Long Content or Short Content in 2020

Blog post of 500 words was considered a good practice earlier. Now things are changing. There are different saying on this topic. Some content strategists believe long content is good while some others recommend that short content rules. And there is a question how much long is considered long content and how much short comes in short content category? In this article, you will get in-depth analysis of this topic. 

Long content: 

The web content that has 2,000 words or more comes in category of long content. Content such as e-books, whitepaper, guides, resources, videos etc. are examples of long-form of content. 

Pros and Cons of long Content: Long content keeps searcher on website for longer time, which increases engagement. And it gives deep analysis on the topic. You can easily get quality back links if you write long content. However, there are also drawbacks of long content. People do not read on web they only scan. So, your long content may go unnoticed. Moreover, long content is less sharable. 

Leading content strategist and social media guru Neil Patel says, 

“Longer posts usually perform better at every level.” 

Short Content: 

“The average post on WordPress is 280 words long, and that's remained 'relatively constant' over the past few years.” The founder of WordPress Matt Mullenweg has made this statement. Blog posts or other content that has less than 1,000 words fall in the category of short content. 

Pros and Cons of Short Content: Short content attracts more readers as compare to long content. People share short content very frequently. It has power to be viral. But short content cannot deal with any topic in depth. 

Jacob Nelson has endorsed short content. 

“How users read on web? They don’t. People rarely read web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individuals words and sentences.” 

Which one is better? 

Both kinds of contents have their pros and cons. It depends on which is your style of writing and for which platform you are writing. Think about the goal you want to achieve by creating content. If you want to deal topic in-depth, it is better to write long content. Being shared is your goal then you should write short content. You should include both short and long content in your content strategy if you want to get success through your content. Always think about your end-customers when you are going to create content. 

Author Bio: 

The author of this article is working as content manager for a leading white label SEO Reseller Company. He has written many articles on content strategy, and how it affects your business.