Short vs Long Content. Which one is best?

Hi! I want to compare two content strategies for search engine traffic. The type of site would be an authority site with evergreen content (2-3 years post lifetime). I will not talk about news or content that is not relevant in future months.
For short posts, I am looking to make each post that can be read in a minute. And for long content it will be more extend contents in average 2000 words per post.
Short Content Strategy

• 300 words in average per post.
• Mostly quick tips straight to the point.
• 1-3 images per post.
• Publish: 4 times per day.
• 36000 words in average per month.
• Useful content.
• Unique content.

Long Content Strategy

• 2000 words in average per post.
• In-depth long content.
• 5-10 images per post.
• Publish: 3 times per week.
• 24000 words in average per month.
• Useful content.
• Unique content.

Which one do you consider better? If you can talk with your own experience let me know. In overall I want search engine traffic for long-term steady visits.

 

Different Expert Review:

I do both, I keep my emails short, super short. Facebook posts range from long to short and my sales pages are long my 21 pages on the last one.

Talking strictly from an seo point of view, the longer the better. In the past other factors like keyword density and a bunch of other crap weighed heavily, but today one of the biggest factors is the amount of unique content on the page itself.
Search Google for a topic a lot of blogs will have written a post about and guaranteed 8 out of the top 10 results will be pretty long. As long as it's high quality and unique content, the longer the better.

Its not an 'either' 'or' scenario. But if I was basing it on SE Traffic I would go for the quality 2000 word Post.
From my own experience, it has served me better than the short one you talk about
- Robert Andrew

You can also extend the amount of unique content by encouraging users to leave comments at the end of the post/article and then personally reply to each person who comments to keep the conversation going.
Another trend you'll see among top Google results are a long string of user comments.

 In my experience, Google ranks larger articles (1000+ words) best, and the more words the better. Articles or posts with fewer words only rank high if they have unique content with unique keywords for which there is little competition.

 If you're going strictly for organic search engine traffic you'll definitely want to do the longer posts, especially since it looks like you're in the extremely saturated make money online market.
Relying solely on search engine traffic is an extremely foolish strategy for any business though, so you may wish to reconsider that.

The problem with "studies" such as these are that even if they're well designed (and that's a really big IF), they only tell you about averages and not about you, your niche or your business. For instance, the link you shared says, "The ideal length of a Facebook post is less than 40 characters" but in my experience that's just not true at all. For instance, here is some real data from three of our more popular posts on Facebook:
2,100 characters
27,350,000 people reached
450,000 likes
310,000 shares
22,000 comments
4,100 characters
19,100,000 people reached
460,000 likes
500,000 shares
53,000 comments
5,200 characters
18,750,000 people reached
130,000 likes
130,000 shares
6,000 comments
I am NOT suggesting that others should use long-form Facebook posts. Maybe they should, maybe the shouldn't. What I'm saying is it all depends. You develop your voice; you develop your niche; you develop your audience. For some, that might be a 40 character Facebook post or a 1500 character blog post. For others, like us, that might be much, much longer. Try a bunch of things out, do what works for you and forget about what anyone else says.

For SEO I believe that the more content you have, the better.
I can prove it to you with sound logic.

The more content you have, the more "hooks" you can throw into Google's ocean.
There is one powerful caveat though...
Because if your end users do NOT read your content, and they do NOT stay on your page... Your bounce rate will fall flatter than a pancake convention.
Also remember, that ultimately GOOD CONTENT wins. Google wants to share content that people read, engage with, and share.
And yes, Google can tell which content sucks, and which content doesn't based upon these sneaky algorithms.

I agree with what some folks are saying here about doing both. Do short posts for people who are too lazy to read and long posts for people who need detailed answers.
But instead of evaluating over and over if one is better than the other, I suggest that you just focus on churning out content that so useful that people end up sharing it. From there, it doesn't matter if shorter or longer is better. As long as you're helping people and you're developing a loyal following, then you're good.
If you're too lazy to write, you can always hire a good writer. Let him take over the site as you focus on other stuff like marketing the site or managing another business.
I guess it really takes time to evaluate if it is good. But as long as people are sharing it and saying that the content on your site is good and useful, then you know that you're on the right track.

Thanks for bringing this up. Tackle each article according to the uniqueness and research of the keywords. Keep in mind that you are meeting specific needs of a particular target group. Because of this, then SEO Optimization is not the only factor.
Therefore, combine on the short and long articles. Make them as audience oriented, with a specific end result in mind, as possible. That's why we can't overemphasize the importance of proper, thorough KWR.
And remember, once you start, stick to your well defined goals (the timelines of your articles). I believe that is the biggest challenge. Consistency is key.

Google spiders words. The more words you give them the more ways you are giving them to rank you. Learn about writing themed articles and filling them with the words you want to rank for. It is possible to rank for 50-100 different keywords and keyword phrases just from one well written 2000+ themed article. Good luck. 

I use both effectively - it all comes down to content quality. Good content trumps SEO. However, I use more keyword tags than the average person. Abe Lincoln replied when asked, "How long a man's legs need to be?" - 'just long enough to reach the ground'. It also depends on your subject matter. Some topics lend themselves to more frequent & timely posts. Others need more content with fewer posts. Another consideration is your Avatar - what is the target's interest level? A technical how-to takes more explaining than advice for removing wine stains from a shirt. Start with your topic and target reader - that should answer most questions. 

Testing is very expensive if you are starting now. Because, you will lose a lot of time. So, the following dual strategy is working for me.
My strategy, which is working for me is short content.
To get SEO ranking, write short articles. Because,
1) They are quick and easy to write
2) Can cover various topics
3) With various topics, you can reach multiple sets of audiences. That is very crucial when you are starting.
Once you established some SEO authority, then go for longer ones. Because,
1) Now that you have search engines' eyes on you, you need to show deeper thought leadership

I would say that 10,000+ words in a post can RANK very well. I got a blogger page on a site that has more than 100k views now! Just a post without any social sharing, doing anything at all! As it comprises of more than 10,000 words, that page literally ranked for a lot of keywords.