- Begin at the end by opening with a summary of the content being presented. If there is a question, state the conclusion first then what follows is the explanation.
- Write with precision by being exact and accurate both with your facts and your grammar. Errors in spelling and punctuation can be interpreted to mean that your information is unreliable.
- Communicate plainly using direct language as much as possible. Avoid using terms that may be unfamiliar or terms that are particular to a certain generation. Quickly and simply define any specialized terms that must be included in your content.
- Strategically emphasize key points in bold font. This effectively keeps the interest of readers allowing them to quickly gage the relevance of the content.
- Use bullet points and lists to target the information of interest instead of paragraphs for quick scanablity. Studies show that 79% of users scan and take about 3 seconds before moving on, so keep your lists under ten items.
- Keep it concise, brief and to the point. Two to three sentences is enough to cover a point. Readers don’t want to fight through text to get the information they need.
- Make it readable with easy to read fonts large enough to see clearly. Use fancy or fun fonts sparingly, and only if they add emphasis.
- Use keywords and phrases effectively to insure that a user is directed to your site by search engines such as Google or MSN. This is referred to as SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Keywords are the most important tool in the word warrior’s arsenal. Keywords are words a user might enter into a search engine and therefore should also be high frequency words in the content you provide. For example if you have a gardening blog using keywords such as “when to plant seeds outdoors” or “when to harvest vegetables” in the title and text of your blog insures that it is likely to pop up in a search results list because those are phrases a user would type into a search engine.
If you are writing a longer topic break it up with subheadings. It takes about 25% longer to read from a computer screen than it takes to read the same length of content on paper. Remember that if you have not caught your readers’ attention in the first 3 seconds of them landing on your site, you will lose them. Overwhelming them with text will do that.
