Short Articles or Long Articles?
There are many things to consider when creating content for your work life, personal and corporate projects. The topics you cover, the keywords you choose, the promotion of your content and the promotions you will implement are just a few of them. In addition to these, whether the article you will publish will be short-form or long-form will also leave a question mark in your mind.
In this article, we will explain the differences between short and long articles, provide general information about the articles, and explain why long articles are more suitable for you. There are many important points when creating an article. The subject of the article, the keywords used, the content introduction and the promotions applied are some of them. In addition to all these points, the length of the article is also important. Is it better if an article is short or long? The question is a subject that many cannot clarify. So, what is the answer to this question? Which one has a better effect? Here we are looking for answers to these questions together. First of all, we can start by examining how a long article and a short article are.
How should the short form article be?
The process of creating a short article is partially easier. It is possible to say that it has more positive effects in terms of time and energy. However, it is necessary to take careful steps when creating a short article. Especially when preparing an article, search engine success ranking criteria should be taken into account. At this point, an article of at least 300 words and above should be created.
The requirement of a minimum of 300 words may create a negative perception for some. However, this ratio is sufficient for a concept or topic to be conveyed as an article. In fact, 300 words may not be enough to convey a topic sufficiently. In this case, 600-700 words may be the ideal length for a short article. It should not be forgotten that the upper limit should not exceed 1000 words. In short, for a short-form article, the word range of 300-1000 should be taken as basis, depending on the topic.
How should a long form article be?
For those who will create a long-form article, the criterion is that it should be twice the length of the short article. There are different opinions on the long article. However, it is not possible to reach a definitive conclusion. The most important reason for this is that the sufficiency rate changes depending on the article topic. The amount of information that the selected article topic should contain may vary. While some topics make the article easier to understand with short information, some require more detailed information.
As a general acceptance, 1500-2000 words are considered sufficient for a long article. For those who will create a long article, it is an important criterion that the reader reaches the information they want in the content. It should not be more or less than this. In other words, it should be detailed enough to provide the desired information but limited enough not to go into unnecessary detail. The reader should enjoy every detail of the article and be able to obtain the data they want from the article. It can be difficult to maintain the same quality at every point of the content, especially in a long article. In this respect, preparing a long article can require much more time and effort.
Differences Between Short Form and Long Form Articles
Articles Written in Short Form
The process of creating short-form articles is relatively easier. You spend less time and energy. If you want to achieve successful rankings in search engines, the number of words you will use in your short-form articles should be at least 300.
Although 300 words may seem like a lot at first glance, a 300-word article is quite short to understand and discuss.Therefore, articles written in short form should have an average of 600-700 words and should be limited to a maximum of 1000 words.
Long Form Articles
Articles written in long form are twice as long as those written in short form. Although there are many different ideas onThe average word count is between 1500-2000 words. If the article is to provide in-depth information on the subject or contains many examples and sources, it can be longer. However, the generally accepted length is between 1500 and 2000 words.
Creating a long-form article requires a lot more effort as you need to ensure that your readers enjoy every part of your post, and it is harder to deliver the same quality of content that you present in articles of this form.
Important Factors
When creating an article, whether it is long or short, the important thing is to create quality content. Both formats have certain factors that they require. It is possible to collect these important factors under two items. Regardless of the type of content, there are a few factors you should consider when deciding whether a post should be long or short. Here are the two most important ones:
- Target group
The first important factor is the target audience you want to reach and understand. The most important point of the article is the target audience. Which target audience will be addressed? This is decided in the first step. The thoughts and behaviors of the target audience are the critical steps of the process. The questions that need to be answered before making a decision in this step can be listed as follows:
- How interested are they in the products and services I offer?
- How often do they use the product or service I offer?
- How emotionally affected are they?
- Is there a sense of community?
- What types of content have produced better results in the past?
No matter what form you create content in, if your target audience is not interested in it and does not intend to spread it, it will be meaningless.
- Added Value You Can Add
Another factor to consider when deciding how long to write your content and what content types to utilize is added value. The value you add to your content is more important than its length. The important point to consider before the type of content or the length is the added value. The value to be added to the content is more important than the length factor. The quality of the content and the benefits it provides are the primary steps that the reader pays attention to. The information you provide and whether you have conveyed enough information are important for the reader. Low-quality and unfounded content, whether long or short, cannot achieve very successful results. Therefore, when creating an article, you must first determine the target audience and then add value to the content. In order to add value to the article, your priority should be to create quality content that contains the desired information.
People will remember the information you provided, not how long or short an article you shared.
Why Choose Long Form Articles?
Both short-form and long-form content are important, you can use both forms when creating your content strategy. You can see which one is more useful for you according to your content strategy. There are also different types of content. For example; Infographics. Infographics For example, short form works better than long form. However, for blog and article posts, long form has an advantage over short form. Let's take a look at some of these benefits now.
Articles, whether long or short, each serve an important purpose. Using both forms while preparing content can yield successful results. If you are unsure about which one to choose, you can try both forms and choose the one that is right for you.
However, the main point to consider is knowing which content type will be and how long. For example, a long-form article may be more advantageous for a blog-style content. In addition, articles containing short and concise information may be preferred in infographics. At this point, if you ask why a long article is perceived as more advantageous, the reasons can be listed as follows:
- According to a claim made by Mike Sall, the ideal length of an article should be around 1600 words. He states that an article of this length corresponds to an average reading time of 7 minutes. Longer articles can also be prepared. The word limit varies depending on the subject requirements. However, what is important is that the article is created in a way that does not bore the reader when viewed as a whole.
- One of the reasons why long articles are on the agenda more is SEO. SEO If you prefer a long form when you prepare a focused article, you can use more keywords. Keyword selection and usage rate are critical points for SEO. More keywords can be selected for an article over 1000 words. At the same time, the possibility of using long-tail keywords more homogeneously may arise.
- According to some studies, there is a view that long-form articles receive more interaction. According to the results of the research, long articles are shared by more people. More sharing naturally increases interaction, which in turn produces successful results in content strategies.
- If a long-form article has quality content, it can contain more information. This can make the article seem more valuable to the reader. It is seen as more effort in terms of time and effort, and this makes the site a resource that should be used more regularly in the eyes of visitors.
Generally speaking, the first step in determining a content strategy is what approach to take. First, decide what kind of content you will produce, then you can take the length criterion into consideration.
- The Ideal Length of a Post is Around 1600 Words
Mike SallAs stated in an interview, the ideal length of a text or article is 1600 words, which is equivalent to an average reading time of 7 minutes. Depending on the content, you can also prepare a longer form article. However, this does not mean that you can prepare an article with more than 2000 words. If you are preparing a long-term article, your first goal should be to provide enough information without boring the reader.
- SEO Goal
Another important factor for choosing a long article is SEO. If you are writing an article with more than 1000 words, it will be easier to select keywords from the text. In addition, you will have a higher chance of getting more interaction with long-tail keywords.
- Long Form Articles Get More Engagement
According to a study by Buzzsumo and Moz, it has been emphasized that long-form content is shared more. The study was conducted by considering 489,128 articles. To be frank, Long-form articles were shared approximately 5 times more than short-form articles. As you get more shares, your content strategies will be more successful and your promotion costs will decrease.
- Makes Random Visitors More Organized
Long form articles show expertise and effort. Everyone knows that a long article requires more effort, knowledge and time, so someone who stumbled upon your site is more likely to become a regular follower.
Conclusion
Before you can determine your content strategy, it’s essential to know how you’re going to approach it. A big part of this depends on what kind of content you want to produce and how long it will be. In our article, we’ve compared short-form articles to long-form articles. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.
