Long vs. Short – What’s the Ideal Number of Words for Web Copy?

Lately, there’s been a new debate raging in the content marketing world. This time it’s not about the quality of content we should be producing (which should be awesome at all times), but how long it should be: just how many words should fill each blog post, article, or case study you write? Let’s find out.

Long-tail content – the new frontier
It seems like just yesterday we were all creating content that was about 300 words long – at the time, content gurus were convinced that today’s information-overloaded web users just didn’t have the time to read long copy anymore. After a while though, longer-form copy (500 words plus) began to appear on some of Google’s highest-ranked websites – that really got people thinking.

It’s never easy to predict how things will change in the content marketing industry (which is why it’s such an exciting field to be in) but one thing is becoming clear: web users are taking the time to read longer articles and blog posts that give them useful information or teach them new skills. Sometimes a piece of writing is just so good (or funny, interesting, mind-bending etc.) that people stick around and read it till the end – that’s great news for any website owner.

Now, here’s the thing about longer content – it may be packed full of awesome info and/or fun to read, but it also takes longer to write, edit, and research. That’s a cost factor that website owners need to keep in mind. Delighting customers may be a huge part of your content marketing strategy, but does longer content actually translate into better conversion rates and higher sales? One well-known web experiment says yes.

Longer web copy generates more leads
About a year ago, content guru Neil Patel decided to put this new long content idea to the test. If you don’t have time to read about the whole experiment, here’s a summary:

Neil was a little concerned because he realised that web users weren’t scrolling down all the way to the bottom when they landed on his home page. He decided to launch a new home page alongside the old one, cutting down the number of words from 1292 to 488. Then he set up his analytics, sat back, and watched the data stream in. Let’s check out some of his results:

• The original (longer) home page got 7.6% more conversions than the shorter version.
• The longer version also generated more qualified leads (customers who were interested in the product, had the money, and were willing to do business).

Is this the end of short website copy?
Neil’s results seem to speak for themselves, right? Well, let’s not bury the shorter content articles just yet.

First of all, one experiment doesn’t exactly prove that long copy is always better – although other research data does seem to back this up. Long copy may be better for articles and case studies, but there will always be some types of content that need to be short and sweet. For example:

• Social media updates – 1000 word Facebook posts? I don’t think so.
• Tweets – 140 characters to play with and every letter counts.
• Newsletters and email advertising – the message has to come across fast.
• Quick updates and news articles – keep them short and to the point: time is money.

Longer copy may be the direction to move in overall, but a mix of long and short is probably still the best way to go – that way, each type of copy can do what it does best.

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