How to Develop Great Long-Form SEO Content

Effective content marketing isn't just an advertising strategy; it’s a crucial investment that every business should make. It’s the most efficient way to attract potential customers and convert first-time visitors into loyal clients. Without valuable content on your website that clearly explains why people should choose your services, your business will struggle to attract and convert new customers online.

Content marketing is not only a powerful tool for lead generation, but it’s also one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your services. Learn why investing in content marketing is vital and discover strategies to boost sales and drive growth.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is any form of informative or entertaining media used to promote a brand and create interest and awareness for its products and services. The main objective of website content is to provide information that satisfies user queries or delivers engaging online material to create a positive association with a brand and explain the value of its business.

By offering relevant and valuable content, your target audience can discover your brand online, engage with your social media posts, and interact through likes, comments, or shares. This engagement builds rapport and drives action, making your brand a trusted resource.

Creating informative or entertaining content around your brand’s expertise offers numerous benefits. For example, publishing blog posts or videos that address your audience’s questions can boost your site’s ranking for relevant keywords. If Google’s algorithm identifies that your content matches the search intent of users, it can elevate your keyword rankings.

Additionally, producing original, well-researched content can earn your site backlinks from reputable websites, enhancing your content’s visibility and domain authority—two critical factors for SEO success.

Distributing engaging content can have a similar impact. When users organically share your content, it’s free exposure for your brand, amplifying your organic reach. The more likes, shares, and comments your content receives, the more likely social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn are to promote it to broader audiences.

Organic reach on social media platforms continues to plummet year over year, so creating compelling content is essential to increase your visibility without relying on paid ads. By focusing on quality content, your audience will engage with it and share it, boosting your reach organically.

Best Types of Content Marketing

Content marketing comes in many forms, each serving a specific purpose. Whether your objective is lead generation or brand building, understanding the types of content that work best for your business is key. Here are three essential types of content marketing that drive results:

Blogging

Blogging remains one of the most effective forms of content marketing. Businesses that invest in blogs see up to 126% higher lead growth compared to those that don’t. More importantly, 61% of U.S. consumers make a purchase after reading blog recommendations.

Blogs help build relationships with visitors and position your brand as an industry expert. A great way to find blog topics is to research what your audience is searching for. Tools like Google’s “People also ask” section, Quora, or Reddit can provide valuable insights into common questions and pain points. For instance, if you’re a pest control service, you could address topics like “how to get rid of fleas” and offer solutions that highlight your expertise and services.

When blogging, it’s essential to conduct thorough SEO research and invest in long-form, valuable content. A simple 300-word post won’t provide much benefit. Well-optimized, in-depth posts help attract organic traffic, build trust, and convert visitors into customers.

Video

Video content should be a top priority for businesses. Research shows that 87% of consumers want more video from brands, and 97% say that videos help them understand products better. Videos are easy for consumers to digest and often have a more significant impact than written content.

Showcasing products or services through video provides a dynamic way to demonstrate value. For example, infomercials often use video to show how products work, making the benefits clear to viewers. It’s no surprise that 64% of viewers are more likely to buy a product after watching branded videos.

A major advantage of video content is its visibility in search results. For example, when searching for “the best way to peel garlic,” YouTube videos often appear before text-based content. Creating video content around popular search queries can give your brand a competitive edge and boost your online visibility.

Social Media Posts

Social media is a powerful tool for building brand recognition, sharing updates, and reaching new audiences. The key is to provide value—whether through informative articles, company updates, or entertaining posts that connect with your audience.

For instance, a dental practice might share an article about the benefits of regular check-ups to encourage appointments. If you sell cat leashes, sharing content about the health benefits of walking cats can demonstrate how your product solves a problem, priming readers to convert.

Infographics summarizing valuable data or product benefits are also effective on social media. Original infographics, branded with your logo, can spread awareness as users share them. Photos of your team participating in community events or showcasing successful case studies further humanize your brand and build trust.

Finally, creating humorous or relatable content, like memes, can drive engagement and shares. The more your audience interacts with your content, the more platforms will promote it organically, extending your reach without any extra cost.

Benefits of Content Marketing: Why is it Important?

