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Web Moves Blog

Web Moves News and Information

19
Aug
2008

How To Write Articles That Will Make Your Site Stickier

There’s one thing you must admit if you want to have a stickier blog or site: most people don’t have the patience to read large blocks of text.

Pay attention to your own online reading habits. How do you react when you see long paragraphs? Don’t you feel discouraged to read on? Don’t you prefer reading shorter paragraphs? Even if you do feel comfortable reading long blocks of text, keep in mind that you’re the exception. The general Internet audience has different tastes. And in order to succeed as a webmaster or blogger, you must take into consideration the browsing and reading preferences of your visitors.

Tips to break your articles into short pieces of text

1. As stated above, short paragraphs are what most people prefer reading. Therefore, when writing articles, watch their paragraphs’ length. No need to overdo this though — you don’t want to turn every single sentence into a new paragraph.

2. Use subheadings, just like I did above (and like I’ll do below too). They will divide your texts into smaller sections and hep your readers scan your articles and perhaps spot the parts they’re more interested in.

3. Use either bullet points or numbered lists to display and organise your content. Yes, I’m doing it right now.

4. If a post is becoming too long, divide it into smaller posts and turn it into an article series. Always remember that article series are a great way to generate repeat traffic. When your visitors like part 1, they’ll come back to read parts 2, 3, 4, 5…

What if you never cared about article writing structure before?

It’s never too late to start. From now on, make a conscious effort to help your readers scan your texts: divide your written content into small pieces, as much as possible. Turn this into a writing habit of yours. I know many people detest changing habits, but trust me: it’s for your own good. Eventually you will get used to lists, subheading and the such.

You also must decide what to do about your older articles. If your site or blog doesn’t contain too much written content as of now, I recommend that you rewrite all existing pieces to fix their structure. But if your site already hosts a vast article archive, try at least rewriting the most important ones.