Websites, company blogs, private blogs, extensive pages on social networks or marketing texts – publishing various types of entries and articles on the Internet is currently very popular. But how to write to be read? Here are 5 tips on how to write good articles on the internet.
You can find a lot of tutorials on how to write on the Internet. However, most of them are created with advertising and marketing in mind. Rarely, the authors of such guides (often with many years of journalistic experience) reveal how to simply prepare good texts that do not have to be “marketing” to encourage reading or buying.
We decided it was time to break this rule and write what actually counts when writing texts for publication on the web. Contrary to appearances, these tips will not only help you as authors, but also tell you what kind of readers we are.
The text cannot be too short or too long
The age-old question of novice authors is – how long should an article be on the Internet? The easiest way to say is – optimal, that is, not too long and not too short. This very (un) helpful phrase obviously does not answer this question. It all depends on what we write about, where we write, who reads us and how much time we can spend on the text. Despite so many variables, there are still some trends in terms of the optimal length of texts.
Texts with more than 1,200 words on the Internet are far too long for most readers, unless our article is aimed at a very specific audience who expects comprehensive material. However, when analyzing the texts published on our website, I noticed that the most popular were those ranging from 300 to 800 words. They are short enough to be read “over coffee” and long enough that the
The texts must be visually appealing
There is nothing worse than a wall of text. Before we start writing, it is worth preparing photos, videos or infographics that we will add to the text. While writing, it is worth considering which fragments to highlight. We must also remember the subheadings.
It’s not just about making the text pretty. These items aid reading by creating “landmarks” for the reader. Thanks to this, he can easily find the place where he stopped reading.
Remember who and where will be reading
More and more readers use mobile devices (in the case of our portal, it is over 1/3 of readers). They visit the website at different times of the day – on the way to work / school, during a break, etc.
Mobile readers spend less time reading, so they prefer shorter texts. In addition, it is worth remembering that reading from the smartphone screen is not always convenient, so the text must be properly adapted (especially technically).
Use a reliable paraphrasing tool
Avoiding plagiarism is a big deal – unique content is very important. To help achieve this, it’s good to help yourself from time to time with some free online paraphraser like Paraphrase Online. Fast and easy paraphraser will in do some work for you in a matter of seconds. But be aware: be inspired by others, look for information, but never copy anything 1: 1.
The text must be specific and simple
The internet is governed (unfortunately) by the rule – the more clicks, the better. That is why texts that “encourage” people to read with their flashy, often shocking or mysterious headlines (the so-called clickbait) are becoming more and more popular. However, this encouragement is more forcing – we arouse curiosity, but it does not give an answer, so it is necessary to consult the text.
In the flood of this type of content (large portals regularly publish such texts) it is better to go a different way – let’s write exactly what it is about and give an answer as soon as possible. The average reader will be satisfied, the conscious reader will recognize that we do not want to respect him, and for dessert, the entry will be better positioned in search engines. The downside is that we’ll lose some social media traffic, but we’ll do well in the long run.