Writers have to adapt to an age of visual learning and short attention spans. Short, segmented articles full of headers, bulleted points and compact wording is important when trying to convey a message to an audience that is primarily visual.
Make Your Point Pop
Your title needs to be enticing and intriguing. An article title is often the first thing a user sees in their search and we all realize that first appearances matter. Your viewer shouldn’t be able to pass your article by without clicking on the article to see what all the fuss is about. Most importantly, this title should promise your audience a benefit—a mystery explained, an interesting solution or a unique perspective.
Communicate: Don’t Blab
No one wants to read sentence after sentence of fluff—we come for the direct answers that we believe only you can provide! If you don’t provide it, then someone else probably does. According to the Main Street Analyst the average website visitor only reads 20% of the content on a given page and has an attention span of 8 seconds.
Articles should be concise and filled with valuable information that gets a specific point across. Short articles are not the solution; SerpIQ, Moz and Quick Sprout each did their own studies showing longer articles were more likely to be reposted, engaging to viewers and higher in the search results than shorter articles:
- Search engines like long posts: The top organic result in a search of 20,000 keywords had an average article length of 2,450 words
- Viewers like long posts: Blog posts with higher word counts produced more inbound links from other sites as well as more likes and Tweets from social media users
- Concise copy is important: Adding words for article length reduces the number of shares, Tweets and likes
Don’t Be Generic
Find your voice in your copy and let the reader get to know you. One of the most important things you offer to your customers is your unique perspective as an expert and it should show through your writing. Use dynamic language and persuasive words that aren’t pushy but make sense in the article context.
Quality Counts: Hiring an Expert Website Content Provider
If your articles are second-rate, your company will come off as second-rate.
You may not be a master at crafting language and forming an appealing article, so you need to find someone who is. Whether you choose to hire an in-house content writer or a freelance ghost author, your professional should understand the goals and high standards of your company. According to the current Blogconomy blog statistics infograph by Ignite Spot:
- 81% of consumers trust advice and information from blogs
- Interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons people follow brands on social media
Break Up the Mundane
Bullet points and subheads are a great way to help the visual learner stay flowing through your page. These will help direct your reader through thought processes and keep the text from turning into one daunting block of uninteresting words in the reader’s eyes.
Visual Needs Visual
If copy is important, so are the images you pair with it and the layout you throw it into. Just like your company needs a sleek website design with a great blog feature, you will need to insert infographics, images and illustrations to keep your audience entertained. Don’t just dump copy into your post, craft it into an article you can be proud of.
Alethea M is a corporate blogging guru and freelance writer for WriterAccess. She often uses interesting facts from her article research to impress friends at dinner parties. Her husband is her biggest fan — though this may be because her writing income allows her to share in bill-paying each month.
