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Give the content you create online a fighting chance!

With so much content being published online every day, you need to make sure you’re creating content that cuts through the noise and stands out from the crowd. We’ve picked 5 of our top tips to help you create relevant content that makes your readers come back time and time again…

1. Make it clear WHY the post has been written

Always start your content by telling the reader why they need to read your post. If there’s no clear benefit from the offset, people probably won’t invest much time reading your content.

Before they read a post, a typical person will think about “What are they going to learn from reading it?” and “how will it benefit them?” so make sure you’ve pointed out exactly how your post will help them right at the start.

2. Don’t repeat yourself

Whatever the message you’re trying to deliver, be sure that you make each point once and only once. Saying the same thing over and over again will limit the effectiveness of the post and reduce the chances of people reading the whole piece of content.

3. Avoid waffle

There are recommended word counts for different types of online content to help you get maximum engagement on your post. For example, Word Press suggests a minimum of 300 words in a blog post to make it look reputable. But this doesn’t mean you should write for the sake of upping the word count – it’s just a recommendation and a blog post with less than 300 words can still be an effective one, it all depends on what you’re writing about. The key thing here is to say what you need to say and don’t feel the need to write just to fill the space.

4. Make your text easy to read

There’s nothing worse than opening a page and seeing a chunk of bulk text waiting for you, so here are a few pointers:

• If you’re creating a text-heavy post, be sure to make use of clear headings and regular breaks in the text so it doesn’t look overwhelming.
• Using numbered lists or bullet points are a great way of breaking up the text and helping the reader navigate through the page, and what’s more, they’re great for helping the post get picked up in Google search results!
• Break up big chunks of text with images – check out our great blog for some tips on using images to make your content more engaging.

Top tip: Avoid abstract fonts – clear, easy-to-read text is the way to go if you want people to engage with your post.

5. Use hi-res imagery

Depending on the type of post you’re creating, you might not need to use an image, but it’s always a good idea to include images in your content.

If you’re going to make use of images, you need to make sure you use hi-res, high quality imagery that’s free from watermarks. You can source images in a few ways, including searching on Google – this method can have some complications, so check out our blog ‘how to use Google Images effectively’ for some pointers.

Using stock images from a library like 17�Թ����� is a great route to go down when you’re sourcing imagery for your online post. Simply search for the image, select the ‘website’ license and check out – and just like that the hi-res image is yours, with all the right usage permissions included.