So you slave over an article, carefully crafting each sentence, choosing just the right words and when done, you actually sit back and chuckle at your creativity. You hit “publish”, knowing your audience is just going to eat it up. Then you wait……and what happens?……a few people read it, but no comments, no tweets, no sharing on Facebook. Where did you go wrong?
The reality is that you don’t have to spend hours perfecting your writing skills. You just need to write less, and style your content to be read easily so it attracts and holds people’s attention.
People are impatient. They want information quick, organized and easy to read.
If your subject is complex, break it up into a series of subtopic posts. Structure your paragraphs in the inverted pyramid style. This means stating your conclusion first, then supporting it with the sentences that follow. This helps readers to move from point to point, and decide where they’d like to dive in deeper.
Once you’ve done that, use the following easy design techniques to make your content reader-friendly.
- Line breaks
Feature a point per paragraph and keep them to one to three sentences.
- Subheads
You can write out your headline and subheads first in order to outline the content you want to cover. A strong headline is vital to getting readers to come check you out in the first place. And solid subheads keep the reader engaged, acting as “mini headlines” to keep them moving through the rest of your content.
- Bulleted and numbered lists
- They are easy to scan through for content.
- It’s a great way to present multiple points.
- They look different from the rest of your text, so they provide a visual break for your reader.
- Numbers are an incredibly effective way to both capture attention and to keep the reader oriented.
- Number your main points.
- Relevant links
Internal links back to your own content will keep people on your site and reading your best material.
External links demonstrate that you’ve researched the topic and want to highlight other experts.
- Formatting
Making important concepts bold brings emphasis to particular points you want to make. You readers will be able to scan through and pick out the most important information at a glance.