordPress-friendly tools and plug-ins
- 2 WordPress themes that like long format
Devote yourself to a long article
At its most basic level, the word “long article” is related to content and refers to written articles and blog posts that are longer than typical ordinary articles. Although the current standard article length seems to hover around 1100 words, a long reading usually has at least 2000 words and often extends to more than 2500 words. However, the length of the content is not always the most important factor.
Long writing has become a trend, thanks largely to sites like Medium.com, a blogging platform founded by Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Although the site does not invent long content, it does put long articles on the map because it is related to digital space and how to translate into greater participation.
If you are still scratching your head at this time, don’t worry. What makes a novel work is puzzling. After all, many websites have had long content in the past. Long speeches are no stranger to the Internet, and the whole idea that the best article is about 500 words starts somewhere, right?
Yes, there is a reason why shorter words have been the first choice for quite a long time. The idea here is that attention is so short and potential customers are so busy that they don’t have time to flip through page after page of text. They would rather have a brief understanding of the situation before moving on. It sounds reasonable, but the formulaic nature of content writing is exactly what long content is opposed to.
Long content is a focused effort to bring creativity back to content marketing. It’s about telling stories and attracting readers. This kind of thing is hard to define. Take Joshua Steimle, a contributor to Forbes, who was fascinated by a long case study on the website of Teehan+Lax, a design firm, even though he doesn’t usually read case studies. What attracted him to this long case study? It tells a story, yes, but Steimle says it’s more than that. What’s the answer? This study is written for real people, and most importantly, it is what the Teehan+Lax team wants to write and read.
Unscientific as it sounds, the human method is so effective here. As Steimle wrote.
… If you create something you like, others may like it, too.
The benefits of a long article
It is important to understand that long articles can have a lot of things, not just word walls. Therefore, we will explore some of the benefits in depth below.
The average blog post in 2017, on average, is only 1100 words short. And that number is likely to continue to climb. Compared with 2014, six times as many blogs launched more than 2000 words of articles last year.
Number of words in the article (picture source: CoSchedule)
Does this mean that ordinary articles are now regarded as novels? It depends on who you ask. Although many people will say that any article with more than 1200 words belongs to the category of a novel, it does not mean that it is a novel. Because the content is only half the length of the picture. The other half is its-you guessed it-the form.
Visual attraction
Many of the negative emotions surrounding the long story emphasize “OMG, that’s a lot of words!” Part of it. But long stories are not just long. It is also full of visual stimuli, subtitles and simple navigation tips to keep it informative but easy to digest. Other things that could break the content include Tweet boxes (as you can see below) and even directories.
There is a big cumulative difference in the acceptance of these small details to long articles. Increasing visual stimulation has a great impact. Mixing visual content in high-quality, thoughtful articles can turn your text wall into an awe-inspiring, spiritually engaging barrier course.
Adding pictures will also greatly increase the impact of your content. You only need to add a picture to your article and you can get up to 94% sharing.
Pictures can be shared more (photo source: Backlinko)
But the more you add, the better. Canva and BuzzSumo studied data from more than 100 million articles. The best-performing articles have one thing in common: pictures are everywhere.
They found that adding a picture every 75-100 words led to the most sharing. Place a picture every 125-150 words, followed by it.
Number of words per picture (picture source: Canva)
This means that it is not enough to have 1200 or more words in a good long article. It also needs ten to twelve pictures to break the copywriting so that it does not become a text wall. This is its shape, which makes it different from the Encyclopedia Britannica package in the early 1990s.
So if you are committed to writing long articles, make sure you don’t stop at the number of words. Add some visual effects to keep the article readable and sharable.
Sometimes, the content of long articles is not even included in the main content of the blog. Instead, it is linked from the blog to its own static page.
Higher quality
Long pages allow you to create better content. How many times have you come across a post that promises to be a “comprehensive guide” only to find that it just skips a topic? Yes, that’s very frustrating. This is also inevitable when adhering to the length of traditional blog posts. Long articles allow you to delve deeper into a topic, including feedback from research and interviews. It gives you the opportunity to be thorough, and that alone makes the content of higher quality.
Long articles have a great influence on SEO
Now that the “what” is said, let’s talk about “why”. Why are you writing a long article? Well, do you like free search engine traffic?
Of course, this question is a bit like a trap. Who doesn’t like free traffic? So let’s put it simply: if you want your organic coverage to grow, increase your word count. Google likes long content.
According to HubSpot’s research, the longer your article, the more backlinks your site will get.
