Articles on the Web: Write Articles that Web Readers Will Love

Among the thousands of articles that surface on the web each day, how will you make yours stand out? The first step is to understand the behaviors and characteristics of your web audience.

Because of the fast pace of the Internet, your audience gets bored very quickly. They want quick information in a concise, easy-to-read format. There is a lot of information and resources available online; if your piece doesn't strike them by the first paragraph, they'll move onto the next.

Another thing to understand about your online audience is that they rarely read your piece in its entirety. Unlike a book or magazine, they skim between sections of your web article, quickly browsing your article for the information they need.

With all this in mind, remember these five tips for a great article that your readers will love:

1. Keep your paragraphs short and simple. Forget long paragraphs; they're annoying and hard to read online. Remember, readers will quickly scan your article instead of reading it in full. Instead of using indents, leave a blank space between each paragraph to make your article easier to skim through.

2. Organize your ideas effectively. Break down information in small bits. Use bold headers to separate sections. This will help navigate your readers to the information they're looking for.

3. Don't use too many commas. If your sentence has more than a few commas, you should break them down into separate sentences.

4. Unless you're writing a highly technical article, keep your words simple. Write in a casual tone - it will make your piece more enjoyable and easier to read.

5. Use standard fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, or Verdana. Fancy fonts are pretty, but can be very distracting to your readers. The background and text colors should look good together. For example, a yellow background with bright blue text is enough to give anyone a headache.

As always, use good grammar and eliminate spelling errors. These mistakes will make you look unprofessional and your article will appear less credible. Lastly, read your article a few times for consistency, accuracy, and readability.