When was the last time you actually read a full article online - and yes I am talking about from start to finish? Most of you will probably agree that it can be quite challenging, and reading an entire piece of content from top to bottom is no joke. According to a research by Microsoft, the modern technology that we now have particularly our ever so reliable smartphones has left us with an attention span of only 8 seconds. Yes, 8 seconds and that’s even shorter than that of a goldfish.
Publishing new content can be a lot of work, from picking up a new topic, checking out new trends in writing, researching and proofreading, these tasks consume time (and I mean a lot of time). So how do you make sure that people are going to read your content until the very end? With millions of articles out there on the internet how do you engage your reader? Well – the challenge begins from the start!
Here are my tips on how you can keep your audience reading your content from the beginning right through to the end.
Get them hooked with your introduction - This could make or break your whole article. Providing an engaging introduction gives your readers an insight into what they will gain from reading your whole content. Create an intro that is enticing so that people will be more likely to read the next paragraph, and the one after that. Make a good impression in order to capture your reader’s interest and make them want to keep reading your piece. Giving relevant information is also another way to draw people in, so it’s important that you know your topic in depth.
Explore different content approaches – As writers we often just play with words and words alone. We focus on producing meaningful content, but it can be easy to forget about other techniques that are available to illustrate our ideas. There are a lot of other formats that you can take advantage of, you can have a little tweak on the headings, fonts, images, maybe add in some charts or videos. These formats not only give a little entertainment in your pages, it also lets your readers use their imagination regarding the story or content that you are about to tell. Always make sure you use relevant formats though, because you don’t want to confuse the readers and pull them away from your main topic.
Less is more – I’m not contradicting what I said in point No.2, I promise. Although I strongly believe that introducing different formats can help give your content life, the biggest tip is to not over do it. The overall appearance should be appealing and interesting so don’t overdo it when it comes to lots of colours, pictures, charts or videos. This can detract from your reader’s concentration, so they actually stop learning more about your content. Balance is the key here.
Mobile friendly page – Just about everyone has a smartphone or tablet these days and they’ll all using them to browse the internet. If your website isn’t mobile responsive, you can forget about getting page reads (or even page views for that matter). You want a page that is versatile in the sense that it is works well on any device available – and put consideration into the amount of time it loads up, because let’s be real here, no one stays up in a page that takes forever to load.
Finish with an epic ending – Plenty of people read the first line and then skip straight to the end so make sure it’s powerful and punchy. You don’t want your readers to think that they wasted minutes reading your article to have a useless ending. Make the end part count. Summarise what you’ve just told your audience – and don’t forget to include a call to action.
Writing engaging content can be challenging but it can be hugely rewarding too. Not only will you feel great that you’ve added some fresh, relevant and interesting content to your website that adds value for your audience, Google will reward you with higher organic search rankings if it sees you are adding regular new content.
Try out something new, there’s nothing wrong with change, in fact, change is good. If you want help on making these tips work for your website, don’t be shy - just reach out. Just give Pauline a call on 0400 514579 and lets get chatting about your content.