It is common knowledge that thanks to the internet and smartphones, human attention spans shrink year after year. Gone are the days when people sit down with a newspaper, for example, and read it cover to cover. So, you may be asking yourself:
Why is long-form content an important part of a staffing marketing strategy?
While video, infographics and audiovisual content pieces should always be part of your marketing playbook, long-form content still packs quite a punch when it comes to a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Long-form content helps you boost your brand, build authority and credibility with users and with Google, helps drive targeted traffic to your website and can be a source of quality link generation.
SEO: A Refresher
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of techniques used to increase search rankings and visibility for your staffing website.
Any time you personally search for something in Google, the results you get aren’t haphazard. They were chosen and ranked by Google based on how relevant each website is to your query.
Google prides itself on generating useful results for users, which is why it crawls the web 24/7/365 to “learn” what every website is about, allowing it to generate the best results for our questions.
Therefore, SEO is about providing Google with technical and contextual clues to understand what a page is about and to rank a website for specific searches. If your website does not provide enough text-based information to allow Google to understand what you do, you won’t rank well in search.
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What Is Long-Form Content?
Long-form content is a lengthy piece of content (over 1500 words) that dives deep into a single topic. It might answer questions or concerns like “How Can You Ace A Virtual Tech Interview” or “How To Reduce No-Call-No-Shows At Your Warehouse.”
Long-form content specifically addresses questions and needs that your users have but dives deep into those topics. It leverages subheadings and targeted keywords that help Google understand what the article is about and allow users to skim headlines to determine if the article has the information they are looking for.
It is important to keep in mind that long-form content shouldn’t be a sales piece about your staffing company. Those types of self-promoting pieces won’t rank well. Google ranks pages well when the content is truly useful to those consuming it.
Why Incorporate Long-Form Content into Your SEO Strategy?
The most important thing to remember when it comes to search rankings is that content is still king. Content is how Google “learns” what your business does and does better than anyone else.
When planned strategically and written well, long-form content is incredibly simple for Google to crawl (aka “read”) and to understand. Compare a long-form blog that spends 2,000 words demonstrating expertise on a single topic to an infographic. Infographics are great for users, but Google can’t “read” the words in the infographic, nor can it “interpret” what the infographic is saying to rank it well.
Long-form content adds significant value to your website and SEO strategy because you’re taking a deep, keyword-driven dive into a single topic that Google can read and rank. And because long-form content dives deep into topics your target audience is searching for, it provides real value to your website visitors and can help you connect with candidates or potential clients.
The Granddaddy of Evergreen Content
Another value to long-form content is that it can be evergreen and updated quite easily over time. For example, many topics for job seekers are universal and timeless, and they only require minor tweaks as trends shift. Contrast that with updating a video or a graphic, and you can see which form of content has the best long-term value.
Additionally, long-form content can be broken out into other blog posts to explore sub-topics at a deeper level. A single piece of well-planned and well-written content can be a wellspring of additional blog, video and graphical content that support your SEO and all of your digital marketing tactics.