The relationship between the number of words and the link domain (photo source: Hubspot)
This creates a snowball effect for your ranking. The more links your content gets (especially if they come from sites with a lot of domain name weights), the more powerful your overall off-site search engine SEO will be.
Off-site SEO (photo source: Moz)
This is one of the many reasons why longer content tends to occupy higher natural search rankings on search engine results pages. In a study conducted by CoSchedule, they found the same results; the average ranking of long content was higher than that of short pages.
The relationship between word count and Google location (Backlinko)
CanIRank, a specialized SEO organization, wants to know about this obvious snowball effect. So they investigated the correlation between content length and natural search rankings. Their preliminary results proved to be strikingly similar to other studies.
Content length and ranking (photo source: Can I Rank?)
The team delved into the data and found a potential explanation for the obvious relationship between content length and search engine rankings. They speculate that the following factors may be the reasons:
- Large websites with more domain name permissions tend to post longer content.
- Longer content has more keyword optimization.
- Longer content can win more external links.
- Expert content creators tend to write more relevant materials.
However, even if they control these factors, they cannot explain the obvious link between content length and ranking. This led CanIRank to conclude: “… Therefore, it is reasonable (though unproven) for Google to reward longer content directly in its algorithm, although the effect is quite small. “
But even if the “reason” behind the relationship is not clear, the “effect” is clear. Adding 1000 words to your content strategy can help you go further. The HOTH deployed this strategy for a new customer and saw an amazing increase in organic traffic.
Effect of content length on traffic (photo source: The HOTH)
This brings us back to the original question of this section. Do you like free organic traffic? If so, increase your content and increase your number of words. Your search engine will thank you, and as more users find your site, your bottom line will show the same gratitude.
Now, we have covered the “what” and “why” behind the long article. This brings us the meat in the content sandwich: “how”.
7 WordPress-friendly tools and plug-ins to promote the success of full-length content
Optimizing your content is the key to maximum benefit. Neil Patel adopted this strategy and saw great success. In 2017, he doubled his already heavy traffic and rankings with the help of MarketMuse’s content optimization software.
Content optimization (photo source: Diffchecker)
By changing small things like subheadings, doubling the number of words he writes, and updating his content, his site ranks nearly 100000 keywords in a year, doubling its monthly traffic.
And while the work is still huge for the size of his site, the changes themselves are easy to replicate on your own. If you decide to add long content to your site, you absolutely must have the right tools to do the job. Here is a list of third-party tools and plug-ins that can change your lengthy content from monotonous to Pulitzer-like. Or, closer to this).
1. Use Evernote to record your inspiration
Think of Evernote as a notepad that you never have to re-fill in. You can save recordings, handwritten notes, task lists, screenshots, and even entire web pages through Evernote.
Evernote
It can synchronize all your information on your different devices, making the platform a special tool (and a serious productivity booster) in your novel arsenal. The idea of seeing an article on another website? Save it in your Evernote digital notebook. When you come across a good email, can you use it as an example of marketing skills? Label it for later use.
Ordered Evernote
If you work alone, the basic plan is free, allowing you to upload up to a maximum of 60MB’s new notes per month. It also has many other functions.
- Synchronize on both devices.
- Clip web pages, images, PDF files.
- Search for text in the picture.
- Share notes with friends and colleagues.
- Lock the mobile application with a password.
There’s a team? Evernote offers more flexibility and choice through their business packages. CoSchedule, one of the companies we’ll talk about later, uses Evernote to keep their teams organized and consistent in the event of a disaster. Here’s what Eric Piela, director of public relations at CoSchedule, said.
Every process is recorded. If any system fails, we have information that can be recovered quickly. All of this can be found in notebooks.
So if you’re trying to put your team or your article ideas in one place, Evernote is definitely a must-have tool for finding and preserving your lengthy research. In addition, it is easy to integrate Evernote with WordPress. But don’t just believe us. Let’s do a quick spin with Evernote now.
First, go to Evernote and sign up for an account with your email or Google account.
Register for Evernote
If you use a Google account, you may log in to this screen. If so, please click the green “Create Account” button to do so.
Create an Evernote account
This will take you to the next section of your account settings. Since we use Evernote to save the research of our article, select the option “To organize content” on the right.
Evernote organizes content
Next, select Get Web Clipper.
Evernote web page editor
If you want to use desktop applications, you can also choose the option on the left to download and install. Both options open in a new tab. We’ll be back to this tab in a minute, so let’s open it now.
Since we are using a Chrome browser, this is the default option on our next screen. Evernote can also be used as an extension to Internet Explorer 7 +, Opera, Microsoft Edge and Firefox.
