Creating Great Content for Your Blog or Business
by Dawn-Reneé Rice
Have you ever visited a web page filled with boring, blocky content? Or checked out someone’s blog only to find it was one HUGE paragraph with line after line of text—no pictures or formatting?
Are you struggling to write blog posts or web content for your business, but aren’t sure how to give it pizazz?
Making your content pop is easy. With only a few tweaks to add visuals and formatting, you’ll have a recipe for great content that grabs–and keeps–your readers’ attention!
So, what does it take to make your content engaging and readable?
Format Written Content
Formatting your text involves “highlighting” areas in your content to stand out. Use bold, italics, and underline options throughout your content to grab attention. For example, use the bold option on links you want your reader to click on–like the links that take them to your blog or services page.
Draw attention to headlines or subheadings using underline and italics so they stand out from the bulk of your content. Bullet points and numbering are also great visual formatting tools. Use them when you want to create a list:
1. Products
2. Services
3. How-to Steps or
4. Facts & Figures
Formatting draws the eye in, breaks up content, and makes your text easier to read–especially on a mobile phone. And remember, use formatting sparingly–a little goes a long way! You want to draw attention to the key points and most important information, not overwhelm your reader.
Add Visual Content
In today’s world, people are much more visual-minded. We’re also extremely busy. So not only do we want quick and easy text to read (with formatting to highlight the main points of the text), we also like pictures. Just think about what draws your attention when you visit Facebook or your favorite news site. The pictures, photos, and graphics are all major eye-catchers.
Add a relevant photo at the beginning of your blog post, and one or two more throughout your post depending on its length. Infographics are also a great tool for illustrating a point or providing information in a fun, visual way. Also, instead of bullet points, you can use photos or pictures and include the bullet point content as captions.
Creating content that pops is EASY. It takes just a little time and minimal effort to create a blog post, web content, or marketing copy with engaging features like bold text, bullet points, and colorful visuals.
Think of your blog, web page, or document as a canvas, and the text as your painting. Formatting and visuals are the extra touches (like highlighting and shadowing) that really make your painting come to life.
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Dawn-Reneé Rice provides content writing services for publications, web designers, marketing agencies, and businesses. Follow her blog at www.contentbydawn.com and receive writing tips about content writing, blogging, and how to write better.
