You’d think that in this fast-paced world, people would want short, sweet blogs, jam-packed with great information. While they do crave the info, and scannable text with bullet points and lists make reading fast and easy, today’s Internet readers prefer longer blogs.

It’s counterintuitive, but longer blogs are shared more often than shorter ones. Blogs with long titles are more popular, as well. These are facts.

According to research by Backlinko:

  • Headlines of 14 to 17 words are shared nearly 78% more often than those with fewer words.
  • Longer blogs generate just over 77% more backlinks than shorter texts.
  • The sweet spot for content that generates the most social shares is just under 2K words.

This article on Buffer says 1600 words is the best length for blogs, in general. (It also has the optimal length for various social media platform posts, videos, and more.)

What is a “longer” blog?

Also called long-form content, longer blogs (and web pages) are over 1000 words (in the dental space – this does not hold true in other markets). Some long-form blogs extend beyond 2000 words, even to 5 or 10K words.

What are the benefits of long-form blogs?

For years, Google placed the most value on the first 350+ words in a blog. That expanded to 500+ a few years ago.

Research now shows that those lengths are not preferred by readers, and the more info you give Google, the more likely your blog or page will be to rank: A) higher in Google search for target keywords, and B) for long-tail keywords you may not have even thought people searched for, and C) more often, in more searches.

All these benefits point toward the primary goal – they drive more traffic to your site, which translates into more new patients for your practice.

Neil Patel, a world-renown search expert, supports the long-form blog philosophy.

Can I just cut and paste great info from other websites?

Um, no. First of all, it’s copyright infringement, so you could face a lawsuit. Secondly, Google does not respect duplicate content. Text that shows up on more than one site (and Google knows which text that is) can result in a penalty toward the sites’ credibility.

Do all blogs need to be text?

Absolutely not. If you use an infographic or image, just make sure the alt-image tag is original and describes the image, while also containing descriptive words that would reflect your services, products, or symptoms your patients tend to have.

If you use a video in your blog post, it should be uploaded to YouTube with a script. Place the video’s YouTube URL on your site to feed the video over.

But don’t neglect adding text to your blog, long-form text.

Does Identiwrite offer long-form blog packages?

Yes. Until recently, we’ve supported the 550-650-word blog length. Now, however, we’re encouraging dentists to publish longer blogs – 1200+ words.  Our client dentists can opt for either 2 long-form blogs instead of 4 shorter blogs per month OR they can purchase the package with 4 long-form blogs.

We still offer all the important support services that go with our blogging packages. This includes monthly reporting and strategizing, an editorial calendar that reflects keywords you want to rank higher for, and adjunct services like social media posting and third-party articles.

How can a dental copywriter come up with 1200 words of unique content about crowns or implants?

Easily. We do this every day, multiple times, and we actually enjoy it, LOL. Knowing about your dental practice, all your services, and your treatment philosophy will help us write text that not only reflects the image and message of your dental office but is also original.

How do we write the best blog titles?

Research. I spend a lot of time each week reading about trends, studies, polls, and research on blogging, content marketing, and SEO. In addition, we use tools and software that pull real-time data by location from search results, so we can determine which blog titles are the most popular. Then we create similar titles.

Here’s an example. Right now, the keywords “best dentist” with no specified location (US only) shows multiple subtopics, ranging from general dentistry to oral health. Under general dentistry, one of the top pages is How to Find a Dentist.

Knowing that longer titles generate more traffic, I might create these titles: 10 Tips to Find a Dentist Who’s Right for Your Family and Best Questions to Ask When Trying to Find a Dentist.

Who provides the information in Google Snippets, on those cards that show up at the top of the page in Google search results?

Good question (if I do say so myself). Google Snippets aren’t paid ads. Your blog or webpage can show up in a snippet, but you won’t know if your content is featured unless you’re tracking it. (We do that for our clients.)

The tools we use pull data daily from Google and tell us where you have the best chance for being featured in a snippet. With this info, we can alter previous blogs or write new blogs with that in mind. Most often, snippets include bullet points or lists, definitions, or brief explanations.

Previous blogs? Recycling old content is good for SEO?

dentist boosted with spring into clouds

In some cases, yes. By taking your highest-ranking blog posts and transforming them with long-form content, images, and video, we can help those posts rank higher and for a wider number of keywords. Cool, huh?

What does a high-ranking blog include?

Another good question. Again, we use a tool for this because without knowing what’s ranking high on a given date for a particular keyword, we can’t beat it. You have to know what you’re up against to be a contender, right? It’s the only way to strategize.

When writing a blog, after composing the title, we write the text in MS Word and check spelling, grammar, and all those things your English professor went on about. Our writers refer to the editorial calendar, the client dentist’s website and interview, and our SEO notes when writing blogs.

After the blog is written and edited, we apply a tool that shows us:

  • How long the content needs to be if it’s going to compete against other published content for a given search term.
  • Where sentences and paragraphs are too long for the scanning reader.
  • Whether we’ve included the right number of internal links and if we’ve included links where we shouldn’t have.
  • If the keywords are used too often, which could border on keyword stuffing and actually be negative, in regards to how Google views the post.
  • If there is any duplicate content in the article, meaning is the article completely original.

Professional Copywriting Services for Dentists

If you’re wondering whether you need to blog or why your blogs aren’t showing up in Google Search, it’s time to contact me. I’ll put my dental copywriters and SEO experts to work for you. I’m Shauna Duty. Give me a ring at 940-395-5115 or email me at shauna@identiwrite.com.

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