A Map of the Internet – Your Potential Audience
I do a lot of my writing online – blogs, websites, ezines and over the years I’ve been doing it, I’ve learned a few things I’d like to pass on.
1 TITLES
Online writers, particularly bloggers – know titles are important, and that a few tweaks can make a big difference. The following are good things to put in a blog title:
- numbers written as numbers – e.g 10 Ways to Make a Million as a Writer (I wish!)
- A list – linked to numbers (above) – e.g. The 5 Best Books I’ve Read This Year
- Stating – to quote Basil Fawlty – ‘the bleeding obvious’! If your article is about online writing then call it that. It may not demonstrate your whizzy skills as a wordsmith par excellence but Google will love you.
- ‘Hot’ words and phrases like: secret, new, how to, you, discover
- Use Capitals for Each Word – I know, I know, it goes against the grain. But this is For Your Own Good!
2 WHITE SPACE
Online writing needs white space. Your poor visitor can’t concentrate on densely written text.
3 LESS IS MORE
Today’s web visitors (with the exception of your own good self, of course) have the concentration span of a gnat – they want it fast, and they want it bite-sized. Leave the magnum opus in the drawer.
4 SHORT AND SWEET
Online writers use short sentences. That’s it. Sad, I know, but there you are.
5 MAKE IT MULTI MEDIA
If you can jazz your words up with a picture or a video, Google will love you even more. If you can label your image with a phrase that has some keywords in it – that is better than D_photo_ 1345.jpeg
6 ABOVE THE FOLD
Try to keep the text complete in your viewer’s browser so they don’t have the tedious and exhausting job of scrolling down. That usually means around 400 words. I know, I haven’t managed it with this!