Keep your content healthy and efficient. Sanitise it. Not joking!
This is the era of hand sanitisers! Along with vaccines, sanitiser is the second-best weapon to kill Coronavirus. So we sanitize our hands and even our belongings every now and then. But do you know, your web content needs sanitizer too?
Just like viruses attack our bodies, the web content and articles are vulnerable to viruses. Well, different kinds of viruses, to be clear. Our web content can get attacked by the virus of unorganized thoughts, the virus of clutter, misinformation and many more… That is why it is important to sanitize your content to crush those pesky viruses that can seriously hamper the health of the content.
Here’s how you can sanitize your web content.
- Kill the virus of clutter
- Kill the virus of haphazard thoughts
- Avoid the virus of redundancy
- Crush The Virus of Misinformation
- Kill The Regurgitation Virus
- Run away from the ‘me’ virus
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- Cut the Clutter
People, these days, have extremely short attention spans. They will not care to read any content that is too cluttered to scan quickly. A cluttered content is like a stuffed elevator – you feel breathless and uncomfortable. Reading is like breathing – you breathe in the content, the texts. But you also need white space in between the paragraphs so that you can exhale. Otherwise, you’ll get overwhelmed with too many texts.
So how do you create whitespace? How do you improve your content? Well, first of all, you need to ensure that your content has short paragraphs. Long paragraphs with more than 200 words are a strict no-no. Just by adding paragraphs, you’ll be able to create enough breathing space for your readers.
Another way of improving your content to make it clutter-free is to add bullets and numberings. Look at this article. We are using numbering. This helps us in two ways. First, the readers can skim through the content without delving deep. Secondly, it helps us create breathing space in the content.
And of course , adding H1, H2s, H3s gives the content a coherent look. And if you notice, you will see that headlines come with a lot of white space with them.
There’s one last thing that you can do to improve your content. Increase the line spacing of the content. Instead of the usual 1.15 line space, use 1.5 points of line spacing. This will ensure that the lines of sentences in your content are not sitting too close to each other.
- Kill The Virus Of Haphazard Thoughts
Digressing from the topic is a crime! Yes, it can be used as a literary device, as a subplot. But when it comes to corporate content, sticking to the topic is the way to go. Of course, you can talk about other things – but they should be related to the main topic in some way. For example, suppose you are writing about the topic – “5 Birthday Gift Ideas.” If you devote 30% of the article to writing why birthday celebrations are important, it won’t make any sense!
Another example of haphazard thought is the lack of relation between the two paragraphs. True, paragraphs indicate a new section, a new sub-idea. But there should be a small thread that connects these paragraphs. For example, look at this paragraph. We started it with – “ Another example of…” So we are indicating a continuation from the previous paragraph.
- Avoid The Virus of Redundancy
Now let’s talk about redundancy*. Redundant words and sentences are those sentences that are not needed in the content. If we remove them, it won’t make any difference. (*Look at the first sentence of this paragraph. That’s a redundant one).
Redundant words and phrases unnecessarily make the content flabby. They also decrease the smartness quotient of the content. To improve your content, it is imperative that you avoid redundant words and phrases.
- Crush The Virus of Misinformation
A piece of content becomes authoritative only if it has detailed information about the topic. Content that has wrong information will hurt you in two ways. First, the readers are much aware today. If they find out that your content has incorrect information, it will cause a massive loss of reputation. Secondly, Google and other platforms have started penalising content creators who indulge in misinformation. So, misinformation can lead to a huge decrease in ranking.
- Kill The Regurgitation Virus
There are thousands of websites like that of yours, writing about the same topic that you write on. So chances are what has written on your website is already there on some other website. Repeating the same information will do your business no good.
So how to say something on a topic that’s already been explained by others? Use your opinion while talking about the topic. Include your original thoughts. Reveal to the audience how the topic relates to your business. The topic may be old – but your opinions are original.
- Run Away From The “Me” Virus
Content Writing is NOT about ‘me’ – it’s about ‘you.’ Strangers on the web won’t be interested in your achievements and activities. Give them something that is useful to them. Add value to your content. Self-centred content never works. If you examine our website, you will see that we have written even the promotional content in such a way that people can find something of their use in them. If you still want to talk about your achievements, your company’s milestones, then write them in a way that people find these stories motivational.
Sanitize your content to remove these six viruses from it. A healthy, improved content will go a long way to help you get leads and make your business look smart.
Know more about sanitizing your website content… Contact us – [email protected]
