Thinking Fast and Slow<\/a>,\u201d Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman outlines how the brain uses shortcuts to navigate the myriad and complex functions it performs on a daily basis. Humans prefer shortcuts as a result of this cognitive \u201cquirk.\u201d Think of this as a way to explain the overwhelming popularity of articles with the word \u201chack\u201d in the title. People want to shortcut their way through your content. The more ways you can give readers the chance to do this, the more popular your site will be.<\/p>\nGoogle Likes Short and Sweet, Too<\/h2>\n
The competition has sifted, and Google has come out on top of the search engines. If you can please the Google bots with your content, you\u2019ll come out on top, too. As Yoast advises, Google recommends headlines of 60 characters or less. This may have more to do with their bot requirements and less to do with live brains, but it\u2019s still good to keep in mind. Now, if shorter headlines are better, it stands to reason that the words that you do<\/em> use in your content better be pretty special.<\/p>\nHonestly, I used to think longer headlines showed off creativity\u2014turns out, they just get snipped out of search results, or worse, ignored altogether. There\u2019s just something about a clean, punchy headline that makes people stop scrolling (at least for a second). I\u2019ve actually tested this: take a long headline, chop it in half, and suddenly folks are clicking more. It\u2019s probably that quick hit of clarity; no one\u2019s guessing what they\u2019ll get. So yeah, Google and readers seem weirdly aligned on this one.<\/p>\n
The Magic Words That Draw Readers and Elicit Action<\/h2>\n
There are certain words that are inherently more valuable than others in content marketing. They are:<\/p>\n
\n- New<\/li>\n
- Free<\/li>\n
- You<\/li>\n
- Secret<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
New is valuable because it appeals to the part of us that is always looking for the latest and greatest. Free is valuable because it makes readers think they are getting more than what they have to give. You is valuable because it helps readers relate to your content. Secret is valuable because it implies that the reader is getting something special that other people don\u2019t have access to. So when you use these four powerful (and short) words in conjunction with shortcut content, you\u2019ll enjoy enhanced reader engagement.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s kind of fascinating how much weight a single word can carry. \u201cFree\u201d almost bypasses critical thinking\u2014it\u2019s like a cheat code for attention. Maybe a little manipulative? Sure. But you can\u2019t argue with results; every A\/B test I\u2019ve run backs this up. At this point, it feels like not using these words is just leaving clicks on the table.<\/p>\n
Why Shorter is Better for You, Too<\/h2>\n
Shorter content pieces are better for the content marketer for many reasons. First, you\u2019ll be able to deliver more content in a shorter amount of time. Deeply researched articles still have their place, of course. But to draw first-time visitors in, you need to grab them in those first 4-8 seconds that they\u2019re willing to spend on your site. If you can do that, they\u2019ll come back for the more in-depth content that you offer (the kind that Google will really reward you for).<\/p>\n
In summary, content marketers should focus on helping the brain with its search for shortcuts with short words, headlines, and content that contain those magic four words. It\u2019s not rocket science, but it is necessary to understand a little bit about how our brains work as well as how to woo Google.<\/p>\n
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Writers take note. In the world of content marketing, size matters. Regarding the size of the paragraph, the size of the sentences and the size of the words \u2013 shorter is better, according to Nancy Harhut, a speaker at Boston\u2019s 2017 Content Marketing Conference. Humans Like Shortcuts In his book, \u201cThinking Fast and Slow,\u201d Nobel Prize winner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[117],"class_list":["post-113510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","tag-migrationwa"],"yoast_head":"\n
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