You write and write and write, but if no one reads your content because it’s complicated and unstructured, what good can possibly bring for the efforts you put in?
So, writing in chunks and chunks of words, long sentences and paragraphs are not it, you must structure the content and then optimize them for readability, and thereby visibility in search engines.
The more you can get your readers engaged in the words and ideas of the contents, the higher are the chances to hold them on-page, reducing bounce rates.
Lesser bounce rates might result in better conversions. So here are some of the relevant tips that can enhance the readability of your contents:
- Break contents in several paragraphs: Paragraphing your contents by pressing the enter button several times is sure to make an impact on the readers’ impression. It is always appealing to see white spaces and smaller paragraphs than a long piece of text standing like a brick wall. Let it be several paragraphs with not more than one idea in each.
- Use H1, H2 & H3 tags: It is true that the main headline, the catchy title, compels the users to click on the article link. Yet, it is also equally important to have subheadings to make people read through the article. It is to be duly noted that, all subheadings together must give the gist of the whole article, as most of the online readers are skimmers who want to get the idea without going through the entire article. Your article must also aim to entertain these skim readers.
- Highlight the main points: If you can highlight the main points in the article great, readers would be more than delighted to see the relevant ideas projecting out in bold or italics or a change in font size/style.
- Add bulletin points: Even if you have only short three points under a topic put them in bulletin points or numbered list. Why so? Because a couple of important concepts standing out from the rest of the text is visually appealing and tempting, which never get avoided.
- Use shorter sentences, but longer contents: Just like how more paragraphs increase readability, breaking long stretching sentences to short and crisp ones are more effective and engaging. So, the sentences are crafted short with care and precision, what about the length of the article? Articles must be long enough to cover a topic in detail with few subheadings.
- Add a few internal and external links: Internal links help to keep the reader on-site reading one article after the other, increasing their knowledge more and more. It tells the reader that we have researched a lot in the field to give this much information in detail. External links also denote that you have extensive knowledge in the topic and hence wishes to link experts into the article.
- Incorporate some visual aids: Your written content will have a triple effect if images and graphics are added into the article. It gives a content break for the readers, who can see an image and come back to the text with more energy, rather than exhausted with text after text.
So these are the major 7 tips that can increase your content readability.
Include this writing style into your SEO strategies of off-page and on-page blogs and see the magic of words boosting your websites higher and higher in SERPs enhancing the value and reputation of your SEO agency ever the more.