There is no secret formula for creating highly engaging articles that will work for every blog or brand. However, repeated research has consistently demonstrated a strong correlation between certain content characteristics and a copy’s performance. We are excited to present the results of this study below, and hope it will help you improve your content strategy for 2020.

Key Findings

Longreads (>3000 words) get 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than articles of average length (901-1200 words).

  • Shorter articles (300-900 words) have zero shares 4.5 times more often than long reads (>3000+ words)
  • Articles with long headlines (>14+ words), list headlines (>7-10 words), and guides and “how-to” articles get the most hits

Conclusion

A detailed and well-structured article performs best

  • This is because it provides readers with comprehensive replies to their questions and all the necessary information to solve their problem.
  • It is also crucial that an article is easy to read and understand
  • Content performance depends on your industry and audience.

Blog Post Length: Impact on Performance

Long-form content with a word count over 3000 performs better than shorter articles

  • People are more driven and engaged by blog posts containing more information
  • Content length should vary depending on the user intention in the first place and secondly, on the type of content

Listing: Impact on Content Performance

The presence of a list boosts your copy’s performance, and the more lists used, the better for your article.

  • Key Takeaway: Articles with 5 lists per 500 words get: 4x more traffic, 2x more social shares, and 3x more backlinks

H1 Length: Impact on Performance

The H1 tag provides the defining moment when your audience and search engines understand what the copy is about

  • Articles with longer headlines (14+ words) compared with shorter headlines (7-10 words) on average get: 2x more traffic, 2xs more shares, and 5x more backlinks
  • A longer headline gives more insights about an article’s value and thus drives more people to read and share it

Research Methodology

Collected 700,000 articles’ URLs from domains with a blog section that had between 50,000 and 500,000 average monthly unique pageviews

  • Established reference values for the most common characteristics of the content
  • Length
  • Title types
  • H1 length
  • Structuring
  • Presence of lists
  • For better representation, we split all the articles in the research by word count

Blog Post H1 Type: Impact on Performance

The H1 tag type correlates with an article’s success or failure

  • Articles with lists in the headline get up to 2x more traffic and 2xs more shares compared to other types
  • List articles are the most attractive and most shared among title types

Blog Post Heading Depth: Impact on Performance

36% of articles with H2+H3 tags have high performance in terms of traffic, shares, and backlinks

  • The conclusion is that well-structured articles are more likely to be high performing
  • You shouldn’t overload a reader’s attention too much, only 11% of the articles containing up to H4 tags show high performance

Source