Content Marketing Essentials: The 3 Key Characteristics of Top Performing Blog Articles in 2020

By Dom Murray On March 17 2020 Content Marketing With 0 Comments Permalink

Content Marketing Essentials: The 3 Key Characteristics of Top Performing Blog Articles in 2020

Ever read a blog article so good that it makes you step back and say ‘wow’? If everything goes to plan, hopefully you’re reading one right now (and can find many more over at our blog). But, as with most aspects of content marketing in 2020, a good blog article doesn’t simply happen. Rather, there’s science behind the similes, method to the metaphors.

Great writing is one thing, but if an article is published on WordPress and no one is around to read it, did it ever really happen? While most companies realise the value of content marketing, they also realise the value of articles actually being read, which means appeasing the algorithms, and adding in a healthy dash of SEO.

Recently, SEMRush took an in depth look at this very topic, publishing their Global State of Content Marketing Report 2019, which analysed over 700,000 high-performing blog articles. The report includes many key insights, leading us to ask two questions: 1) what are the key characteristics of top performing blog articles in 2020, and 2) how do our articles compare?

We dive into both of these questions below, analysing the top 3 key characteristics of top performing blog articles in 2020, to help you take your wordsmithery to the next level!

#1. Make a Good First Impression

When it comes to writing blog headlines, you need to juggle two simple yet apparently contradictory life rules: ‘make a good first impression’ and ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. Unfortunately, many readers tend to forget that second rule, as the average internet user has an attention span of just 8 seconds, while a massive 60% of people don’t read further than the headline of a blog article^[1]. This makes headlines absolutely crucial to grab your audience’s attention.

According to SEMRush, the ideal headline length for top performing blog articles is 14 words or more. Their analysis found that articles with long headlines (14+ words) receive 2x more traffic, 2x more shares, and 5x more backlinks than articles with short headlines (7-10 words)^[2].

Digging a little deeper, headlines with 14+ words get 222 unique pageviews, 42 shares, and 15 backlinks on average. By comparison, headlines between 10-13 words get 162 unique pageviews, 30 shares, and 9 backlinks on average, while headlines with 7 words or fewer only get 47 unique pageviews, 9 shares, and 1 backlink on average^[2]. Headlines between 14-17 words also get 76.7% more social shares on average, according to research by Backlinko^[2].

Of course, this doesn’t mean padding your headline with superfluous words just to hit a word count, like a bad high school essay. You still have to make those characters count.

So, we thought we’d take our own advice. Guess how many words ‘Content Marketing Essentials: The 5 Key Characteristics of Top Performing Blog Articles in 2020’ adds up to? That’s right, 14. Well, 12 words and 2 sets of numbers, technically, but it still counts!

Much like email subject lines, blog headline length is a hotly debated topic, so several other sources have performed similar analyses. Hubspot have a slightly different take, claiming that the ideal blog headline length is 60 characters^[1]. They also found that headlines between 8-12 words are shared most often on Twitter, and headlines between 12-14 words are liked most often on Facebook^[1].

Neil Patel’s analysis produced similar results, claiming that once headline length exceeds 62 characters, search engines typically ignore the rest of the headline^[3].

Finally, a study by OutBrain found that headlines between 60-100 characters and 16-18 words produced the highest engagement on average^[4].

Even small tweaks to your headline can make a huge difference, as a study by Content Marketing Institute found that including a colon in your headline (check) can increase click-through rates by 9%^[3]. Similarly, Hubspot found that headlines that end with a bracketed clarification – for example, ‘The Ultimate Guide To Content Marketing [New Data]’ – perform 38% better than articles with no bracketed clarification^[1].

Remember how we said earlier that 60% of people don’t read past a blog headline? Or, more accurately, that 80% of people read a headline, but only 20% continue on to read the article. First of all, thank you for being one of the awesome 20% who continued reading. Secondly, according to KissMetrics, it’s even worse than that, as readers tend to only really absorb the first three words and last three words of a headline. In other words, grab your audience’s attention straight away, and leave them wanting more^[5].

In short, to succeed at content marketing in 2020, it is extremely important to have an attention grabbing headline, without veering towards clickbait. However, the ideal length of that headline will vary from business to business, depending on your goals, subject matter, and target audience. In general, it appears that headlines between 12-18 words and 55-100 characters hit the sweet spot. If you can fit a colon into your headline too, that’s even better.

Content Audit: How Does XCOM Stack Up?

With this in mind, we decided to analyse our own blog posts, to see how XCOM’s headlines stack up.

Of our 15 most recent blog posts, just over half (8) met the 55+ character threshold, while none hit the 12 word minimum. Until now, that is. Looks like we’ll have to take a ‘the more, the merrier’ approach to blog headlines from now on!

