Online Public Relations Services

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Make Your Content Rule The Web

Web Users are Different

You are certainly familiar with the industry expression that says: "content is king". However, you should know that kings couldn't rule alone. They need advice, support, and some public relations you know... And that's where content writers come in, that's where people like you need to demonstrate their skills and talents. Writing website content is not an easy task. You cannot just write. You have to write "scannable".

Writing for the web and writing for the traditional media are two different things. Professional writers tend to criticize web content: repetitive, too personal, lacks style, too easy and so on. Well, that's exactly what web content needs to be. The most important thing you need to know if you are a web content writer is how users read on the Web. Generally... they don't.

About 80% of the users "scan" the web pages and read solely what captures their attention. As a web writer, all you have to do is just that: make people read your texts.

Improving Content Readability

While there are some standards and words that sell, you should not throw away your style. It's hard, but the personal style can and should be integrated into your texts. You still have to write simple and concise, using short sentences and easy words, preferably no jargon. You still need to repeat certain words (those controversial keywords) and to highlight some selling pitches. But your personal style is one of the most important attributes of the web content you produce.

When you write for the web you should also concentrate on readability. You can increase readability by bolding or italicizing important keywords, highlighting text (yet do it carefully, too much will only bother your readers), writing headlines and subtitles, creating bullet lists (people do read bulleted text) and so on. Generally you should not write more than one idea per paragraph.

The writing style, as already emphasized, should be personal and simple. A "conversational" style is recommended above all. Yes, this article is written in a conversational web-style: I am talking to you. Why is the "conversational" style so important? Well because it is more engaging. The readers have come to your website looking for something: a product, a service, information, etc. This "something" is a personal need. Your job is to show them that you understand, respect and want to fill that need.

Your readers should be your main concern. Many web writers put search engines first. That's more or less good for the website placement into the search engine positioning results. But this placement is useless if the readers will not like your website. You want them to come back, you want them to buy your products and you want to win their good will and build visitor loyalty. So don't just write keywords to attract the search engines. Write for your readers: they should not be able to notice that you are using keywords.

The Inverted Pyramid Style

An experienced web writer already knows the golden rule of web writing: starting with the conclusion. You only have three seconds to capture your readers' attention and determine them to read or "scan" your website. Use them wisely. The professional journalists all over the world already use the inverted pyramid style. Web users read in what experts call the "F pattern", so web writers should adopt the pyramid style as well. A long article makes people "scroll down". But statistics show that web users do not like to scroll, and they read only the first one or two paragraphs on a page. It only when and if the information in those paragraphs is "exciting" that the visitors go on reading the article. Another reason to start with the conclusion is that you don't want people miss the point.

Is credibility achievable with simple writing means? Yes. Simple writing is far more credible than a so-called academic style and even more credible than commercial styles. Credibility can also be increased by a superior web design. Linking is also very important: it shows that your content is documented or that you encourage competition and is not afraid to let readers go to other sites.

All in one: write simple, write well, make it personal and credible, and your content will really be king.