7 Ways To Make Content More Attractive

Every site owner, blogger, marketing specialist and the author probably know that regular uploading of new content to a site is the true way to make it grow and attract more people. No one will doubt the fact that the competition is significant today, and you need to try hard to stand out.

It has been established long ago that emotions guide people on the Internet. Thus, it is important for site owners and marketers to take that into account while working on the content. Some things make different types of content more attractive for readers; let’s take a look at some of them.

Good titles are deal breakers    

The right title is one of the most important things for engaging content. It is what makes people click in the first place. Here are some tips for effective titles.

  • Use numbers. It is always better to use concrete numbers in your posts instead of blurry words like “many”, “little”, “fast”, “a lot”, etc.

Bad example: Pediatricians revealed how to put babies to sleep fast. What does fast mean? Is it three minutes or half an hour? Readers don’t want to think about it.

Good example: Pediatricians revealed how to put babies to sleep in 60 seconds. Apart from the particular time, we have an intrigue here – what kind of magical things do they do so that they fall asleep so fast?   

The fact that numbers in titles work well can be proved. Actually, 13 most viral posts on BuzzFeed all had numbers in them. Seems convincing to me.

buzzfeed subject

Source: Buzzfeed 

  • Throw some catchwords. Such words make your heading stronger and invite people to click on it. You can use these words in the text, too (more details about that in the next point). Some of these words are weird, dangerous, mistaken, myths, touching, unique, exclusive, mysterious, etc.

Bad example: 5 Products that can harm kids. It sounds a bit boring. You immediately think of soda, fast food, and chocolate. Nothing new about that.

Good example: 5 Products mistakenly considered healthy for kids. The catchword here is mistaken. It promises your readers some new information that would help them avoid mistakes.

  • Address your readers directly. Researchers show that the words “you” and “your” are the most popular ones in viral articles. When you use these words, you seem helpful and personal. The most important thing here, though, is to make sure you choose the right conversational style for your audience. If you start your content with the phrases “I know you lie a lot” or “I know you are lazy”, but your readers don’t see themselves as lazy liars, you can fail epically. So, be careful.
  • Ask a question. Question titles seem to do very well as people naturally want to either guess the answer or just to find it in the content.

buzzfeed-question-title

Use “magnet” words

By using “magnet” words, you immediately make your readers more attentive. Have you noticed that some authors have this magic ability to capture your attention right from the start? These authors use particular words that influence people’s emotions.

Of course, this is not the only thing that wins people over, and they wouldn’t read your content only because of these words. However, if you deliver quality content backing it up with “magnet” words, you have more chances that people will notice it and read it till the end.

Maybe you know this, but the majority of people don’t read posts; they scan it. When they see something that grabs their attention, they may actually read it. Here are some of the words that have a positive emotional impact on people:

  • Attention;
  • Finally;
  • Scary;
  • Secret;
  • Information, guide, manual;
  • Success;
  • Mistakes;
  • Free;
  • Rich, poor;
  • Dangerous, danger, alert, threat;
  • Confession;
  • Incredible, unbelievable;
  • Achieve, etc.

Pictures!

If readers don’t see pictures, they most often run away (not literally, of course). It has already become some sort of an instinct of Internet users. People perceive pictures 60 thousand times faster than text. That is why every written content should be mixed with photos.

Research show that it is better to add an image after every 350 words. It is not a strict rule, though. Just add a picture on every appropriate occasion. They should enrich the text, explain or illustrate a point. Tell me honestly, what post is more pleasant to go through – with or without pictures?

To bring it even to the higher level, you can create your own illustrations for different social networks if you use them. If you share the posts from your site through social platforms, you might want to diversify the content for your readers a bit. Different networks go better with different size and style of pictures so that you can use that to your benefit.

Other visual content

Pictures are not the only thing that can make your content more attractive. You can also use other graphic content such as videos, screenshots or infographics. Infographics, in fact, are much easily perceived by people than plain text. So, if you have time and tools, you can turn your post into a cool infographic that people will share.

Use sub-headings

As it was mentioned before, the majority of people don’t read but scan the content. It is quite understandable with all the amount of the information we have on the Internet right now. People see a title that attracts their attention, open the page and hope to satisfy their curiosity quickly. Seeing the wall of text, they will most likely close the page right away and look for more structured content.

Having subheadings, you show that your text is well organized, thought through and logical; you have a structured and purposeful plan that will help you answer all the questions.

Create lists whenever you can

Many people just love to look through content on the Internet, not reading deep into it. You can use this fact and make at least some of your content easy to perceive. The easier it is to read, the more chances there are that it attracts attention. That’s why lists are so popular these days. For example, here is one of the most popular posts of The Guardian – “Top five regrets of the dying”.

the-guardian-article

Source: The Guardian

Take care of the design

None of the previous things will matter if your site has a lousy layout. People wouldn’t read super informative posts if the fonts are terrible; they wouldn’t look through infographics if they are smaller or bigger than should be; they wouldn’t stay at your site if it looks amateur. The site’s design is the very first thing to care about if you want your content to look attractive.

Creating content that people will like, read and share is not an easy job, but it is definitely worth it. The last tip in this post is not to focus on one particular tactic. Experiment, mix all the previous advice and analyze the results. Thus, you will find your way of creating engaging content your readers will adore.

sarto.will
 

William Sarto is a marketer and content strategist. He loves to tell about his experience based on recent studies . He is always aware of all new techniques and methods appearing in digital marketing. Stay tuned via twitter or G+.