Nowadays, it is problematic to distinguish reliable content from garbage on the web. With so much fake information and twisted facts, it is hard to know whom to trust and where to look for something legitimate.
As many polls prove, people’s trust in the Internet starts to wear away. Quality content becomes rarer, like a critically endangered animal species. That is why finding something truly trustworthy feels so rewarding.
In this in-depth guide, we would like to provide you with helpful tips on making your content worth the audience’s attention. You will learn how to give the readers what they need and crave.
Many details determine whether the readers would find your article or post worth reading till the end: heading, introduction, main points, references, length, illustrations, and so on. The audience’s satisfaction determines whether your website content is good or mediocre. Whatever the topic or the industry you write for, all successful posts and articles have the following anatomical structure:
Think of your article or blog post as a living creature that needs all of the above to survive. Everything should work in perfect balance and cohesion. Read on and learn how to take care of all these aspects.
People like numbers (without really realizing it). Some of our brain cells are dedicated exclusively to their recognition and interpretation. Inserting a number in the headline taps into our desire to quantify value. Here are good examples of headings with numbers: “7 Countries Where You Can Travel on a Budget,” “10 Reasons to Start Learning a Foreign Language,” “5 Methods that Help Reduce Anxiety”.
The truth is, people don’t like uncertainty and ambiguity – it only drives them away. Help your potential readers understand what they are going to deal with.
When searching for something online, people usually frame their search requests as questions. Note that today more and more people use voice search. By repeating their questions in the headlines, you increase your chances of appearing among popular voice search requests. For example: “How to Remove Vine Stains from Carpet,” “How to Bake Pumpkin Muffins,” “Where to Buy Coconut Flour”.
Of course, they can make the headline of your article more appealing and evoke emotions. If you add words like “great,” “extraordinary,” “wonderful,” and so on, it will bring up positive associations. However, you shouldn’t exaggerate with such words. Choose one appropriate adjective for one headline. If chosen correctly, it will be enough.
Even when it seems that you have chosen the most suitable verb for the headline, continue coming up with better versions. For instance, you can substitute the word “travel” with a bunch of other words or phrases: “journey,” “go on a trip,” “wander,” etc. You can always look up synonyms in a thesaurus and find alternatives for dry and banal words.
That’s right – in the intro, you should give away what is best. You see, producing websites’ contents is different from writing school essays where you reveal your primary argument in the end. When it comes to content on web pages, you should always start with a hook. In the rest of the article or post, you can provide supporting facts, solutions, etc.
You should be aware that the audience’s attention span is very short. Readers always wonder why what you have to say matters, why they should care. Unless you tell them, their minds will keep wondering, so you should always provide the answer to the big question “why”. Explain what reason they have to keep reading your text.
Each content creator should be able to guide readers through an article or a blog post smoothly. The audience shouldn’t feel like exercising their brains while reading your web content. If you want to make your posts easy to read, a logical organization is the main key to success.
When explaining concepts, for example, start with basic information and proceed to more complicated matters. Let’s say you are working on an article about relativity theory, and you want to explain this concept to people who have little understanding of physics. Start with broad information and fundamentals, gradually moving to more intricate details.
Remember, we told you about “why” in the introduction? Similarly, giving away the best tips at the beginning of your article will help you keep the readers on the page. Form the most significant and helpful to the least important or well-known tips.
In terms of organization, creating a guide is similar to explaining concepts. In this case, you should also start with the basics and leave the complicated things until last. However, guides are supposed to consist of several steps that lead to a specific desired outcome. Start with the simplest steps and move to more complicated ones. Use headings and lists to help you organize the text and make it more readable. To produce a beneficial guide, imagine that you are a teacher or a coach who explains something directly to a student.
It is not enough to present your thoughts and ideas in a blog post or an article. To make it reliable and trustworthy, you need to support your statements with relevant research and knowledge. To accomplish this, you can provide links to reputable sources that prove the accuracy of your claims. In some cases, it is necessary to cite sources and provide proper links; for example, when you present statistical data, give a fact that is not widely known or reference other pages.
Always make sure that you provide links to sources. For example, if you use statistical data from some study, you should insert a link to the initial research instead of a recap from another website. Sometimes, it requires a lot of digging to get to the source of information. If you refer to infographics that present stats, they normally contain links to the bottom sources.
In some cases, it may be problematic to find the stat you need on the original page. To make this process easier, you can use the “find” feature of your browser. If you use Chrome, for example, press “Ctrl + F.” The search box will pop up, and you can enter the phrase or number you need to find there.
Quality website contents are thorough and comprehensive. This means that you have to delve deep into the topic you explore, not just skim across the surface. You need to include all the important details and fully cover the topic so that the readers wouldn’t have any questions left. Make your post as long as you need, provided that the information you present is essential and to the point.
It is a common stereotype that lengthy posts discourage readers. Well, your reader’s interest depends rather on the quality of the content than length. If you manage to capture their attention initially and keep them interested in a topic, the audience won’t be counting words.
Here is another truth: compelling website contents are usually spiced up with images. People like various screenshots, infographics, gifs, and all kinds of examples. These supplements make your posts and articles more lively and appealing to the audience. Illustrations help you add clarity, vivacity, and humor to the text. Posts accompanied by images are much more exciting and easy to read.
Just make sure that the illustrations you insert harmonize with your post’s tone and mood. If your article or post is meant to be serious and discreet, we recommend skipping gifs and funny pictures. Choose appropriate infographics, charts, or screenshots instead. On the other hand, if your post is informal and casual, a moderate amount of humor will be nice and neat.
Landing pages are much different than blog posts and online articles. They are digital marketing tools that exist apart from leading websites. The primary purpose of all landing pages is to sway the users to a specific action – sign up for a newsletter or purchase something. Such pages are extremely valuable for traffic-to-lead conversions.
Understandably, the process of producing content for landing pages looks different than for blogs. Here is what you should focus on:
Inventing a perfect headline with a call-to-action is a massive part of your page’s success, but body copy also requires thoughtful work.
The length of content on your page depends on many factors: target audience, the product or service you offer, etc. No matter how brief or lengthy your body copy is, you should try to make it skimmable. This implies concise paragraphs, many line breaks, bulleted or numbered lists, and headings. These elements can make even the lengthy pages exciting and easy to read.
If you add too much text without balancing it with illustrations, lists, and headings, it will be a nightmare for readers, and they will hurriedly leave your page without even starting to read.
Obviously, landing pages have to be user-oriented, which simultaneously means benefits-focused. When you concentrate on benefits, you give the audience what they look for. On your landing page, make sure to answer the visitor’s questions:
These days, it is not difficult to find bad web content on the Internet. You don’t want to serve as an example of poor writing, do you? Here we present major mistakes that you should avoid at all cost:
Don’t include numerous little pieces of information that scream for the user’s attention. Provide a clear headline and prominent call-to-action. The reader should immediately know what he or she is supposed to do on the page.
Make sure that the content you place on your page is helpful in some way. Users don’t like information that is about everything and nothing at once. They must find something of value on the page. Otherwise, they quickly lose interest and leave it.
Remember the anatomy of a good post? To remind you, it should include the brains, muscle, strong skeleton, and, of course, heart. When you take proper care of all the aspects we’ve discussed in the article, your post will be complete and effective.
High-quality websites contents should be appealing, thorough, and easy to read. After you’ve finished working on your text, proofread it multiple times, and pay attention to small details. You will surely find things to improve or eliminate. Remember that great things take time to create – be patient and mindful.
Good luck with your projects!
