K.I.S.S: Formatting Paragraphs
When I first started freelancing a I had a really hard time learning to tailor my writing for the web. The format really isn’t very difficult, but if you’re used to writing long paragraphs full of run-on sentences than you might be in for a rude awakening.
In short, the average person browsing the web is looking for a snippet of information. The average web article runs between 400-500 words (blogs are even shorter, most clocking in at around 300 words) and is comprised of a number of short paragraphs. Short paragraphs run 2-3 sentences and only go to 4 or 5 if absolutely necessary (and, honestly, there aren’t many cases where “necessary” comes into play).
Now, there are tons of articles that run longer than 400-500 words, but most of these aren’t 800 - 1,000+ words of pure text. They’re also jam packed with interesting subheadings, images, charts, links, and videos. Most of your longer articles have incredibly interesting topics, otherwise known as “linkbait,” and draw huge amounts of traffic.
Think keeping your words and phrases short and to the point is too difficult? Think about this. A while back I tried to teach a new writer about writing for the web. The concept of keeping her paragraphs short wasn’t something she could grasp. I was constantly editing her work and deleting entire sections from sentences. Most of what I deleted was “filler” content - words that didn’t actually need to be included in the sentence to make the point, but allowed her to flesh out her word count.
K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) applies to web writing as much as to any other concept in life. Make your statement, then move on. Your readers won’t care about the word count of your content as long as they find the information they’ve been looking for!