This post will help you write effective web content so that your visitors will read on and not bounce early from your site.  Follow these simple points and even if writing isn’t your strong point you will still start to see results.

Grab your visitors attention quickly

Most people these days are busy and don’t have time to read vast amounts of web content, they will quickly scan the first few lines to see if a post or page answers their query, if it doesn’t they will move on.  You don’t have long, possibly only seconds so you need to grab their attention as soon as possible.

Write clearly, concisely and get to the point immediately.

Write like a newspaper reporter

Summarise the most important points of your post first before delivering a supportive argument or message.  The user should be able to stop reading at any point and understand your point.

Make your content easy to scan

Avoid large blocks of text, use headings, sub-headings.

Use bullet points to break up your text so that it easier to scan read.

Simplify social sharing

Make sure you make it easy for your readers to share your content, after all if it’s interesting to them why wouldn’t they share your content with their network?

If you are using WordPress there are many widgets you can use, see my post How to add social media buttons to your blog for some handy tips. I’m also using the floating social plug-in so users can share content from the top or bottom of my posts.

Engage with your readers

What do you do if you feel a lack of engagement or understanding of your needs when reading web content, do you read on or bounce off?

Silly question I know and an obvious answer so try writing if you are actually talking to your readers to develop a more personal relationship.

Strive for originality (where you can)

It’s not always easy to do this particularly if the content is technical but try to strive for originality wherever you can as it will help improve your relevance with your readers and make them more likely to subscribe or return to your site.

Writing consistency

Try to keep your writing style consistent across your site and if you own or work for a large organization where there are many people contributing to your website’s content develop a style guide to help maintain consistency.

Don’t write for SEO but do think SEO

If you write your content purely to satisfy the search engines then it’s likely to be a dull read.  Always write with the goal of creating interest and engagement with your readers first, you can make a few minor SEO tweaks when you’ve finished writing the first draft.

If you are using WordPress I would recommend installing Yeost a free WordPress Plugin which helps you assess the SEO quality of your posts plus it offers a number of useful stuff to improve the SEO of your WordPress site overall.

I hope this post helps you write more effective web content,

Also check out how:  How to build traffic to your website