In writing web content, you must be able to capture the readers’ interests, and this can be a little challenging to do. We’re in an age where people’s attention span is very short, so they don’t spend so much time on a website anymore.
You only have a few seconds to convince them to stick to your website. If you want to beat the odds, then you need to make your web writing top-notch. When you write good content optimized for Google and the web, you’ll be more visible on the search engine, and you’ll be able to grab the reader’s attention.
If you’re going to be successful writing for the web, then there are certain principles marked by dissertation-service.org that you have to follow. Some of these are discussed briefly in this article.
Know your audience
This is one of the first things you need to have in mind when creating your web content. This sounds simple and straightforward, but many people can put things down on paper or with a keyboard. So before you start to draft your content, you must know who your primary audience is. Are there other secondary audiences that can influence your primary audiences? Knowing your audience will help you create the kind of content that they want.
Go straight to the point
Your web content shouldn’t just be simple and straightforward; it must also be straight to the point. Don’t beat about the bush before you mention the who, where, how, what, and why of the content. Remember that you don’t have all the time to win them over. They won’t stay around for so long, so you must win them over from the start of the article with good points.
Use active voice
Passive words never come out well on web articles. You must write in active tenses from start to finish. It exudes confidence in what you’re writing, while passive words come out as timid. Active words are more direct and help you to create reader-friendly and concise sentences.
Avoid grammatical and spelling errors
You shouldn’t make your audience struggle to understand what you are saying with poor grammar and spelling errors. Your readers will spot these mistakes from miles away, and if it’s littered around your content, they’ll exit your website in no time. So be sure that your spellings are accurate and your grammars are correct. Writing near-accurate web content is essential to keep your readers on your website.
Write simple and short sentences
Readers these days have a very short attention span. They don’t want to read sentences that span more than 35 words. To be fair, sentences with 35 words are long and can be hard to read. You must make your sentences very short, between 15 to 20 words, or even shorter. Also, use simple words that are easy to relate to. This makes it easy for readers to comprehend your writing. It’ll be more effective and exciting for them to read.
Make your text scannable
Create an outline for your text such that it’s scannable. Most times, web readers just scan a web page in search of specific information. So, if you don’t create your content such that they can scheme or scan through with ease to find what they’re looking for, they’ll exit your website. Rather than creating a block of texts, use numerical or bulleted lists and organize your content into tabs. Make sure to use enough white space on your website so that the page is more readable. Divide the whole content into different sections with subheadings.
Add multimedia
Most times, the text doesn’t cut it for your audience. They need to see pictures, images, videos, graphs, and charts, etc., to illustrate what you’re saying. The human brain also assimilates more information and does it much faster when it’s visual than textual. This is even more important if you’re writing on a complex and challenging topic. Thankfully, there are a lot of tools that you can use to create the graphics that you need.
Mix your words
Many people don’t realize that everyone has their favorite words – both the writers and readers. However, if you’re going to keep your readers’ attention, you need to use a good variety of words. You could use word clouds to vary the choice of words that you use to keep things interesting.
Use the right headlines
One of the most underrated parts of an article is the headline. It can either make or mar your work as a web writer. It’s the first thing that the readers see, and it determines whether they open the article. It’s the part of the article that is shared, from emails to social media, webpages, etc. If you can create a good headline, you’ll likely get more people to read your works.
Take away the jargon
You might be writing your web content for people within a specific industry or niche, but you must put in mind that the web isn’t for specific people; it’s for everybody. Some people might need your content but aren’t specifically in that industry or aren’t technical experts. If your work contains too much jargon, they won’t be able to relate to it, and it won’t be as valuable to them as it should be.
Conclusion
There are many things that you have to not if you’re writing for the web. To be successful, you need to keep to these fundamental principles, and your work will be more effective.
