You have identified the right audience, come up with great topics and carefully crafted your content. Then you hit the ‘publish’ button, and the worst happens. Nobody reads your articles. No tweets, no comments, no sharing on Facebook. This is enough to make you depressed and lower your motivation for writing any further.
The following are great tactics that you can use to make your content more reader-friendly.
Use the Line Break
This is one of the easiest ways of making your content more readable. White spaces can make even complex content more reader-friendly. Each paragraph should be short, four sentences at most, and address only one idea. You could even have a few one-sentence paragraphs.
Use Subheadings
A strong headline is important to attract readers to your content in the first place. Great subheadings act as ‘mini-headlines’ and keep the readers engaged through the content. Your subhead should be informative as well as intriguing. However, don’t exaggerate anything or you will lose credibility. Review your subheads to see what readers will understand when they scan your post. Do they summarize the content of your post?
Use Bulleted Lists
- They are easily scannable.
- They can be used to present several points.
- Since they look different from the other text, they give your readers a visual break.
Add Relevant Links
Internal links to your own posts will encourage people to stay on your website. External links show that you have done some research on the topic. They also highlight the expertise of others. Good content makes use of both links to add value and increase your reader’s understanding.
Use strategic formatting
Add emphasis to your posts by bolding vital concepts. This will enable your reader to can through and spot vital information at a glance. However, don’t highlight everything. Emphasize the main points only so that they can be easily picked out.
Use the Power of Numbers
Numbers are a great way of grabbing attention and keeping the readers focused. A post can be made more compelling by numbering the main points.
Use Deep Captions
Research has shown that some of the most read details on a page are image captions. You could try pairing powerful images with some deep captions. Such captions are up to three sentences long. Deep caption are long enough to grab the attention of your reader and entice them to read through your whole article.
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