Writing Your Content How Readers Want to Read It

I was reading a post about how to maximize the value of your blog with content that addresses your readers’ problems with possible solutions and I started thinking about what else bloggers can do with their content in order to make the experience for their readers even better.

One way bloggers can do this is to write content how your readers want to read it.

With such a focus on writing content that addresses your readers’ needs, it’s all too easy to forget that readers’ have the short attention spans when reading content online.

So how can we write content how readers want it?

Write Scan-Friendly Posts

You’ve read about this before — scan-friendly just means writing content in a way that enables your reader to absorb the information quickly by scanning the post.

A few ways to do this:

Keep Your Readers Focused With Headings

Make use of your heading tags (h1, h2, etc.) — they’re great at drawing your reader’s focus to the main points of the post.

Some readers might even scan the post for these points as a way to judge whether or not to read the full post.

Make Your Key Points Pop

Another way to draw the focus to the points you want your reader to see is to make use of the stylizing tools at your disposal.

Bold, Italics, Underlines, and even the Strikethrough tools will enable you to add additional emphasis where wanted, which will make it easier for your reader to get your content faster than if it were a block of plain text.

Spread Your Content Across the Page

While it’s still all about the content, readers are more likely to read a post or page when the page or post presents less of it.

In other words, keep your wordiness to a minimum and don’t be afraid to start a new paragraph every two or three sentences.

Add Value with Pictures

The more rich in content type a post or page is, the more likely the reader will spend their time reading it — seeing a picture in a post works like magic compared to a post devoid of pictures.

It’s visual, which stirs a reaction in the reader — if you’ve included a relevant picture, chances are the reader will react positively because they’ll be able to tell whether or not the post is about what they were searching for immediately.

For example, a post with a picture of a person replacing the brake pads of a vehicle will most likely keep the reader on the page longer than one without the picture.

It’s the fastest way to tell whether or not the post will be relevant, which is why pictures are often placed near the very top of the post or page (see this post, for example).

Add Dimension with Video

While pictures strike readers immediately and give them an idea of what the post will be about, video strikes the readers with the promise that the post or page offers more than what’s been written …  more dimension to explore.

In addition, video serves a similar purpose to scanning content — it enables a reader to sit back and absorb the information, rather than having to read it.

Some say they prefer all video and some say they prefer no video so be sure to include a balance of the two so you’re not alienating a group of your readers out.

Overall, Keep it Short and Sweet and Sparse

Forget about what you learned in school — the readers you’re writing for don’t care about classical structures …

They just want answers, solutions, and other information they consider valuable.

Do you make use of other methods that address how readers want their content — if so, what works for you?