I’ve been away in the UK for three weeks and while I was away I checked my email regularly. I subscribe to a lot of blogs and newsletters to keep up with what’s going on in the internet marketing world.
As I didn’t have as much time as I usually do to read all the articles, I quickly skimmed through the new articles that got delivered each day and either skim read them, marked them to read properly later or hit delete.
I deleted some emails that I would have probably taken time to read if I had a little more time, but as they didn’t seem critically important I got rid of them to reduce my email backlog.
This reminded me of how important it is to give your web content schwing by making sure it is compelling, relevant and easy to skim.
Most people are indundated with the things they need to do and read in any one day. Increase the chance of your article getting read by making it easy to find out what the article covers, so your readers can decide if they want to read it in more detail.
Make your articles easy to skim by:
- Adding a well-written headline
- Using subheadings
- Breaking up lists with bullet points
- Varying the format and size of your font.
When skimming through emails and online articles, the first thing your reader sees is the headline.
A well-written headline is:
- Attention grabbing
- Specific and clear
- Focused on what’s in it for the reader
- Closely related to what the article is about.
Write powerful headlines that motivate your readers to click through and keep reading. Find out more in “The Power to Pull Clicks is all in the Headline”
Use subheadings to break up blocks of text.
Short and frequent subheadings not only help keep your paragraphs short, they also help identify what the article covers and entice your reader to stop and read more. Writing your subheadings before you write the full article can help you keep your ideas logical and organised.
Format the text in other ways to keep it interesting.
If you’re listing more than two points in a sentence, use a bulleted list instead. You can also break up blocks of text with:
- Colours
- Different sized fonts
- Bold and italics.
But obviously don’t go over the top with a rainbow of colours. Stick to within your set text styles.
Wait a day or two before publishing new articles to maintain a high standard of quality.
Always have a fresh read of your new articles a day or two after you’ve written them, to do a final edit and check that you readers will be able to skim through and know what the article is about. Or ask someone with a “fresh pair of eyes” to do a final check.
Are you feeling the schwing?
If you could use a little more schwing in your web content, contact us to enquire about our personalised web content and articles services.
You’ll be surprised what a difference a little editing can make to the time people spend reading your website and the results that follow.
Melinda aka Mel is a Google Partner, Google Ads & Consultant, Speaker and Trainer and co-owner of Click-Winning Content.
Mel provides results-driven services to organisations around the world and is committed to never using an acronym without explaining it first. She also likes greyhounds as pets, grand slam tennis, cracked pepper and Melbourne sunsets.
Please connect at the links below.
