This Could Change How You Write Content

Good morning and happy Monday. Did you have a nice weekend?

Around here, was attending to some backlogged stuff around the house. Which never seems to end, really. 🤷‍♂️

And yesterday, I put up the Christmas lights. While sweating. 😓 Cuz, I’m Floridian and that’s how we roll here. We just don’t do winter. 😎

But, this week, so much to do. I have to create that Digital Sovereignty Workshop. I’ve also had several new Concierge clients join in the last couple of weeks so I have projects to get done on that front.

So much to do.

But, I love it. 😍

You gotta love the game.

As long as you can play it on your own terms.

Anyway…

Anyway, let’s jump in, shall we? Ready to light this candle? Go…

This Could Change How You Write Content

Remember all the discussion about the “right” ideal length for your blog posts? Just how long did your content need to be to perform well?

The word count range has been between 1,500 and 2,500 words. And you have some people going through a bunch of data (usually on their own site) and coming out with official “sweet spots” on the word count. I just ran a new search and seeing 2,450 words as some kind of “sweet spot”. 🤷‍♂️

But, I think things are changing.

I believe content is trending… shorter.

I mean, if you look at what’s happening today, everybody’s attention span is getting shorter.

The content which people are consuming most is short-form content. Shorts, reels, tweets, social media posts, etc. The average TikTok user consumes 95 minutes per day of short-form content (freakin’ waste of time, if you ask me). You see people posting longer-form content on X now, but certainly not 2,450 word tomes.

The only long-form content most people actually consume today (other than, perhaps, books) is podcasts or longer Youtube videos. But, that’s a very different kind of medium. The context is different.

What they don’t usually do is read long blog posts.

In all human ways, content is trending shorter. People want short and to-the-point.

So, what’s with this thing about longer blog posts? Well, all that is about satisfying the Google gods. And let’s be real, you’re not going to likely get an article into the top page of Google SERPS with some little 500 word shortie post. Not for some competitive keyword, for sure.

Google eats words. That’s how the spiders work. So, you pump out a big optimized blog post with a lot of words and Google might like it and might rank you well (depending on a ton of other factors, of course). But…

Human beings might not actually read it.

They want the TLDR.

They want the Cliff Notes.

Oh, and I didn’t even mention AI. With AI tools, you’ve got people using it to speed up and spit out more short-form content. I think this will lead to an even bigger influx of shorter content, decreasing the overall average word count of content across industries.

Of course, as the industry matures and starts weeding out AI-generated content, I think things may reverse again. But, human beings will still want the short, easily-digestible stuff.

So, how might this change how you create content for your blog?

Well, I’d say don’t beat yourself up over creating super long blog posts. That whole 2400 word count was rather arbitrary anyway.

It is OK to post shorter blog posts.

Especially if that short post really satisfies the search intent.

Just blog posts that solve a problem, give an answer, do it quickly and then get the hell out of there. Give them a nice call to action and let them get on with it.

There’s no one right way to do things here, but here’s a few things to consider…

• Put most of your work (and words) into your redwood posts. These are the big posts that cover your core topics and do so thoroughly. These are for Google. They are designed to impress and give a lot of info. But, you don’t need a ton of these.
• Most of your content will be much shorter.
• Consider building and growing a newsletter. Better distribution. Naturally shorter (usually). Can be a great asset for your business.
• Maybe smart folks now are posting much more often on platforms like X, LinkedIn, etc. They put more time on these platforms than their own blogs. Much shorter, but more frequent.

One thing to also keep in mind about your blog…

Frequency matters. But, it doesn’t have to be new stuff.

One of the biggest reasons Wikipedia always seems to rank near the top of search results is because those pages are updated so often.

Updating pre-existing content is very effective. And is something you should be doing with regularity.

Anyway, something to think about.

Things have shifted over the years when it comes to content creation. Remember back when they were talking about “skyscaper posts”? 🤣 It led to a trend of people creating these massive hunker mega-guides. Made your eyes explode.

Well, frankly… I think those times are over.

WordPress Quick Bits…

Bricks Builder Updating Pricing. Looks like Bricks Builder is going to be increasing prices quite a bit in mid-January. They’re (finally) going to be introducing annual subscriptions… and their lifetime pricing is going to more than double. Frankly, it is about time. I haven’t talked much about Bricks and I haven’t spent barely any time with the tool yet, but I do feel it has been underpriced for awhile. Anyway, if you might be interested in Bricks, might want to grab it soon. Bricks is a streamlined, fast page builder with a lot of flexibility. Imagine if you could take Elementor and… start over and re-build it to be really fast. That’s kinda the Bricks Builder. I’m not an affiliate. Just letting you know about it. 😇

WP Social Ninja gets an update. My friends at WP Manage Ninja have updated their Social Ninja plugin to 3.12. This version has a new template for bringing in your Facebook feed plus some other related options. You also take far more control of your reviews for WooCommerce products. If you’re looking for an easy way to embed your own social media content into your WordPress site, check out WP Social Ninja.