Evernote Web Page Editor extension
Go ahead and complete the installation on the browser of your choice. Once you are done, go back to the original welcome screen and use the “x” button in the top corner to turn it off. This is what your default dashboard looks like. It’s a little mundane now, but we’ll change it in the next step. Click or minimize the “Getting Started” tab.
Getting started with Evernote
Now, let’s do some research and save a web page. For example, suppose we are going to write a follow-up article for our latest website usability guide. So we search on Google, enter my keyword (“user experience tips”), and find a page we like.
We chose “7 tips to improve your user experience design practice”. When you find what you want to save, click the Evernote icon in the upper right corner.
Evernote icon in Chrome browser
This will trigger a drop-down menu that allows you to save the page in several different ways:
- The article as a whole (in website format)
- A simplified version of the article
- Complete page, including all ringtones and whistles
- A bookmark.
- Screenshot
Now, suppose we want to be able to accurately reference this page and select the third option. ” The whole page. When it creates and synchronizes your clips, you will see an indicator in the upper right corner.
Evernote entire page collection
Once you’re done, go back to your Evernote dashboard and select the second icon at the bottom to access your laptop. You should see your fully edited page waiting for you.
Evernote clip
You have it. Whether it’s windy or rainy, you can now refer to all the navigation and design features of this page-no matter what happens from the original source. You may also want to take a look at some other alternatives, such as Google Keep and Trello and Asana.
But what could be better than a notebook you’ll never lose? A notebook that corrects itself at work. To do this, take a look at our next tool.
two。 Using Grammarly to optimize Writing
If you have ever tried to write an article and later found out that yours, then a useful word processor has made the executive decision to change “teach” to “taut”, you will like Grammarly.
Grammarly
Partly as a personal editor, partly as a writing assistant and partly as a motivational coach, Grammarly is a plug-and-play browser extension that integrates seamlessly with most text boxes. This means that, unlike Jetpack, you don’t need to install or enable Grammarly as a plug-in to proofread your articles directly as you type.
What really sets Grammarly apart from other word processors is its contextual intelligence. If homonyms like “taut” and “teach” have ever caused you trouble, Grammarly can analyze the text and make intelligent advice on words or style errors that may be confused.
Don’t let the quality of your writing depend on opportunities or ineffective word processors. Especially for long articles, no matter how good a writer you are, you are bound to miss something. Or for those who write late at night, add Grammarly to your browser to proofread and polish your copies as you work. It is free, fast, and easy to set up.
When you have finished purchasing and proofreading your article, use this third tool to polish it up by checking your readability and optimizing your keywords.
For more tools and suggestions, you can take a look at our other article: the Best Writing Grammar check tool.
3. Optimize your content with Yoast SEO
Trying to harness the inside and extension of SEO may feel like trying to get on every Disney World rides before lunch. With his eyes blindfolded, he pulled a carriage full of thieving lemurs.
That is to say, even if you are an SEO expert or a professional lemur manager, it’s always good to have a little help. This is what the Yoast SEO plug-in is for.
Yoast SEO plug-in
Don’t rely solely on your word count to drive organic traffic. Use this plugin to analyze and tag your keyword density, meta-description, passive voice, nofollow links, and more.
Yoast analyzer
There is a reason why this plug-in is often included in the “top 10” list of the best WordPress plug-ins. You can check out our detailed step-by-step guide to installing and making full use of Yoast SEO.
So if you haven’t used it for general WordPress SEO, please wiggle and add it to your site to give your content some much-needed analysis and optimization help. Take a look at these other WordPress SEO plug-ins, which you can also use.
But don’t just optimize your copy. Forgetting your picture can have a disastrous impact on your users and rankings.
4. Optimize images to speed up the page
As of July 2018, pictures accounted for an average of 43% of the page’s weight, according to HTTP Archive. For long articles, it’s more likely to be higher than that.
Therefore, if your article is full of visual stimulation benefits, please make sure that your images do not slow down your page and cause more damage. Without properly optimized images, it will take a long time for your web page to load. And this is by no means good for your website traffic.
A page that takes seven seconds to load can easily lose 30% of its visitors.
Bounce rate by page speed (Section.io)
In terms of first impressions, the long loading time is very, very bad for new visitors. Fortunately, this is what the image compression plug-in does. You can easily compress your images without sacrificing their quality, which will make your page load faster.
Here are some WordPress image compression plug-ins we recommend:
- Imagify
- Optimus Image Optimizer
- WP Smush
- EWWW Cloud
After you set up your plugin, it will automatically optimize everything you upload. What’s important: all the plug-ins mentioned above optimize images outside the site, so they don’t affect the performance of your WordPress site during compression.
