Why Your Business Needs Long-Form Content for SEO (with long-form content examples)

If you’ve been thinking about trying long form content for SEO, but you’re not sure how this approach actually helps your business, keep reading.

Some people think long-form content due to its nature (i.e. it’s long) will not engage people as we have increasingly short attention spans.

However, when we want to learn something new or find something out, we often turn to brands that take the time to explain this in detail. We appreciate the fact that they can tell us what something is or why something is important as this shows they really know their stuff.

In turn, this makes us more likely to use their products/ services moving forward as we feel as though:

a) They care about problems/ pain points
b) They know how to help us
c) They have the expertise to do so

With that in mind, it’s safe to say long-form content is here to stay, and it can provide results for your business.

In this blog, we’re exploring what long-form content is, why long-form content is important for SEO, some examples, and how to get started.

What Is Long-Form Content?

Long-form content is usually over 1500 words as this gives you enough space to dive into a topic in-depth.

The whole idea of long-form content is to leave no stone unturned, by answering any questions that a person might have so they feel educated and informed.

This is what builds their trust in your company and is the reason why they’ll convert i.e. signing up for something or getting in touch.

An important consideration when creating long-form content is to make it easily digestible. As it’s so long, you’re asking people to spend more time reading it. With that in mind, your content needs to be scannable by breaking up large chunks of text so people can navigate to the right area.

A few ways to make your content more scannable is by:

• Using bullet point lists to separate points instead of chunky paragraphs
• Working out a hierarchy of content that can be divided with headers and subheaders so readers can jump to the right section
• Creating infographics to explain some points in a more visual way
• Shooting video content to complement your long-from blog to give people another way of consuming the information
• Highlighting important points in bold so that they stand out to reader

How Does Long-Form Content Work for SEO?

Long-form content works by educating and informing your audience about something. As it’s an informative piece, you’re showing your audience that you care about their needs and interests rather than just trying to sell something.

Of course you can tie in your service offering throughout the blog post but this promotional aspect is secondary to the educational piece.

For example, if you’re a cosmetics brand offering services such as lip fillers or skin enhancements, you might write blogs around ‘key considerations before trying botox’ or ‘how to choose the right lip filler’ as these are questions your audience will be asking,

You can then naturally tie in your own offering after showing your expertise in the field first.

To make sure your long-form content actually boosts your search engine optimisation, there are some things to consider before you get started.

These points ensure your content not only engages your audience, but is also set up to rank well in Google, otherwise you won’t be visible for people to click onto your content:

• Conduct keyword research: Keywords are your signals to Google, to tell the search engine what your content is all about. Using the example of lip filler, your keywords might be ‘best lip filler’, ‘lip filler considerations’, or ‘choosing the right lip filler’. These will then be threaded throughout your content so it’s obvious to Google what you’re writing about. To do this, use a keyword research tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush.
• Framework/ plan your content – To make sure your content covers the topic in-depth and is easy to read, create a framework first. This is often better than just diving in as it allows you to identify any gaps or improvements that you could make (such as adding a section or an infographic) before you start writing.
• Identify relevant links – Building both internal and external links is important for SEO as this shows Google that your content is valuable. If reputable websites are linking back to your content, this means it’s valuable and trustworthy, increasing the likelihood of Google ranking it highly in the search results. Internal links on the other hand boost seo by improving user navigation across your site by taking users to other relevant places.
• Pay attention to your meta info – Your meta info includes your target keyword, your meta description (what appears in Google) and your URL. Make sure these include your target keyword where possible as this is another indication to the search engine of what your content is about. By being consistent across these areas you have a stronger chance of ranking higher.
• Add alt text to images – Alt text is a brief description of what your image is showing which is an important part of boosting SEO. Considering the length of your content when doing long-from you’ll more than likely have a few images to break up the text. Adding this text is important for accessibility purposes and is another key ranking factor.

Long-Form Content Examples

If you’re still unsure about long-from content for SEO, we’ve got some examples of brands who do this approach well.

Take a look below and learn why long-from content is effective and how to do it right.

Hubspot

If you’re looking for well-written, engaging long form content examples, look no further than the Hubspot blog.

They instantly show you why long-from content works as I’m yet to read a blog that hasn’t answered my query in full. It’s clear, concise, and easy to digest as they use a range of paragraph styles, visuals, and a contents section, allowing you to find the section you need with ease.

As a result, they rank for thousands of keywords and are positioned on page 1 of Google for multiple terms, attracting more traffic, increasing website visitors, and boosting conversions.

Semrush

The Semrush blog is another great example of how to do long-form content, and do it well. The blog explores various topics all of which are relevant to their target audience, showing people that they are the experts in this space.

As a digital marketing platform that helps businesses grow their online presence, the blog publishes posts around content marketing, SEO, and reporting, giving their audience insightful and meaningful content into things they care about.

Similarly to Hubspot, the blogs are in-depth and displayed in a way that makes them enjoyable to read. They also use a range of imagery and CTA’s giving readers lots of opportunities to click and convert.

Discovery Design

At Discovery Design, we use long form content to educate our audience around all things related to branding, web design, development, and marketing.

All of our blogs are created using in-depth research, ensuring there’s a real demand for the topics we’re writing about so that they are positioned for success. We use our target audience to steer our topics ensuring they cater to the needs and interests of people we work with.

We also create custom imagery and infographics, helping us to explain concepts in a visual way whilst also allowing us to repurpose content on social media, driving more visitors to the site.

How to Get Started With Long-Form Content?

There are a few ways to get started with long-from content from the ‘do it yourself’ approach to partnering with a professional agency.

Each approach has its pros and cons which we’re exploring below.

Do it yourself

This can be the most tempting option, especially if you’re on a budget. However whilst writing long-from content might sound easy on the surface, making sure it’s optimised for SEO can be quite tricky. You need to follow the steps outlined above, whilst also setting time away from your normal working day to write it.

Hire a freelancer

Partnering with a freelancer for long-form content can be flexible, allowing you to hire them for short or extended periods based on your project’s timeline. However, while freelancers may have expertise in content marketing and the availability to focus on the work, they may struggle to fully grasp your brand’s unique goals, voice, and long-term strategy. This can lead to content that lacks the depth of understanding needed to effectively connect with your audience and reflect your business’s true identity.

Partner with an agency

Partnering with an agency allows you to form a bond with the people who will be responsible for writing your content. They’ll have a marketing process which allows them to fully understand your goals, including your tone of voice, your goals, and your audience. They’ll be a lot more hands on than a freelancer and will collate reports on how your content is performing.

Why Your Business Needs Long-Form Content for SEO (with long-form content examples)

Your business needs long-form content for SEO as this approach allows you to educate your audience, inform them about your products/ service, and establish your credibility in the field.

Whilst many people might think long-from content is not as effective due to our increasingly short attention span, people still want to learn how to do something.

By writing about topics in-depth you’re showing them that you’re the expert and as a result of that, they should invest in your products and services.

Writing engaging, quality long-from content that is optimised for SEO can be a time consuming process. At Discovery Design, we work with clients to create content that appeals to their target audience and generates results. Get in touch with our team to find out how we can help.