When someone sits down to read a book or a newspaper, it is a totally different thing from reading from a computer screen. Therefore, writing articles for the web is very different than writing for printed matter. When a visitor to your website reads one of your articles, they tend to scan through it as opposed to reading it word for word. Website surfers are information hungry, but they also want what they are looking for FAST! As a result, you need to write website content articles in a different manner than you would write for printed matter.
Here are some guidelines to follow when writing for the web:
- Make sure your writing is clear and concise. Use simple language that visitors can grasp in a hurry. Reading from a computer screen can be tiring on the eyes and it is said that someone reading from a computer screen reads at 25% slower rate than reading from something printed. Therefore, the words of wisdom you are providing in your website content articles need to be simple and to the point.
- Your words should be short and in everyday English. Don’t use big words to try to impress your readers, and don’t use flowery language. If you want to say ‘start’ then use that word instead of ‘commence’ or ‘initiate’.
- Use simple sentence structure too. Incorporate only one idea per sentence so you don’t overwhelm your reader with too many concepts at once. This goes for paragraphs as well—one idea per paragraph.
- Make your paragraphs short with lots of white space all around them. This makes it easier for your reader to read and is easier on the eyes.
- When writing an entire article for your website content, make sure most of the important information is stated in the beginning. That way if your reader wants to scan quickly through your article to see if it’s the information they are looking for, they will see it at the beginning and perhaps then decide to read on through the entire article.
- Putting your important points (and keywords) at the beginning of your content article also helps the search engines. Search engines tend to scan the material before the ‘fold’ on the computer screen (the part that shows before you have to scroll down) and makes their judgments about relevant keywords and rankings on that.
- Choose the title of your article carefully. The title can ‘make or break’ your article. You need to entice the reader to read the article so use powerful words and make your title interesting.
- Use lists to state your website article’s key points. Lists are easy to read and provide the information in and easy to find format. They are also usually more succinct.
- Your article text should be left-aligned rather than justified. Left-aligned text has regular spacing between the words so that makes it easier to read.
The point of writing website content articles is to attract visitors to your website. If you make your articles easy for your visitors to read and navigate through (and provide interesting and relevant information that your visitors can use) your website content articles will be a success. And with successful articles comes successful article marketing and more possibilities for sales.
If you feel you cannot write the articles your visitors want and need to see, then you may want to hire a professional writer to do it for you. Or you can buy PLR articles in packages that are distinctly written for the web. You can find PLR articles in packages all on one subject so that you have a number of articles on your niche topic to include as your website content. Remember, the more articles you have for your visitors to enjoy, the more appealing your website will be (and the exposure you will give you a better chance of increasing your website sales).
