Why writing short content ?
In SEO, we often raise the length of articles to position ourselves on search engines. For example, reaching the top position on Google seems more difficult with short articles, although it's not impossible.
However, it is difficult for a blogger or a writer in charge of a site, to continuously write long articles. You have to know how to alternate between long and short articles and know when it is better to produce small articles for your blog.
Find out why it's worth writing short articles for your blog.
What is a short article in writing?
It is necessary to define beforehand what is meant by a short article! In general, a short article is between 300 and 500 words maximum. However, a long article is often more than 1500 words, or even 2000 words if we refer to a study that reported the content placed in the top position on Google. More than 50% of them were more than 2000 words.
300 to 500 words represent approximately 1800 to 3000 characters to speak the language of journalists. A median article, on the other hand, will be around 800 to 1000 words. It is therefore necessary to know how to alternate the length of the posts to be published on your blog and to know when you will prefer to write and share a short article.
The Benefits of Writing Short Blog Posts
Let's start with the advantages of writing short content for your blog, which can also be called snacking content. The notion of snack refers to the snack that can be consumed quickly, which is the principle when talking about the consumption of the contents.
- Save time
The first advantage is undoubtedly the time saved when writing short content. You don't need a lot of sources, and one or two paragraphs are usually enough for formatting. The time saved can be allocated to writing 2/3 short articles in a row, or to divide a topic into several parts for example.
Thus, being able to write several short pieces of content instead of long content will allow you to maintain a rhythm of sharing much more easily. - Create Tips Sets
Rather than creating a top 10 or more on a topic that delivers several tips, it is possible to write as much short content as there are tips to give. The clear advantage is the possibility of retention and the gain in rebound, when you create a summary with links pointing to the different contents of the series. The reader doesn't have to read everything in a row, and sometimes only a tip or two will be of interest to them.
The other advantage is to be able to position all these tips on a title that will be specific to it, so that it can be found more easily on search engines if the short articles are well indexed. - Reach a specific audience
Creating a specific audience using short-form content is quite conceivable, considering that many people prefer small content that is consumed quickly. This is also the case when you have time constraints at a given time. The first step is to analyze connection times on your Google Analytics, and detect periods when there are fewer connections, for example.
As a time slot suitable for small contents, we can use the morning and evening transport hours corresponding to the 7/9 a.m. and 5/7 p.m. time slots approximately. You will need to publish your articles or schedule them to be online from 6:30 a.m. After a few weeks, check your Google Analytics again and see if there is an increase in your traffic on these time slots.
You can also set one or more appointments with your audience to deliver specific short content. Set a day and time and always publish on the same pattern without ever deviating. This will allow you to develop an audience at a time that could be slow for you. Your Analytics will tell you a lot about this. - Meet your readers' expectations
To best meet your readers' expectations, think about interviewing them by doing a small survey via your social networks for example. Offer them different choices or let them choose the types of content and the days and times of publication. Then divide the results by proposing the most relevant solution, or even 2 if you can.
At the same time, the idea is to create a link with your community on your social networks. By putting your community at the center of your actions, you develop engagement for your content and will be able to allow them to share ideas for your articles as well. - Work on your internal network with short articles
Short articles can also be used to push long articles for your SEO. If your site is built on a semantic cocoon architecture, small articles can be considered as child articles that will push parent articles.
Short articles may deal with a specific topic, related to a more general theme that will have to be further developed within the framework of a long article. - Create an online dictionary or index
To explain certain terms and words in your universe, you can create an online dictionary or an index principle where short content will be perfectly adapted. By dealing with definitions, you will have the ability to mix the semantics and lexical field of your content and potentially allow it to rank well.
In addition, you will be able to drag links to content on your blog that deals with related topics in more depth.
There are undoubtedly other benefits and advantages to developing short content on your blog. It's up to you to find them and explore your ideas with the help of your community.
The disadvantages of short-form content
There can be disadvantages to producing short content such as positioning on search engines which is more difficult but not impossible depending on the type of content. If you opt for a semantic cocoon structure, but not only, it is possible to be able to get good positions on Google. The post can be short but relevant and well-optimized.
One of the other disadvantages is the difficulty of learning to make it short when you are used to doing it long. It's easier to write long-form content for many writers, and vice versa for short-form content. It will therefore be necessary to learn to write shorter posts and deal with only one or two points
One of the obvious disadvantages is not being able to deal with a topic in depth, in which case think about splitting it into several parts and you will have several short contents. Make a summary and you will have a way to compensate for the fact that you don't know how to keep it short.