Step #4 – Draft the article without any critique

Once you’ve structured your ideas on screen, start writing.

But only write. Don’t worry about adding hyperlinking or multimedia. Try not to press backspace in your first draft.

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You take care of trimming your article later, when you edit.

Blog posts at Boost Blog Traffic are terrific long-form evergreen content examples. They publish less frequently, but only present high-quality stuff.

They guide you to think of long-form content the correct way on their editorial guidelines page.

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As you’ve performed intensive research on step 1, you’ll be brimming with ideas. Hopefully, you won’t need to stretch your first draft to somehow touch the 2,000 word mark.

If you always end up messing around with your ideas in first draft, consider timing yourself.

Download Chrome extension Time Doser and follow the Pomodoro technique.

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Step #5 – Editing and SEO: Break long sentences and paragraphs into two or more shorter sections. Integrate keywords and implement schema markup

There are 3 critical elements for editing and optimizing your article for SEO. Let’s look at them one-by-one.

#1. Compelling Subheadings

Long-form articles will attract readers for a diverse set of keywords.

But, once a visitor lands on your website, will he be interested in reading your complete article?

I don’t think so.

Visit-durations follow a Weibull distribution. If you are not impressing a user within the first 10-20 seconds, he won’t hesitate to press the back key.

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So you need to craft curiosity-peeking sub-headlines like Jon Morrow.

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You see, subheadings are the guiding light for a visitor looking for specific information from your article.

If he can’t find what he’s looking for, he’ll get disappointed and leave your website.

Follow these 5 steps to create compelling subheads.

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Brian Dean recommends crafting benefit oriented subheads to increase the perceived value of your articles.

He regularly uses such sub-headlines in his long-form blog posts.

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It’s Copywriting 101. Your customers always think from a WIFFM “what’s in it for me” perspective.

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Using benefit-oriented subheads is your ticket to creating a customer-focused memorable experience.

You can start with 25% benefit-oriented subheads as Brian Dean recommends.

#2. Cut short your sentences and paragraphs

Which version of the post would you rather read in the screenshot below?

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The right one has huge chunks of text. It will require more concentration and is unappealing to the eye, even before you start reading.

Don’t commit a similar mistake in your long-form article.

Go for the left version – it looks polished and formatted properly.

You should also use shorter paragraphs running between 3 to 6 lines. Like Jeff Goins.

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Leave extra space between your paragraphs to offer breathing space to your readers.

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Next you can make the article digestible by cutting down the long-winded sentences into shorter ones (between 10 to 15 words).

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This is especially valid in the introduction, because you need to hook the reader right inside your article.

Short sentences help the reader to settle in as they boost the content readability by 58%.

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Where possible, you should also use bullets and lists. They help in processing information faster than clustered paragraphs.

Along the way:

Don’t be worried if you’re breaking some grammar rules.

You can start a sentence with a conjunction – And, It, Or.

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Use contractions. They equate to how we speak in everyday life and your readers will appreciate a conversational writing tone over a formal one.

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#3. Implement schema markup and optimize for SEO

Check your article’s SEO and ensure it’s optimized for your target keywords.

A plugin like Yoast will be helpful.

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To attract long-tail traffic, you can integrate long-tail keywords into your article.

You should also add relevant internal and external hyperlinks to credible sources.

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These are the basics for optimizing your article.

Do you want to take your SEO to the next level?

Then use schema markup – it’s an underutilized SEO strategy.

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Using schema, your entry in SERP will have rich snippets.

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As we’ve already seen, 2000+ words long-form articles are highlighted as in-depth content in Google.

Simon Penson explains the nuts and bolts of implementing schema in your article.

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Pro Tip: Crank up your post’s UX by creating a table of contents.

Jimmy Daly from Vero used an attractive clickable table of contents visual for his 5,000+ words article on email marketing best practices.

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It was received very well by the internet marketing community. The post received 36,000+ page views, 953 email subscribers and 256 trial signups for his product.

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Matthew Barby also uses a table of contents for his in-depth blog posts. Clicking on a subject will jump you directly to that section.

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On WordPress, you can create a table of contents using this plugin.

Pro Tip 2: Color code your article’s sections to ease the text’s readability

My advanced guides are 40,000+ words and have been very successful. All of them have colorful backgrounds that aid the readability of the text.

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You can also color code your article backgrounds by applying CSS to various sections. I explain such advanced formatting hacks in this article.