If you want to know everything about image optimization, but are afraid to ask, please check out our depth image optimization guide.
Are the pictures ready? What you need now is a “when” and “where” to get your long article on the road. For when, consider trying the next tool.
5. Create an editing calendar with CoSchedule
Sixty-nine percent of enterprises rely on editing calendars to maintain their organization when doing content marketing. Whether you post as self-employed or have a small team, editing a calendar can help you plan when, where, and how to post.
Asana and Trello are both popular tools. Here is a quick look at the Trello calendar.
Trello Editing Calendar (Photo Source: Trello)
Here is what an Asana-like calendar looks like.
Asana Editing Calendar (Photo Source: Asana)
Both platforms are powerful and offer free programs to meet the needs of most small businesses. However, none of them can be compared with CoSchedule for a simple reason. CoSchedule has a native official plug-in that connects directly to WordPress.
Here’s what it looks like on your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Edit Calendar CoSchedule
It’s neat, isn’t it? In addition, the CoSchedule plug-in comes with additional features, such as its world-class title analyzer, to make your article as attractive as possible.
6. Article content catalogue
When dealing with lengthy content, you can help your readers by providing a convenient catalog. This can be achieved through the Easy Table of Contents plug-in. This is a simple solution that fits Wikipedia’s format, although it can also be customized to meet your needs through CSS.
Article content catalogue
Or you can create a directory manually, as we do with anchor tags in blog posts.
7. Article reading time
A common trend for websites hosting long readings now is to include the length of time it takes the average person to read an article. Use the Reading Time WP plug-in to add it to your site. You can display the time in a variety of ways to make your website look more like Medium. Win-win!
Finally, let’s take a look at some great themes that make the presentation of long content easy.
2 WordPress topics specially prepared for long content
If you want to create a long article that stands out on WordPress, you need to choose a great theme. Here are two options to help your content capture the audience’s attention. Of course, you can create long articles on any topic, but these topics are designed entirely for long content.
1. Use Typology theme to make your writing shine.
The name Typology is apt. It’s a theme for writers. Put your copywriting on a pedestal and let your text dominate the page. If the idea of looking for featured pictures makes you sweat, then this theme is perfect for you. It has a beautiful layout, whether there is a cover picture or not.
Typology theme
If you include a cover image, your text will still occupy the central position. This theme uses the scrolling effect to keep your text at the forefront of user attention. Typology is ideal for companies that want to include long articles in their content strategy, while enjoying the benefits of seamless integration with WooCommerce. Moreover, it is completely mobile and responsive.
Typology won an average rating of 4.96 (out of 5 stars), and its $49 price tag is not too difficult for the wallet.
two。 Use Typable themes to keep it simple and clean
Typable from Array is a minimalist dream, it is a convenient, content-focused theme. It is clean, neat, and provides you with a first-class combination of white space.
In addition to its beautiful minimalist design, this theme is easy to customize and is ideal for displaying longer content.
Typable theme
It has a super stylish drop-down navigation menu. With its silky AJAX posts loaded, this topic is ready for SEO out of the box. If you buy Typable as a stand-alone product, you will pay $49.
Summary
The sun didn’t set on the short post. They still have their place. But the old ban on full-length content has been greatly lifted. Here’s the new rule. If you have something to say, say it in as many words as possible. Basically, don’t let arbitrary criteria determine the direction of your content. Instead, make your content your guide.
Make yourself easier and your users happier by using long articles. Long articles are more than just huge word walls. If they feel like a standard blog post, it’s them. Subheadings, visual elements, and simple navigation are all prominent features of this type of content.
What are the main reasons for writing long articles? Free Internet traffic and SEO. There is a strong correlation between word count and organic ranking. Evernote, Grammarly, Yoast SEO, image optimization plug-ins, and CoSchedule are all great tools that can be added to your content toolbox to create great articles on WordPress.
Looking for a theme that will make your content speak? If you are a super-minimalist, choose Typology. If you are closer to the center, Typable is a long-term favorite. However, if you want a lot of versatility, any WordPress theme can do it.
Remember, just because long articles are long doesn’t mean they have to be boring. Use the tools and tips in this article to give your articles something popular and keep them search engine friendly. First impressions only happen once. Make it a good impression. With this mindset, you can’t make a mistake.
How do you implement long articles on your WordPress website? What tools are you using? Have you encountered any obstacles so far? We hope to hear about all your experiments and victories in the comments below.
