Although content marketing doesn’t have to take place online — and some of the oldest forms of content marketing were print-based — most of today’s content marketing is found on the web. Whether it’s an About Us page on a website, a blog post or a long-form article, online content writing follows slightly different rules compared to writing you’d find in a printed book or magazine.
One of the first things to do when you jump into a content marketing adventure is to learn what online content marketing is, why you should care about it and what makes it different from other forms of writing.
Key Characteristics of Online Content Writing
People read text on a screen differently from the way they read text on a page. One study from the Nielsen Norman Group found that people’s eyes tend to trace across the screen in a “F” shaped pattern. They are likely to read across the top of the screen first, then down the screen vertically, looking for useful or engaging information.
To improve people’s experience interacting with your writing, it helps to make sure your online content writing has the following characteristics:
- It’s skimmable. Most people read less than 20 percent of the writing on a page. Making your content skimmable means that people can scan the text and find what they need quickly.
- It has headings. One way to improve the skimmability of a piece of online writing is to use headings to break things up. That way, people can easily jump to the section that is most relevant to them.
- The most important info comes first. Online readers want the facts, and they want them now. The inverted pyramid is the best way to organize information for online reading.
- It’s list-like. Lists are easy to skim and scan and also satisfy people’s need for information.
- It has small paragraphs. The shorter the better when it comes to online content writing. One recommendation is to keep paragraphs to under three sentences. The University of Maryland recommends fewer than 70 words per paragraph.
How Online Content Writing Is Different from Offline Writing
Although they have their differences, online and offline writing do have more things in common than you might think. Whether you’re writing for an online news source or a print newspaper, the inverted pyramid structure is the way to organize.
Breaking up your text into smaller chunks can also encourage people to keep reading it, both online and offline. Online which means using smaller paragraphs. In print, it can mean using smaller chapters so that readers think to themselves, “Just one more.”
One significant difference between online content writing and print or offline writing is that you need to think beyond the text with online writing. Ideally, the content you create should contain links, which not only provide the reader with additional sources of information, but they also improve the content’s SEO.
Keywords also play an important role in online content writing, but not so much with print writing.
Another big difference between online and offline writing is the amount of detail you can go into when writing for print. People often read print materials for fun and leisure. They read to enjoy the writing.
Online, people read for results. They want the writing to be action oriented. There’s no room for flowery language or tiny details in online writing.
Why You Should Care About Online Content Writing
Although people aren’t exactly giving up their print books and other printed materials, more and more people are getting information online. Research from Pew found that 85 percent of U.S. adults get their news from a mobile device.
People aren’t just reading the news online; they are spending more hours of the day and week online. Since 2000, the amount of time people spend online has more than doubled, from around 9 hours per week to nearly 24 hours per week.
The more time people spend online, the more time they are going to spend skimming online content writing.
A Few Top Examples of Online Content Writing
When figuring out the best way to structure your own content writing, it helps to look at a few standout examples. Here are a couple:
- Although it’s a well-recognized print paper, the NY Times has shown it’s not afraid of tackling online writing. The article “A Business With No End” is just one notable example from the Gray Lady. It’s a long-form story that’s easy to skim, thanks to the headings and the table of contents sidebar. The text is big, and the paragraphs are short. Plus, there are interactive images to break things up.
- This post from fashion blog Man Repeller provides useful, actionable information to readers on how to style a turtleneck. It’s presented in list form, with headings to break up the text and small paragraphs.
Need Online Content Writing? Here’s How to Outsource It
At this point, you’re starting to grasp the value of online content writing, but you’re thinking, “I could never do that myself.”
Here’s the good news: You don’t have to. There are plenty of talented content writers out there who specialize in producing text for online readers.
How do you start outsourcing your online content writing needs? A writing service is a good place to look. Writing services run the gamut from online networks of freelance writers to full-service agencies that provide content creation plus strategy and analysis.
If you’ve got ideas for articles but need someone to write them and bring them to life online, then a network might be the best fit for you. If you need more support, such as help coming up with ideas or other content marketing support, then a full-service content provider might be the way to go.
