Writing articles for your online business draws traffic to your site, builds strong inbound links and labels you as an expert, but writing articles that get read and hold the attention of your readers is where many article marketers make mistakes and lose the attention of their readers.
A key point to remember is to write articles that are easy to read. You want to do this for a couple of reasons… 1. People read all day long and the faster they can get through your document and find the information they need, the better.
2. Readers come from diverse backgrounds and for many of them English may be their second language, the easier your content is for them to read the better.
Here are some key writing tips that I use:
- Internet readers don't read they scan, so keep your ideas short and to the point. A paragraph should not contain more than 2-3 sentences.
- Use an opening paragraph that describes what your article is about yet encourages the reader to keep reading.
- Create curiosity and intrigue with your title
- In the body of your article use bullet points to help readers easily scan your page.
- Use subtitles that organize your article into logical chunks.
- Don't use big words. Keep your article at about a 5th to 6th grade reading level. This allows for faster reading and easy understanding.
- Use an active voice instead of a passive voice. Here's the difference:
Passive -The boy was bitten by the dog
Active - The dog bit the boy
If you have MS Word here's a feature that helps me keep my articles and web copy easy to read:
1. Open an MS word document
2. Click on 'tools' then 'spelling & grammar'
3. Click on 'options' and check the box for 'show readability statistics'
When Microsoft Word finishes checking spelling and grammar, it can display information about the reading level of the document, including the readability scores outlined below. Each readability score bases its rating on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence.
You will receive a score for each of the following:
Passive sentences – Are your sentences written in a passive or an active voice.
Reading Ease - The ease of readability
Grade level - Text is rated on a U.S. grade-school level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document. For writing articles try to aim for a score of approximately 5.0 to 6.0.
Happy Writing!
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