You may not know it, but writing good content online is both an art and a science and getting it right is more important than ever. Did you know that one of the top three reasons people follow brands on social media is because of engaging content? It’s true.
Engaging your readers means they’ll keep coming back for more, and when you’ve spent months looking for the best blogs and websites like I have, they all start to look the same. In the coming weeks, I’m going to have a list of blogs that have stood out to me over the last year, but one thing that popular websites have in common is they know how to format an article to get you to read it.
Here are 5 top tips for writing copy for the internet:
1. Know your audience.
Put yourself into the mind of the searcher. Consider the keywords (or better yet, do some keyword research) a person may use to find your content and include it in the text.
Entice your reader to click by writing a compelling and appropriate title. I say appropriate because there’s nothing that readers hate more than clicking an article they thought was about cute kittens only to find out you’re selling them kitty litter.
2. Make it useful.
Teach your reader something. Make them say ‘Wow, I didn’t know that’ or ‘That’s awesome!’ Refer to the keywords and ensure what you write is relevant to the information they were looking for.
Get to the point. Use simple and concise sentences in short paragraphs.
3. Hook them from the start.
This is been repeated over and over: people have short attention spans! Grab their attention at the beginning and keep it going from there.
4. Make it easy to scan.
Guide the reader. Use subheadings, lists and bold formatting so readers can easily find what they need. Don’t overdo the bold formatting or else it loses its purpose: to make things stand out.
Enhance readability by examining white space. Too much of it will leave the piece looking choppy; not enough and it seems dense.
5. Have a call to action.
Ask yourself: what do you want the reader to do after they’ve read the article? Don’t flirt with them all night and then fail to ask for their number!
Make it clear whether you want them to share, comment, subscribe, or buy.
What do you think, folks? Have I covered the basics of formatting a great piece of web content? Feel free to add your suggestions below!
By the way, if you need someone to help you transform your web content into something special, why not get in touch with me today?!