04 May 5 Ways to Keep Your Visitors Interested that Simply Don’t Fail
1. Your Headings are Paramount
Titles and headings are what we use to summarise our content, it’s how we let our readers know what we’ve got planned for them and it’s how we grab their attention in the first place.
Headings need to not only interest the reader, they need to communicate, evaluate and inspire them read on.
Relate your headings not only to your content but also to your visitors. Think – Why are they here? What do they need? What are their goals?
Keep your headings short and to-the-point and make sure that font is large enough to stand out from the rest of your content. Give them enough space from the rest of your content but make sure they’re closer to the paragraphs they relate to (see picture).
These are the first, and sometimes the only words that your readers are going to engage with so make sure they are readable and informative.
2. Write Your Content in Bite-size Chunks
Writing for print and writing for the web are different disciplines. When you pick up a book, you expect to come across some quite lengthy paragraphs, wordy sentences and some big old words.
Most web users will take one look at a 20-line paragraph and slip into a deep sleep. We’re not sure why this is but it’s unavoidable.
So we need to keep feeding our readers short, sharp nuggets of information gold.
3. Be Yourself!
**Very important** Remember, we’re speaking to real people here so let your writing flow naturally like a conversation. A blog should have an element of your personality in each post so don’t be too polite and don’t be too professional, it might sound cheesy but ‘just be yourself’. After all, that’s what people will respond to.
Your aim is to have people react to your content using comments or by linking back to your post (we’ll talk about this later in the series). Don’t be afraid to be controversial if your opinions support it.
Above all, if you know what you’re talking about and you talk about it with some authority, you’ll be just fine.
4. State the Facts!
Use facts and figures in your content and, wherever possible, qualify them using external sources. Back up your claims and people will know you’ve done your homework, it gives them a reason to trust you and they can be confident that if they read on, they won’t be wasting their time.
It’s a well known fact that trust is a huge factor in turning visitors into customers.
According to The Office of Fair Trading, almost one in three internet users are not shopping online, with a lack of trust in the internet the biggest reason – FACT!
5. Write, Stop … EDIT!
I’m all for letting the creative juices flow and writing content that has been inspired by something I’ve seen, heard or read about. I write in the moment and usually I get carried away. I think it’s a good thing!
However, if I published my articles immediately after I wrote them, I’m pretty sure they would make very little sense to anyone.
So, I save a draft and go and do something else for a while, then I’ll come back later and edit.
It’s absolutely vital because it’s kind of like having someone else read it. You’re not ‘in the moment’ any more so you can look at your content objectively and edit appropriately. It makes total sense, I’m sure you’ll agree.