Get to the Point in Your Online Writing

Writing online is different. The structure of your article/content is important and can turn "scanners" into "readers".

Your title is your hook, your content is the line you use to reel them into becoming a reader. So, what type of structure do you need when writing online?

Getting to the Point Early is Key

Writing online is not like a book where you have to set a scene with descriptive words. Get. To. The. Point. Quickly. Or, you risk losing the hook or advantage you gained from creating a great title.

Online writing, the format is a combination of the two well known formulas (see below). Try to follow this rough outline when you write content for the web:

• Intro -- Outline questions, problems, information you will be writing about in your article. This needs to have a bit more flair to make it interesting to online scanners and readers since it may very well be the only part of your article they actually read.
  
  Build credibility and authority here by mentioning your experience but this is not the place for long stories -- short, to the point sentences. Be sure to include targeted keywords.

• Body -- Start your paragraphs with the important information scanners and readers are looking for, then finish the paragraph with supporting info, short stories or experience.
  
  Pepper CTA's (calls to action) with well placed relevant products as images or other relevant images within your body. Use styling tools so there is lots of white space. 

• Conclusion -- Close with reminders of answers to questions or problems, more CTA's and even by pointing readers where to go for further information (whether it's your website or another.) 

Journalism Style

In journalism, writers are taught to layout the important facts of a story up front. They know newspaper readers often scan stories too. By putting the important info in the first paragraph (or first few) they hope to entice them to read the rest of the story.

The middle is used for a more detailed account of the story, interview quotes and other supporting facts. The end of the article is reserved for the least important or minor information. Things like contact or background information.

Journalism writing is like starting your article with what English class would call the conclusion or an "Inverted Pyramid" style of relaying information. (see diagram)

English Class Style

In writing theme papers for English class, visually it would look more like a regular triangle. It's a seemingly more logical way to write but not the most interesting -- at least from a scanner or reader point of view. The format means you will have to hunt for the information that really interests you.

The style works more like this: In the introduction you introduce your topic, angle and what you will write about in the body. In the body of the article, you follow through with your promise from the intro (and the title) and deliver the important information.

The conclusion is where you summarize everything you have written about in the body -- reiterating main or key points.

Tweaking for Online Content

If you are a blogger or webmaster, internet marketer or have a website for your real world business, "how" you write online is key. You want your content read or it's a waste of time. Avoiding the 5 most common mistakes and knowing how searchers read online gives us the opportunity to format our writing in a way that searchers will become scanners and scanners will become readers.