Whether you are marketing to businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C), there are many benefits to content marketing:

Increases Engagement

According to CMI’s digital content marketing research, 72% of marketers say that content marketing increases engagement and leads. If you don’t invest in creating content, there will be nothing for your visitors to engage with your brand. Developing content that showcases your business's services demonstrates value to your audience and advertises your brand is essential to any business. 

Generates Leads

The data is clear. Long-form content is the most effective way to generate leads. In fact, long-form blog posts generate 9X more leads than short blog posts, and content marketing is 6 times more effective to rake in conversions than other marketing methods. Although content marketing requires patience, the payoff is enormous. 

Builds Brand Authority

Positioning your brand as an industry expert through content marketing is essential for building relationships with web visitors and guiding them through your sales funnel.

The value of information depends on the writer’s expertise on the subject. For instance, a reader is more likely to trust a dentist’s advice on flossing over a barber’s because the dentist has extensive experience and knowledge on the topic. By offering expert-level answers to common industry queries and publishing them on your site, you provide value to potential customers and position your services as the solution to their concerns.

For example, if a dentist writes a blog addressing common questions about a condition like Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction (TMJ), they can not only educate the reader about the condition but also integrate their TMJ services as a solution to the readers' concerns.

Increases Organic Traffic and Keyword Rankings

While SEO can feel complex, it ultimately comes down to one key principle: Google aims to provide the best possible resources to answer users’ searches. Google ranks web pages, highlights snippets, and promotes videos based on how well they align with the search intent.

Google’s algorithm crawls the web, identifying pages that contain keywords relevant to a user’s search. For example, if someone searches “best way to plant basil,” the featured snippet at the top of the results will display keywords from the query, bolded in context, to signal it as a relevant match.

Additionally, the top results beneath the snippet and videos will feature keywords from the search query, further emphasizing relevance.

Your site needs content that aligns with your audience's search terms to rank effectively. Conducting keyword and competitive research helps shape the types of content your business should produce.

Creating long-form content that addresses common questions your target audience asks—and aligning your services with the answers—enhances your chances of ranking for valuable keywords, appearing at the top of search results, and securing high SERP (Search Engine Results Page) placements.

This visibility allows potential customers to learn about your business and how you can help them. Without SEO-optimized, long-form content, your business risks being lost in the vast web.

Content Marketing Statistics

The data doesn’t lie, and the ROI from content marketing is clear. Let’s dive deeper and review more content marketing statistics: 

1. 45% of marketers site blogging as the most important component of their content strategy. 

2. 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing by only 36% of B2B organizations are committed to content marketing. A lack of investment into content marketing as a primary marketing strategy is a huge mistake because if your competitors are committed to creating great online content, they will capture the traffic of the potential customers in your industry. 

3. Better content drives traffic to a blog by up to 2,000%, because if users see your online content as valuable, they will share it and tell others about your services. Additionally, Google will reward your successful content by increasing your keyword rankings for your content, so it is shown to more people. 

4. Millennials spend an average of 11 hours per day engaging with digital content versus the U.S. average of 8.8 hours. People continue to invest more and more of their time consuming online media, and if you want to capture some of that attention, it’s crucial your business invests in creating relevant media for your audience to consume. From compelling video content to informative blogs, a consistent investment in content creation will help attract more and more people to your site. 

5. 34% of consumers are more likely to make an unplanned purchase if a brand offers personalized content. Bring valuable and informative content and connect with your audience. Connect with your audience through your content to build trust so they will want to take the next step to become a customer. Remember, an individual has to have some level of connection, confidence, and interest in your services to become a customer and give you their hard-earned money. 

6. 73% of B2B and 76% of B2C markers say their marketing strategy treats content marketing as an ongoing business process and not only a one-time campaign. Treat content marketing as a long-term strategy and investment. The more you consistently create compelling content to your audience, the more your business will reap the benefits. 

7. Long-form blog posts generate nine times more leads than short-term blog posts. Since long-form content consistently outranks short-form content, lengthy blogs generate more organic traffic if they focus on ranking for keywords that are built around lead generation. Furthermore, longer content gives the author more time to explain the benefits of their services so their audience can have sufficient information to see the value of the business. Also, since few bloggers invest in long-form blog content (more than 2,000 words), publishing long-form content will help capitalize on their lack of depth. Since the average content length of the first results of SERPS is around 2,450 words, consistently investing in long-form content will give your business the best chance to rank for the queries your audience would search for to find your business and make a conversion.

