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
