How to Write For Increasingly Distracted Readers
from SmartBug Media Audio Blog Hosted by Chaviva Gordon-Bennett
It’s been a long time since people sat down and read blog articles word for word. In fact, it’s possible people never did this, but, as marketers, we convinced ourselves they did. Content best practices have run the gamut since the advent of the blog—from writing short, keyword-packed 300-word blog articles full of sales and self-promotion to writing long-form, 1,500-word blog articles that avoid keyword stuffing, focus on education, and only sell at the end of the post. Either way, the reality is that people don’t read online content—they scan it. In fact, only 16 percent of people actually report reading every last word of every piece of online content they consume. People read more slowly online, with less accuracy and less understanding, than they do when reading something they’re physically holding in their hands. They also miss secondary ideas entirely. Kids and fur babies are distracting enough, but when you’re on your phone or computer running a variety of apps and getting pinged with distractions every few seconds, it’s hard to focus. If you’ve made it this far into this article without a child demanding more Veggie Straws or a WhatsApp or Facebook notification popping up and sending you down a rabbit hole, congratulations! Read this blog instead.
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It’s been a long time since people sat down and read blog articles word for word. In fact, it’s possible people never did this, but, as marketers, we convinced ourselves they did. Content best practices have run the gamut since the advent of the blog—from writing short, keyword-packed 300-word blog articles full of sales and self-promotion to writing long-form, 1,500-word blog articles that avoid keyword stuffing, focus on education, and only sell at the end of the post. Either way, the...
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