8. 87% of businesses use video as a content marketing tool in 2019, which is up from 81% in 2018. People continue to invest more and more of their time-consuming video content, but still, few brands create video content. Most businesses think video content is expensive to produce, but even filming and publishing videos from a smartphone is better than nothing. Videos are the most accessible form of content for an individual to consume and speaking directly to your audience is pivotal to build a relationship. 

Content Marketing vs. Digital Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing 

Content, digital, and social media marketing all work in unison, and each part is integral to a successful online marketing strategy. Content marketing involves creating valuable and relevant media in the form of written copy, video, and images to attract and retain your audience. It can come in many forms, including videos, brochures, eBooks, blogs, and billboards. 

However, digital marketing encompasses all channels a company uses to market its services, including PPC, SEO, social media, and press releases. Digital marketing connects with audiences exclusively through digital channels and provides massive benefits to businesses at an affordable cost. Although there is overlap between content and digital marketing, digital content marketing is focused on strategizing and creating valuable and consistent content to an audience based on aligning their problem-focused queries with your service and solution-based content. 

Social media marketing is any content that is published on digital platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Snapchat. It overlaps with both content and digital marketing. Posting an image with an intriguing campaign is not only content marketing but also digital marketing. The best social media advertising campaigns utilize content writers to craft a condensed “sales pitch” of an enticing offer to generate interest. However, social media marketing can also be distributed organically. 

How Does Content Marketing Work? ROI and Benefits

Effective content marketing works by providing answers to user search queries and aligns their pain points with your service solutions. For instance, if a user searches in Google “hair loss treatment,” a business that provides a hair loss treatment would craft a piece of content centered around explaining their solution. To ensure maximum value and increase organic traffic, include similar queries and topics into your content to add considerable benefit to your audience and further align your services as a solution to their problem. 

For example, including a section titled, “why do men lose their hair” and identifying the factors that contribute to hair loss while explaining how your product combats the identified factors is essential for your reader to gain confidence in your solution. Let’s say a reason men lose their hair is because of a particular vitamin deficiency and as you establish your premise; plug that your product includes the essential vitamins that contribute to stronger and healthier hair. 

The most significant content marketing ROI is that it is 62% less expensive than outbound marketing, yet it generates 3x as many leads, and 72% of marketers say content marketing increases engagement. Content marketing is also the most cost-effective, long-term marketing strategy since a successful piece of site copy will generate organic search traffic to your business versus social media or PPC advertising where your reach is contingent on your monthly marketing budget. 

For instance, a blog Jack Scullin drafted at a previous agency generates $15,700 worth of traffic in terms of PPC costs. By ranking organically for more than 450 keywords, the blog is visible in a variety of search queries aligned with the business’ objectives, so instead of bidding on expensive keywords, the client generates traffic for free:

Also, since the lion’s share of web visits are gained from organic search versus other channels, SEO content marketing is the best advertising investment.

How to Measure Content Marketing Results: 

Organic traffic

number of people who found your website after using a search engine not influenced by paid ads. 

Traffic Cost

Estimated value of your organic traffic based on keyword rankings and PPC costs. 

Keyword Rankings

Where your site content appears on a search results page for a given keyword search. The value of a keyword is based on its volume of monthly searches, estimated PPC cost, competition, and how the keyword search aligns with your business’ services. 

Average Session Duration

Length of time a visitor stays on the content page. 

Goal completions

The total number of conversions. 

Depending on the goals for your piece of content, other valuable metrics should be evaluated to determine the success of a web page. The most significant return on a content marketing investment is that your business can clearly explain your business’ services and align them with your audience’s pain points so they understand how your company would provide them value.

A website with a sparse amount of content will not be able to sufficiently explain the benefits of their services and build adequate rapport with their audience so their audience will feel uncomfortable investing in their services. 

Example of Marketing Strategy for a Product

Let’s say that your business sells bottled vegetable juices. Start by doing some keyword research to discover popular queries in your market space. Searches may include green juice recipes, detox plans, benefits of vegetable juices, or vegetable juice benefits for weight loss. 

