{"id":70270,"date":"2014-09-15T11:36:12","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T11:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/to-the-point-content-not-good\/"},"modified":"2014-09-15T11:36:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-15T11:36:12","slug":"to-the-point-content-not-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/to-the-point-content-not-good\/","title":{"rendered":"When being ‘to the point’ isn’t good"},"content":{"rendered":"

You have a short attention span.
\nThat\u2019s the general consensus, anyway. If you read things on the internet, just like you are right now, you won\u2019t be able to concentrate on them for much longer than a goldfish would. The BBC made that suggestion<\/a>\u00a0more than 14 years ago, and it still seems to apply today.
\nShort and sweet<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s true that readers want to understand the words in front of them as quickly as possible. In our own survey<\/a>, we discovered that older demographics in particular prefer pages to cut to the chase. Clarity is important, but that doesn\u2019t automatically mean sticking to five words per sentence.
\nWe actually browse through a staggering amount of content on a daily basis. One study from November 2011 showed that the average UK internet user visited over 2,500 web pages<\/a> during that month.
\nWhat is \u2018long copy\u2019 these days?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve seen people comment on examples of \u2018long copy\u2019 in poster ads which only used 30 words.
\nFor a while, 500 was the magic number for blogs. Now, though… it\u2019s whatever your readers think \u2018long\u2019 is. And if they think it\u2019s too long, they\u2019ll stop reading.
\nSize matters<\/strong>
\nYour audience might grumble a little at being bombarded with content, but Google seems to love it. The trend of longer content achieving higher rankings in search results<\/a> emerged earlier this year. Google stated at the time that “up to 10% of users’ daily information needs involve learning about a broad topic\u201d. Posts with word counts in the thousands started appearing in droves, and the top ten search results for 20,000 keywords linked to pages containing over 2,000 words on average<\/a>.
\nIn other tests to evaluate conversions, long copy outperformed short copy by as much as 40 percent<\/a>.
\nOne of the reasons suggested for Google\u2019s change was the implied higher quality and value of information in a lengthier post. A 3,000-word essay probably requires a bit more research and insight than a quick 50-word missive.
\nKeeping readers hooked<\/strong>
\nPeople, much in the same way as fish, need the right lure to get them to bite.
\nThat\u2019s why there are so many \u2018clickbait\u2019 articles with enticing headlines on sites such as Buzzfeed, Cracked and Gawker. They draw you in to get those vital clicks and page views \u2013 but the content itself often isn\u2019t that engaging, or interesting, or valuable to anyone. Facebook\u2019s already bringing the hammer down on clickbait to get it out of newsfeeds.
\nTo really get your readers coming back for more, what you need is substance. You need quality content that provides value and a talking point. So what do you make of ours? Leave a comment or tweet some very short comments @strattoncraig<\/a> to let us know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You have a short attention span. That\u2019s the general consensus, anyway. If you read things on the internet, just like you are right now, you won\u2019t be able to concentrate on them for much longer than a goldfish would. The BBC made that suggestion\u00a0more than 14 years ago, and it still seems to apply today. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[305,314,448,312],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content-strategy-us","category-copywriting-us","category-digital-copywriting-us","category-social-media-copywriting-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen being 'to the point' isn't good - Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting & Content Marketing Agency<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/to-the-point-content-not-good\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When being 'to the point' isn't good - Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting & Content Marketing Agency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You have a short attention span. 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