Every website nowadays must be extremely competitive to attract a large audience and boost its search engine results. As a result, some prominent websites have spent years amassing vast content libraries for practically every issue. In case you want to run in this long race and compete, then you will be required to come up with more in depth and entertaining material. Long-form material can help you with this.
When we take WordPress into consideration, we think of long-form content as articles having at least 1,000 words and frequently much longer. It’s a lot of territory to cover, but this approach allows you to go over everything in detail. So let’s dig in without wasting any time further.
What is a Long-Form Article?
A long-form article is a content item that is particularly longer than an average blog post. For instance, the average blog post is roughly 1,100 words long, but long-form content would be at least 2,000 words long and may also exceed. The goal of long-form content is to tell tales and engage readers.
Marketers usually make use of such material to persuade their audience. However, they aren’t just for marketers. In case you run a website and have a well-placed article, then it has the potential to make you a fortune in the long run. Moreover, if you utilize WordPress, making some great show-stoppers would do wonders. Wanna know how? Continue reading this article as we will go over what, why, and how you should write them to improve your website’s look.
Why is long-form content important?
There is no universal definition of what defines a long-form article. However, most people would not consider anything less than a thousand words to be one. But that’s not the case. So it’s probably reasonable to classify your work as long-form if it satisfies the criteria, is in-depth and provides value.
The following are the primary reasons why you should use long-form content on your WordPress website:
- Users will spend more time on your website on average if your content is lengthier.
- User engagement will become higher. As in-depth material frequently generates intense debates and is shared more frequently than its equivalents.
- The content’s quality will show how seriously you take the task of conducting research. Doing so will help you establish your command in your field over a period of time.
- You’ll see that it will improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For a variety of reasons, long-form material performs better as compared to other shorter content.
The advantages of long-form material are clear. Therefore you should use it whenever possible, but do not stress over it. For instance, if you believe that a particular topic suits better than a shorter post, then don’t strive to jam more words into it than it is necessary. Instead, you must determine on the basis of topics which format to utilize for best outcomes.
Having that in your mind, let’s go further and learn how to use WordPress to optimize, develop, and format better long-form material.
Basic ways to structure long-form content in WordPress
Below we have discussed some advice on how to make your long-form content stand out:
1. Include photographs that go well together with your text
It might be tough to read through large walls of text, particularly when you have to pursue an article on small screens i.e., mobile phones. Hence, it would be great if you utilized images to create logical breaks to break the monotony of the text.
Ensure that each image you attempt to include in your blog post/article must be directly related to the material in your article. Doing so will add more value to your text. In addition to making your articles more readable, effective images can help boost reader engagement. It’s a win-win situation that’s quite simple to put into action. For instance, you can utilize graph and charts wherever you have discussed the complex data in your article. Having it on board, you can help the reader adapt more by reading the material while keeping them interested.
2. Use subheadings to break up the text
There are numerous advantages to incorporating these aspects into your material. First, they are excellent for SEO and are ideal for breaking down big pieces into smaller sections for starters. With the preceding in mind, below are the suggestions for creating perfect subheadings:
- Make each subheading descriptive so that readers understand what they are getting themselves into.
- Utilize them to break down particularly bulky portions; for instance, you can give step-by-step instructions to the topic.
- The article’s structure should be reflected in the subheadings.
3. Incorporate a table of contents
Consider incorporating a table of contents in your post as a list of all the major points that your article will cover. On the other hand, if you are writing for your website, you may include each subsection in the table of contents. Both ways will help you in leveraging your website use effectively.
To prepare the best table of contents, ensure that they are written in a way that gives visitors a rapid summary of your full post and has your subheadings informative enough. Additionally, having these readers can also skip through to the areas that interest them the most, making your material more accessible.
Running a successful website requires teamwork. Hence, it would be beneficial if you plan a strategy and present it utilizing professional Slide templates so that the whole team has the idea of what and how to implement the strategy, and how to present it to an audience. With these, you can understandably present your complex work.
4. Use list forms
Lists can be utilized to establish long-form information more consumable by breaking up large amounts of text. In addition, they provide an amazing means for you to communicate your ideas. We will even make a list to illustrate why:
- Lists are simple to peruse, making them ideal for web material.
- They make it possible for you to present a visual development of ideas.
- The article’s structure will be improved if you use lists.
- Lists appear to be appealing.
WordPress- Friendly Tools to create effective long-term articles
Some of the tools that can aid you well in establishing your articles are as follows:
- To give table contents in your extensive essays, you can rely on the Easy Table of Contents plugin. It is an easy fix as it follows Wikipedia’s format guidelines while it can also be customized with custom CSS.
- Don’t just rely on the number of words on your page to get organic visitors. Look into the Yoast SEO plugin to optimize your content. Utilizing this plugin can also be used to check and flag the keywords density, passive voice, meta descriptions, links, etc.
- Add Reading Time WP plugin to your website. Doing so will display the time that an average user would take to read that piece of information.
Conclusion
Summing up the article here hoping that the above discussion might have cleared your thoughts regarding your concern. Consider the suggestion we have put forward to you as the simplest way to get your website noticed is to create long-form content. However, producing lengthy posts takes a lot of effort, but the benefits are bountiful if you stress over the quality of content. As a result, you’ll experience the benefits, among which few are that visitors will spend longer time on your website, you will get more power in your sector, and your SEO will increase in the long run.