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Step 6. Provide a rich multimedia experience by uploading photos and videos

It’s not 2008 anymore. The internet has gone highly visual.

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Google favors multimedia results in its search results.

55% of all keyword searches in the US return at least one video.

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For long-form content, visuals make even more sense.

How boring, if not painful, would reading a long 5000-word text article be?

You would run away screaming.

Wouldn’t you?

Videos and images break your content into readable chunks and they are easier to digest than text.

People retain only 10-20% of spoken or written information, but 65% of visual information.

See for yourself – Which of the below versions do you process faster and remember longer?

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Look at my posts here at NeilPatel.com. I write only long form content.

And to keep you engaged, I use relevant images, screenshots, videos, charts and infographics.

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Here are some tips to help you choose the right visual elements for your blog post.

You can upload copyright free pictures. Here is a list of 17 websites with stock free photos. Attribution may or may not be required – please check before uploading.

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Take screenshots from relevant articles and link to them. You can use a snipping and annotation tool like Skitch for help.

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Search for relevant videos on YouTube and embed them in your articles. First, click on the “Share” button below the video.

image52Then click on the “Embed” tab. You need to copy and paste the HTML code in your article.

image34Similarly, you can also embed a relevant slideshow. Social Media Examiner posts regularly embed slideshows from Slideshare.

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Ana Hoffman from Traffic Generation Cafe found brilliant results after creating 9 slideshows and embedding them in her posts.

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Upload charts, graphs and statistical tables from relevant websites. Recently, I included the chart below in my post on Facebook Organic Reach.

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Use custom hand drawn images like The Oatmeal.

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I’ve also had great success with them in my $100,000 case study. The image below received 765 likes and 245 shares.

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There are a couple of problems though. You need good illustration skills. Or, if you hire someone to create them for you – they can get very expensive.

Add short infographics or small parts from bigger infographics.

Look how Buffer integrated an infographic from the Optimal Targeting Blog in their post on creating awesome visual content.

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You can also add animated GIF images. They have an entertainment value and I found that animated graphics get shared the most on social media. They don’t perform very well in the B2B sector though.

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Overall, visuals increase your post’s perceived value and optimize your content for social media. So, make sure you include them in your long-form posts.

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Step 7. Double check grammar and spelling mistakes

Grammar and spelling slip-ups hamper your brand image. They make your content look amateurish.

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You need to weed them out before your article goes live.

Start with a spell checking tool. They are a good starting point for cleaning up your article.

Microsoft Word – It’s a classic windows application. Just press the F7 key to run spell check.
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Hemingway App – Shows your article’s readability and color codes sentences that are hard to read.
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So, are we done after making necessary corrections through the spell checking tool?

Not just yet.

Don’t send the article for publishing.

These tools are based on algorithms.

They will not detect your homophone spelling error.

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Or detect your misused commonly confused words.

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And they’ll nag you to not start your sentences with a conjunction.

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You are the best mechanism to ensure a conversational and engaging writing tone in your post.

So read your article aloud and correct your mistakes.

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We tend to look at our own work with a bias. Ask for help from a friend in editing your content. The fresh pair of eyes will detect errors that slipped by you in proofing.

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Step 8. Publish the article and promote the post like crazy

Writing on a subject that hasn’t got any demand among your audience sucks.

But long-form content created using the 7 steps I explained before this one will have proven demand. It will require a lot of effort as well.

But, once you’ve invested your time in writing, not promoting your content piece will waste all of those efforts.

To truly reap the benefits of long-form content, you’ve got to ensure that your article reaches key members of your community.

The influencers.

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Brian Dean recently published a huge list of 131 SEO tools. And he reached out to every tool owning company (CEO or marketing manager) alerting them about his article.

The article attracted 14,000+ page views in just 3 days. It was largely due to his planned strategic outreach.

Start with promoting your long-form piece to everyone you’ve mentioned in the article. Draft an email inquiring if they would like to see your article. You can use Brian’s template for outreach above.

If they show interest in viewing your article, send the article’s link.

Don’t be pushy in the first email and ask everyone directly to share your article. That has a lower success rate, according to Brian.

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Spend some time interacting with the influencer and adding value to their blog/company. They’ll appreciate it and, as they trust you, they’re more likely to share your content.

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You should also distribute your post on social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other platforms where your target audience hangs out.

I wrote in detail about 11 things you should do after publishing your post.

Once you’re done with promotions, you can sit back and enjoy the traffic influx for many months.