Content Marketing Best Practices: Article Headlines

Blog articles with long headlines (14+ words) receive 2x more traffic, 2x more shares, and 5x more backlinks than blog articles with short headlines (7-10 words).
Headlines with 14+ words get 222 unique pageviews, 42 shares, and 15 backlinks on average.
Headlines between 60-100 words result in the highest engagement rates.
Including a colon in your headline can increase click-through rates by up to 9%.
Headlines between 14-17 words receive 76.7% more social shares.
80% of people will read a headline, but only 20% will continue on to read an article, so it’s important to make a good first impression!

#2. Number Nerds & List Lovers, Unite

You might be wondering, what’s with the best practice list above? Well, apart from being a handy summary of headline do’s and don’ts, lists are another key characteristic of top performing blog articles in 2020.

According to SEMRush’s thorough analysis of approximately 700,000 high performing blog articles, articles with 5 lists per 500 words receive 4x more traffic and 2x more social shares than articles with no lists^[2]. SEMRush’s analysis defined a ‘list’ as the presence of <ul> and <ol> tags^[2].

On average, articles with 5 lists per 500 words receive 208 unique pageviews, 15 shares, and 8 backlinks, while articles with no lists receive an average of 53 unique pageviews, 7 shares, and 6 backlinks^[2].

This feeds nicely into our second point: articles with ‘list headlines’ (headlines that start with a number, such as 6 Retargeting Facts Every Marketer Should Know, 4 Things We Learned From Clean Out Your Inbox Week, or, surprise surprise, ‘3 Key Characteristics Of Top Performing Blog Articles in 2020’) perform significantly better than articles with other headline types, such as how-tos, questions, and guides.

Articles with ‘list’ headlines get 2x more traffic and 2x more social shares than ‘other’ article headlines, according to SEMRush^[2]. On average, articles with list headlines receive 203 unique pageviews, 37 shares, and 5 backlinks. By comparison, articles with ‘question’ headlines receive 110 unique pageviews, 22 shares, and 7 backlinks on average, while articles with ‘how-to’ headlines receive 182 unique pageviews, 28 shares, and 7 backlinks on average^[2]. Articles with all other headlines types receive 88 unique pageviews, 5 backlinks, and 18 shares on average^[2].

In part, you can probably blame Buzzfeed for the popularisation of list headlines (a quick look at their homepage right now uncovers ‘19 Products You Probably Didn’t Know Existed That Will Improve Your Life’ as a top story). However, the stats don’t lie: lists work.

Numerous studies corroborate this. Backlinko found that list posts get an average of 218% more shares than ‘how-to’ posts and 203% more shares than infographics^[6]. They also found that headlines that end with a question mark get 23.3% more social shares than headlines that don’t end with a question mark^[6].

Taking this analysis even further, it appears that odd numbers are more effective than even numbers when it comes to list headlines. According to Neil Patel, “the brain seems to believe odd numbers more than even numbers. Odd numbers also seem to help people digest and recall information more easily”^[3].

Strangely, in one case study, editing a headline to include the number 7 increased click-through rates by 20%^[3]. When writing a list headline, it’s also better to write numbers as numerals, rather than words (e.g. 7 rather than seven).

According to an analysis of more than 100,000 headlines, 10 was by far the most common number used in list headlines, followed by 5, 15, and 7^[7]. Given this, it might be worth embracing odd numbers to help your headlines stand out!

Still not convinced? Well, according to Conductor, headlines that include numbers are by far the most successful. 36% of users prefer these types of headlines, significantly more than the 21% who prefer headlines that address readers directly^[8]. If that’s not enough to convince you to become a number nerd and a list lover, then we’re not sure what is!

Content Audit: How Does XCOM Stack Up?

Again, we decided to put our own blog posts to the test, and we were pretty pleased with the results. Of our 15 most recent blog posts, we found that 8 follow the list headline format.

Content Marketing Best Practices: Numbers & Lists

Articles with 5 lists per 500 words receive 4x more traffic and 2x more social shares than articles with no lists.
Articles with 5 lists per 500 words receive 208 unique pageviews, 15 shares, and 8 backlinks on average.
Articles with ‘list’ headlines (e.g. 5 Tips For…) get 2x more traffic and 2x more social shares than ‘other’ article headline types.
Articles with ‘list’ headlines receive 203 unique pageviews, 37 shares, and 5 backlinks on average.
36% of users prefer list headlines, compared to 21% who prefer headlines that address the reader directly.

#3. The Long and Short of It

While our attention spans continue to get shorter and shorter, longer blog articles hold the key to content marketing success in 2020.

