When it comes to producing content for the web, it’s always difficult to understand how to pitch your words. Whatever your subject, there are different ways to approach your readership. Whether you are dealing with a highly specific subject or have a blank canvas to write upon, you need to think very carefully about the language you choose to use in order to appeal to the people reading it. For most people, the questions is whether or not to lean towards the more technical side of writing, or to take more of a simplified approach to the subject, in the hope that you appeal to a larger audience.
Who Is Reading?
Whenever you produce written work, your focus should be on your audience, which is why it is critical to spend enough time researching your audience before you even type a letter on your computer. It’s fairly obvious that if you are writing something for children or teenagers to read, it needs to be pitched accordingly and of course if you are writing an article about splitting atoms, the chances are your readership is going to be cerebral enough to cope with the multitude of scientific terminology that really ought to be in the article. The problem arises when your audience may well be made up of a mix of people, but if you spend enough time understanding your target market, you should be able to create the right type of article for your readership.
Keep It Simple
Once you know who you ought to be writing for, it should become easier to know how to pitch your article, but there are some rules of thumb to stick to as much as you can. Firstly, it really is advisable to keep your article simple, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you want as many people as possible to be able to digest the information you are putting out there, and secondly, it’s probably fair to say that if you can’t explain something fairly simply, then you probably don’t understand it that well yourself! Matt Cutts recently posted a YouTube video tackling this very subject, and believes, as Albert Einstein said many years ago, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” It’s refreshing to think that this advice is as important as ever, and it’s such simple advice for us to take on board.
Don’t Dumb Down Too Much
While we can easily take on board the importance of making sure our articles are easy to digest, you should never veer away from the important aspects of the information you are putting across, even when it might be technical or complicated. At these points, it’s important to try to use technical words as well as more simple words to give the same information. There is room for technical jargon in an online article, provided you are targeting people who are likely to understand or want to understand the terminology.
What Will People Be Searching For?
When you consider using certain terms throughout your article, be sure to remember that Google operates with keywords in mind. You need to be sure you are using the right terms in your article in order to make sure Google picks up on what your article is about. Of course, this leads us back to keeping things simple, because the likelihood is that your readership are going to be searching using laymen’s terms when looking for appropriate articles.
Good luck with your articles, and of course, if you’re concerned about hitting the right notes, then contact us here at Ink Elves. We can help to create intelligent, simple and searchable content whatever your niche.