Once you have sufficient queries that you have found with adequate monthly search volume and low competition, create an outline that organizes your content based on the topics you will cover in the piece of site content. Having your headers as close to the search queries you found will increase your chances to rank for the targeted keywords. 

Next, draft your content and provide outbound links to resourceful pages that help validate the claims that you make throughout your article. For instance, if you claim that incorporating vegetable juices daily in your diet significantly aids weight loss, provide a link to a reputable study and provide informed statistics on the topic. 

Include images of your products and incorporate them into infographics with concise bullet points that sell your product. Let’s say you highlight a beet ginger juice. In the infographic, include points that explain your market superiority to other juices. Perhaps there are five beets per bottle, or your company only uses organic veggies. Make sure to include as many natural selling points that displays your product. 

As you sufficiently answer your targeted queries, finish your page with a call to action to visit the pages on your site where visitors can purchase your product or learn more about your company. Make sure that after a site visitor finishes reading the content that they are guided further down your sales funnel to try and complete a conversion. Ultimately, you want to craft content that provides value to your readers, but it has to also align with your business’ services. 

Create content that you would want to read but also clearly showcase your product as the solution to audience searches. 

Content Marketing Sales Funnel

We’ve developed the ultimate content marketing sales funnel that expertly guides a user from an organic search to a conversion called the AIAO Funnel:

Attention

How can you create interest and curiosity? Do you have a tantalizing promise that will solve the user’s search query? Can we elicit a reaction and create an emotional attraction?

Information

Once the reader has clicked on your site link, you must provide intriguing data that sells your services. What will interest them in purchasing your products or services? Why do they need it? Identify their problem and give the solution and relief to their query. Use the information you find to prime your reader to want to purchase your product.

For instance, if their query is “how to remove warts fastest,” position your wart remover as the remedy. If it has a medically verified ingredient that removes warts faster than competitors, explain why it works and provide a link to a reputable source to prove your claim. When it comes to long-form content, let the data and information sell your services for you.

Association

How do you want them to feel about your product? How do you want them to understand it? Like Pavlov’s dogs, what is your bell? Coke has positioned its product as refreshing, and their branding has deeply imbedded that concept into our subconscious minds.

Find out how you want your audience to feel about your product to sell your services. Include testimonials of happy clients to create a positive association with your brand further and let their pleasant experiences establish a strong association with your brand.

Offer

How can you incentivize your product or services? Can you provide an exclusive offer to first-time users? Create scarcity and urgency if you can. Make it so your offer will expire soon to prompt the reader to act today. Include a money-back guarantee, if possible, to lower the reader’s action threshold so they are more likely to try your product and reduce their risk of investment.

Content Marketing Services for Websites

Scullin Media offers innovative content marketing services. The three-step process starts with understanding your business and the best way to contextualize your services to intrigue your audience, so they want to invest in your offerings.

Content Marketing Strategy

We first investigate your existing content, brand voice, and message to understand how you currently market your services. We identify hindrances that may impede your success and limit your organic visibility, such as lack of keyword research, depth of content, and customer journey from discovery to conversion. Ultimately, your online web copy acts as a digital salesperson and is pivotal to guide users to want to work with your business.

Without sufficient copy and a clear understanding of how to effectively frame your services, it will not only be more difficult for users to find you, but they will also be hesitant to sign up for your services. After reviewing your existing content, we will investigate the market to discover how your competitors are outperforming your website.

We will identify content opportunities with low competition and craft a long-term strategy to develop compelling content, rank for valuable keywords, and optimize your content for search.

Content Development and Distribution

Once content services are selected, we will use our innovative SEO content brief to outline your content, identify keywords we want to rank for, and what we want your piece of content to accomplish. Content will be drafted, edited, and sent for your approval. Once we have a completed draft, we will publish your content on your website and provide social share suggestions to share with your followers.

Content Monitoring and Reporting

After your new content has been published, we will submit it to Google Search Console so the content can be crawled faster. We will monitor the success of the content and evaluate valuable metrics, such as keyword rankings, PPC value, organic traffic, source traffic, bounce rate, and dwell time. Continuous monitoring is recommended to optimize your existing content to further improve performance.