Have you ever struggled with making your blog posts longer, without just adding fluff to them? In today’s episode I’ll share some easy ways you can make your blog posts longer to make them more engaging and help your readers stick around longer!
Can’t listen to the episode? Read on for the transcript!
Word Count and SEO
There is no specific word count requirement for Google, but many SEOs and blogger resources talk about the benefits of longer form content. This doesn’t mean just making blog posts longer for the sake of being longer. It’s suggested to have at least 500 words in a blog post but the longer the high quality content, the most opportunities for Google to index different keywords and for you to rank higher in search results.
Longer content is beneficial for your readers because it gives them more opportunities for useful information throughout your blog posts.
It’s beneficial for you as the publisher because it allows you to add in more calls to action to get your reader to take a step towards becoming part of your audience.
Finally, it’s beneficial for your ad revenue because longer content means more ads can be placed throughout your content.
What type of content to include in your blog posts?
If you’re stuck trying to make a blog post longer than a few hundred words, you might want to add a few of these sections of content into your blog posts. These will help provide context and helpful information to your readers!
Story and context of the recipe
The story behind the recipe is important to your blog post, but this should be 1-2 paragraphs at most. We all know readers are not interested in hearing long drawn out stories about our recipe inspiration. Keep this short and sweet and be sure it is RELEVANT to the recipe.
Substitutions and suggestions
There are so many diets, allergies, and restrictions out there that this is really important to include. Even if your recipes are not “healthy” or diet specific, chances are that a percentage of your audience needs to know these tips. Not every recipe will warrant these, but if you are able to provide some tips for substitutions or ways to alter a recipe to better fit your lifestyle, do it!
Frequently asked questions
This is where your research of the keyword comes in because you should be answering questions that your readers may have (before they have them!). An FAQ section is a great tool for helping your readers to make your recipe perfectly on the first try!
There is an entire module in my Gutenberg course that is about what content to put into your blog post so that you can create a blog post outline and Gutenberg template for your blog posts. The doors to the course will open March 1.
Sign up for the Simplify with Gutenberg waitlist here!
Style tips for longer blog posts
Remember when you use to change the font or line height on a word document to make it look like your paper was longer? There are some similar tips you can use to visually increase the length of your blog post.
Use shorter paragraphs
This is beneficial for so many reasons. It’s easier to read and skim, better for ad placement, better for mobile devices AND helps lengthen your blog posts. Wins all around.
Vary content types
Your blog post should have multiple content types, like paragraphs, headings, lists, and numbered lists (where relevant). These content types should be broken apart by images as well.
Varying the content types you are using will break up the paragraph/image/paragraph pattern that is so common in blogs. Adding these different sections allows for your reader to easily skim and also be attracted to different sections of your blog post.
Link to related posts
This has two benefits to it as well (are you noticing a trend?!) – linking to related content can help your reader find more content they would enjoy, helps with SEO, and also can help lengthen blog posts.
There are so many ways you can do this, which we talked a little bit about in episode 68. There are some awesome plugins than can help do this like Grow.me and Content Views. You can also do this more manually with Gutenberg blocks or by listing related posts in the blog post copy. You can also just add a paragraph talking about the other recipes that pair well with the recipe you’re writing about.
Let me know if you try this and how it goes! I’d love to hear which of these tips helps the most.
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