Content length is not entire answer for getting traffic to your site.
But it is very important.
A good general rule of thumb for blogging is to provide the appropriate length answer that a question requires. And I like to think of questions as being on a bell curve. Many questions can be answered with medium length responses. Then you have some where the best answer is very short or that the best answer is very long.
For example, the question, What color is the sky? can be answered with a short response: blue.
The question, Why is the sky blue? might require a medium length response about the atmosphere, gases and light.
The question, Why does Earth have an atmosphere? might require a long response.
If you want to be seen as a person or brand with good answers to your audience’s questions you need to provide the best response to their questions. Most of the time you’ll want to make sure you’re leaning on the side of a medium or long response.
But that can be tricky because you don’t want a blog post to get fluffy. That turns people away.
Here are some tips for adding length to your posts without adding fluff.
Tip #1. Add A Story or Example
A story is a classic way to communicate a point to another person. People love a good story. They love reading books, reading articles and watching movies and watching TV shows.
And we love talking with good storytellers.
When you’re writing a blog post you want to provide the answer to the question your readers have. The answer is the basic content to include and that’s good on its own, but to help the readers understand the answer you can add a story to provide further context.
And it makes your post longer while adding additional value.
Tip #2. Add A Quote
Quotes are another great way to add length to your blog posts. You’re the main author of your post, but readers like to get varied thoughts and input on certain posts. If you feel that your post would benefit from bringing in an expert on the topic then reach out to a few people and ask for a quote.
Journalists are great with quotes. They have a story they want to write and they provide their own thoughts, but they often look for quotes from experts to add more value to the article.
You can do the same with blog posts.
Tip #3. Add Data
Data is something that almost always adds value to a blog post. You can try to make your point and if it makes sense to the reader then you’ve added value, but if you feel the reader might be left wondering if what you say is true then you can push things over the edge by adding data to backup what you’re saying.
And when you add data there is usually room for you to add context and understanding to what the data means. It all adds up to more value for the reader and more content for your post.
Tip #4. Add An Update
Sometimes after you publish a post it will get great comments. You might get feedback from readers and followers on social media. Or maybe you just discover some new information that you can add to the post to make it even better than it is now.
In any of those cases it’s perfectly fine to go back and add an update to the post. You’ll often see, for example, a popular post where someone asks a followup question in the comments and the author notes the question in an update and provides the answer.
Bonus Tip: Go Back And Remove
When you’re adding content to a post it’s still good practice to go back through the post and make sure that you’re not babbling or getting into fluff. Long blog posts can be appealing to readers if they’re getting answers to their questions, but if you’re just adding words, repeating yourself and so on then you’ll lose the reader’s interest.
Adding length to your posts is generally a good idea. If a short answer is the best answer then go ahead and provide a short answer. But most questions require medium sized responses. And some require long answers. You can set yourself apart by providing the necessary answers to the questions your target audience is asking. It’s more of a challenge, but that’s an opportunity because others won’t be willing to go through the effort. Use the tips above to help you lengthen your posts in a way that readers will find valuable.