User engagement has been responsible for increasing conversions and brand awareness. However, it’s important you present your content to people using the proper structure because first impression matters a lot, especially online. For example, I can’t count the number of blogs I’ve visited and left just because I don’t like the way the content is presented. Sometimes the content is too cluttered or it simply isn’t organized enough, either way, I need to feel comfortable when visiting a blog. You have to keep in mind, there is NO shortage of competition and this is why it’s more important to keep the visitor on your page because if they leave because of a bad impression, the chances of them coming back are very slim.
Today, I want to speak about the importance of paragraph structure and how this increased user engagement. Within the other parts of my series, I’ve written about structure and organizing your content but left this part to its own. How you structure your paragraphs is very important because if your content is easy to read, the higher the chances you’ll be able to convert your readers, achieving your bottom line.
Let’s look at the following:
- Why shorter paragraphs are important
- Implementing them into your content
- Final thoughts
Importance of Shorter Paragraphs
Having content divided into shorter paragraphs is crucial to your success because it does help keep the audience’s attention. When you think about content cluttered together, you’ll automatically start thinking about how difficult it is to understand and engage with. This is especially the case when your content is above 2,000+ words…right? It’s important you cut down your paragraphs so each section is easy to grasp and you’re able to get your point across without scaring the reader away. I’ve visited several blogs and desperately needed an answer, but when I saw content clumped together with 2,000+ words, I made up my mind to leave…why?
My mind kept telling me it’ll be very hard to find the answer I’m looking for within this content so I would have a better chance somewhere else. This was my mentality and you can imagine how many others thought along the same line so it’s important to keep these things in your mind going forward.
The next question is: How do you implement this strategy within your content going forward? Let’s look at some ways.
Implementation
One of the easiest ways to implement this strategy is by first doing your research because it helps you come up with awesome sub-headings. I’m easily able to divide my content by having a sub-heading for each different thought or idea I have about my content. I try to keep each paragraph no more than 5-6 sentences but my maximum, depending on the size of sentences, is 10. This helps me do two things:
First, write content as concise and compressed as possible, which helps me implement this strategy. Secondly, it helps me stay focus because by knowing my limitation on size, I’ll make sure I talk about EXACTLY what I need to.
Next,
Your objective should be to make it completely visible that paragraphs are separated. You have to understand human nature and the way people read content. For example, when I arrive on a page, I’ll skim through first before I start reading because I’ll know if the content will provide an answer just by the length. I’ll even know by reading the first paragraph if it’s going to provide the value I need. However, your objective should be to have them split up so they can be seen even when skimming through the content.
Final Thoughts
This was a short post but I just wanted to let you know about the importance of dividing your content to increase user engagement. This helps readers with their comfort level going forward and more importantly, organize content going forward. If your readers think your work is cluttered then this will push the reader away, which is going to lower engagement and conversions.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Paragraphs no more then 5-6 sentences, but a maximum of 10
- Divide by sub-headings
- Visitor must see clear division when skimming
- Keep each section focused