It’s no secret that creating great online content is essential to attracting and engaging an audience. But what many people don’t realize is that how you format your content is just as important as the actual words you use.
Formatting your content to ensure that it is easy to read and understand will make it more likely that people will stick around to read it. And if you format your content correctly for search engines, you’ll also be more likely to show up in search results – meaning more people will see and read your content.
So how do you format your content for both people and search engines?
Write for People First
It’s essential to write for your audience before you write for the search engines because it’s your audience that you want to engage and attract.
While good search engine optimization can help more people find and see your content, they’re not going to stay on your site if your content isn’t relevant or interesting to your target audience. So, ensure you always consider your target audience when creating content, and you’ll be more likely to succeed in engaging them.
Here are some tips for writing for people first and then search engines.
For people:
- Use short paragraphs. Long blocks of text can be overwhelming, so keep your paragraphs short and to the point.
- Use headlines and subheadings. Separating your body text with headlines and subheadings makes it easier to skim and, therefore, easier to read.
- Highlight important points. Use bullet points or bold/italicize text to call out important points or key takeaways.
- Use images. Adding images, infographics, or videos can help break up text and make your content more visually appealing.
For search engines:
- Use keywords. Research the works your audience uses to search for content like yours. These words or phrases comprise the keywords you need to include in your titles, headers, and throughout your text.
- Optimize your headlines. Your audience sees your headlines first when they find your content, so it’s absolutely imperative to ensure that they’re catchy and include keywords.
- Use alt text for images. Adding images to your online content helps your readers and the search engines find you. But search engines and people who use e-readers due to blindness or other handicaps need the alt text words to identify what the page is about. So always include alt text that describes the image and contains keywords.
- . Adding images to your online content helps your readers and the search engines find you. But search engines and people who use e-readers due to blindness or other handicaps need the alt text words to identify what the page is about. So always include alt text that describes the image and contains keywords.
By following these tips, your content will be formatted for both people and search engines – meaning more people will see and read it. Don’t underestimate the power of great formatting for ensuring your content is consumed when creating your next piece of online content.