According to SEMRush’s thorough analysis of approximately 700,000 high performing blog articles, long reads of 3,000 words or more receive 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than average length articles (901-1200 words)^[2]. By comparison, shorter articles (300-900 words) receive zero shares 4.5x more frequently than long reads of 3,000+ words^[2].

On average, articles with 3,000+ words receive 362 unique pageviews, 58 shares, and 25 backlinks^[2]. In contrast, articles of average length (901-1200) receive 110 unique pageviews, 15 shares, and 7 backlinks, while short articles (300-600 words) receive 57 unique pageviews, 13 shares, and 25 backlinks^[2].

Additionally, articles longer than 3,000 words receive 0 shares only 12% of the time, while articles of average (901-1200 words) and short (300-600 words) length receive 0 shares 51% of the time^[2].

A separate study by SEMRush found that “long content tends to rank higher for keywords with higher volume”. They concluded that pages that rank higher for popular keywords have 1.5x more content on average than pages that rank for low volume keywords^[9].

Several studies have corroborated that longer blog content tends to perform better than shorter blog content. Data Lab found that the optimal blog post takes 7 minutes to read on average^[5], while Neil Patel found that articles between 2,000-2,500 words receive the most Facebook shares^[3].

Moreover, HubSpot’s analysis found that the ideal blog post length is approximately 2,100 words, while a study by serpIQ concluded that the majority of top 10 Google results are between 2,032 and 2,416 words^[1]. According to Orbit Media, this is basically double the length of the average blog post (1,050 words)^[10].

An analysis of more than 1 million blog posts by Moz sets the ideal length slightly lower, finding that the optimum blog length for SEO in 2020 is 1,760 words^[10]. Search Engine Journal believes the ideal length is 1,900 words, while Backlinko claims the magic number is 1,890 words^[11].

Moz’s analysis also found that 85% of online blog posts now exceed 1,000 words, and stated that content containing 1,000 words or more receives more shares than content under 1,000 words^[10].

There are many potential explanations for this. Despite attention spans declining on average, people still seek out thought leadership and authoritative content. In general, it is more likely that a well-researched, 3,000 word article will be more reliable and authoritative than a shorter, 600 word article. Even if readers do not read all 3,000 words, they are more likely to trust a 3,000 word article, and are also more likely to find whatever information they are looking for within that article.

As such, authoritative, well-researched, and reliable articles tend to be favoured by SEO algorithms, and are also more likely to be shared on social media, as users seek to share relevant information with others.

Whatever the exact magic number is, the consensus is pretty clear: longer (1,700-3,000) is better when it comes to blogging in 2020. Longer articles tend to perform better in terms of SEO and social shares. Of course, it is still important to consider style, tone, and your target audience. In all likelihood, it would not be appropriate to write a 3,000 word article about ‘5 Dog Toys That Man’s Best Friend Will LOVE’. On the other hand, a 4,000 word piece of thought leadership on the State of SEO in 2020 is entirely appropriate.

Accordingly, this is not a definitive rule, and writing longer articles for the sake of it is unlikely to yield long term success. It is important to consider your medium, audience, subject matter, house style, and other variables, to determine the appropriate article length. However, if in doubt, longer is likely better.

Content Audit: How Does XCOM Stack Up?

Once again, we decided to put our money where our mouth is, and analyse our own blog articles. Of our 10 most recent blog articles, 4 fell into the ‘average length’ range (901-1200) by SEMRush’s definition, while 4 were between 1,200-1,500 words, and 2 were over 1,700 words. The average length of our 10 most recent blog posts is 1,389 words. While this is slightly below the 1,700 word threshold recommended above, this represents a reasonable balance of styles: 4 articles of average length, 4 articles of above average length, and 2 long reads.

Content Marketing Best Practices: Article Length

Articles of 3,000 words or more receive 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than average length articles (901-1200 words).
Articles with 3,000 words or more receive 362 unique pageviews, 58 shares, and 25 backlinks on average.
Articles of average length (901-1200) receive 110 unique pageviews, 15 shares, and 7 backlinks on average, while short articles (300-600 words) receive 57 unique pageviews, 13 shares, and 25 backlinks on average.
Pages that rank highly for popular keywords have 1.5x more content on average than pages that rank highly for low volume keywords.
The majority of top 10 Google results contain between 2,032 and 2,416 words.
Sources vary slightly on the ideal blog post length: Hubspot says 2,100 words, Moz says 1,760 words, Backlinko says 1,890 words, and Search Engine Journal says 1,900 words. Accordingly, 1,700-3,000 words appears to be the sweet spot for content marketing in 2020, depending on subject matter and target audience.

And, as I type that, this article has just exceeded 2,700 words – right in the sweet spot, if all these studies are to be believed. I’ll leave it there, sit back, relax and watch those shares, pageviews, and backlinks roll in (fingers crossed).