Guidelines for Formatting Your Web Articles
View PDF | Print View
by: Guest
Total views: 58
Word Count: 770
When writing content for websites, just filling in the words to make up your word count does not suffice. You may have put in excellent information and your article must be even having some interesting insights on the matter, but even that does not qualify your article to be the best. The important determining factor is how to format your article. The presentation of the article is oftentimes more important than the actual subject matter, because readers on the internet have a very short attention span and they need to find your article attractive enough to read it.
Keep your article word count between 400 and 600 words. This is a tried and tested length for web articles. An article shorter than this would probably not be able to provide the necessary information on the topic; and an article longer than this would bore the reader.
It is good article writing manners to divide your article into paragraphs. But the question is; how many paragraphs would be ideal? Well, then answer would be – three to four paragraphs are good enough. As in any writing assignment, the opening paragraph should be a short introduction on the topic, giving the basic idea of what you want to say. If you want to define the subject of the topic, it should be ideally done here. Other preliminary aspects like the purpose of writing the article should also be included in the leading paragraph.
When dividing the paragraphs, be sure to let the ideas flow in a logical sequence. If there is some new term, do not mention it in a paragraph before you explain what it is. It will be quite frustrating for the reader to jump back and forth in the article between paragraphs.
Paragraph length is immaterial. Your paragraphs could be long or short, depending on what they contain. Your paragraphs could also be one-sentence long, provided there is something with great impact to be said in them. However, it is not good to exceed a paragraph beyond 150 words. The human mind tends to overlook sentences in long paragraphs due to the crowding of words. If your paragraph is becoming long, then you must splice it at a relevant point.
Using headings is a very good way to present your article. In this way, the readers could read only the paragraph that applies to them. This will also provide better search results as search engines like Google consider headings in preference to text matter. You could use the keyword several times in the heading. This would provide you better prominence on the search results. Apart from creating a good format, headings would also help to increase traffic to your article.
Bullets and numbering are acceptable in internet articles, and are in fact a great way to represent several bits of information. They come in very handy if you have to write a health article for example, and have to write all the symptoms of a disease. One more thing with bullets is that you don’t need to write complete sentences. However, this would reduce your word count a bit. Yet, you must consider the interest of the reader also. Readers enjoy information presented to them in simple bulleted formats.
The conclusion is what summarizes the entire matter of the article. Your conclusion should ideally provide some insight to the reader, so that the reader may mull over the article even after the window is closed. One way to achieve an impact is to think of a great ending line before starting the article. When you are writing the article, try leading to this ending. Your last line does not always need to be an assertive sentence; it could be an interrogative or even an exclamatory sentence, which create more impact.
Normally, the title of the article is written in advance. But as the article progresses you get a better idea of what the article is shaping up to be. Thus, it is acceptable to put in your title after the article is finished. The title should be a one phrase statement of what your article contains. It should be an identifiable set of words, which would reveal to the reader what your article is about. Be sure to include the keyword in the title, and ideally, put the keyword in the beginning of the title. This way, your article stands better chance of figuring in the search results.
Content writing is not quite unlike essay writing that you must have done at school. You must know to write informative information in a great style. This is the first step to being a successful content writer for the Internet.
Related: Guidelines for Formatting Your Web Articles
Additional information:
Health tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to. Do not delay seeking or disregard medical advice based on information.
Rating:
Not yet rated
Comments
No comments posted.
Add Comment
You do not have permission to comment. If you
log in, you may be able to comment.
