A Guide to Writing Your Web Content – Part Two: Introductions

Our first guide to writing web content focussed on writing headlines that would grab the attention of your target audience. Here we go beyond the headline and focus on writing an introduction that grips and informs your audience about what they will get from reading on.

When writing an introduction you are casting a line to hook your audience, to keep them on that page of your website and reel them in, offering the potential of converting them to a customer.  Our key considerations will help you consider the statements you make and how to expand on them to ensure your content gets read.

Key Considerations When Writing An Intro

What is an Introduction?

An introduction typically consists of three things:

  • An introductory sentence that makes a claim or states a point of view
  • An attention grabbing statement
  • Supporting sentences that provide background information to support your claims
What makes an Introduction interesting?

There are several ways you can engage readers in order to keep them on your site, below are several suggestions of how to hook your reader and keep them reading.

  •  Offering up an interesting fact that your readers haven’t heard before
  • Creating suspense by starting with a cliff hanger that is bound to keep your audience wanting to know more
  • Making it anecdotal by offering a humorous snippet from your day to day life or poignant element related to your niche market
  • Asking your audience a worthwhile question that they’ll want answers to
  • Being slightly controversial can ensure your audience reads on, if only to argue their point against you
  • Using a poignant quote that applies to your content
What makes a reader read on?

Ensuring your introduction flows and maintains momentum.

That means, keep it simple and easy to read. If those first introductory sentences are packed full of jargon your audience won’t understand, they will leave your site to find what they are looking for elsewhere.

Your introduction needs to build on the emotion and energy generated by your headline and any sub headlines. Expanding on the dominant message initially outlined will give your audience a feel for what they can expect from reading your article.

Writing an Introduction:

You can only write an introduction when you explicitly know and understand the form your article will take.

That means you can fully summarise the position you have taken in your article. This often only happens once you’ve written the copy – which means, writing an introduction is often best completed once the entire article has been finished!

Internet Marketing Marlow

Next time in our ‘A Guide to Writing your Web Content’ series, we will look at making use of sub-headings. Sub headers make content scannable, allowing readers to assess whether reading your article will be beneficial to them. If you’re looking for help with writing or optimising web content get in touch with Web Design High Wycombe on 01494 356 778, we offer various packages from optimising copy for search engines to full SEO copywriting.