How to Structure Your Content Correctly

Story structure is one of the most important aspects of crafting the perfect piece of content. Successful stories are not just about vocabulary, correct grammar, interesting thoughts, or creativity. A well structured story with a focus keyword, informative H3 and section breaks, visuals, and a never-ending source of information is the secret-sauce in capturing the modern-day audience.

Well-performing stories connect the information you present seamlessly, logically, and in an “easily-digestible” manner for your reader. Get your laptops ready, because it’s time to make your next viral hit!

Title & Subtitle

Once you’ve read our piece on “How To Create the Best Headline” and have brainstormed your ideal title, it’s time to write the hook, line, and sinker. The subtitle or H2, appears just after your title, and is the second component of your article that your readers see. The title draws you in, and the H2 keeps you in. Elaborate on your keyword and article concept in the H2.

First Sentence and the Introduction

Imagine you are introducing yourself in an interview. You have a few minutes to talk about yourself in a manner that compels interviewers to look further into your profile. An effective introduction does just that. And an effective first sentence does that even more efficiently and concisely.

Clarify the focus so your readers get an idea of what the article is about. Your tone, depending on the nature of your article, will engage your readers and nudge them to read on. If a feature begins with statistics, your readers are going to yawn and move away. If a newsworthy article has a mystery-style introduction, your readers will get frustrated because they expect quick information not a novel. Readers often frisk through the first few sentences to determine if the article is going to interest them. There lies the fate of your article.

General information and news articles have a to-the-point tone with crisp introduction. Articles about personal or professional life have a sentimental, dramatic tone. Introductions for these often start with questions to which your readers are possibly seeking answers. Features mostly begin with latest trends and have a casual, creative tone that stirs your readers’ mood. To get the perfect introduction, understand your readers. And make sure to incorporate your keywords!

The Body and H3’s

The body of the article unifies the different angles you have to the subject (and incorporate everything that was laid out in the introduction). It’s going to slouch without a skeleton, which means you need to work on a sensible pattern that weaves one idea with another. Let’s say the sequence reads like a stream instead of a wave. Since the body of an article is all about explaining the subject, you might end up writing several paragraphs which could make your article look like a textbook. Everyone knows textbooks are boring. The ‘feel’ your article creates in mind of your readers influences their decision to read.

H3 headers (going along with your title [H1] and subtitle [H2]) further help organize the structure of your piece, for both your readers and Google. Header tags are important SEO-wise because they are used to communicate with search engines on what your article is about. Overall, they help support the underlying purpose of your article in an organized fashion. It’s important to structure your article with your keyword in mind when utilizing your header tags.

H3 sub-headings also give your readers the freedom to navigate to sections that interests them and skip the ones that don’t. Chunks of never-ending texts can make eyeballs go hysterical, especially the ones reading on mobile devices.

Formats—fonts, size, colors, highlights—can deal with the body's bland look. Not that you should go bizarre with bolds and font sizes that hit readers, but have a harmonious symmetry.

Visuals, Visuals, Visuals!

Pictures talk. Images are one of first things that readers see. It gives them a break from reading and adds an appealing visual touch to the article. But it doesn’t mean you include jazzy ones that are louder than your words. Insert images that can be easily related to the topic. Complicated images mean readers have to make the effort to decode the message. Text in the images is acceptable but limit it to a few words.

Now, how do you get these images? Every subject has related information on the web – proven theories, research, or studies. Almost all of them have images which have been used over a period of time – hierarchies, pyramids, diagrams, pie charts, infographics. Give these a slight tweak with colors and captions to suit the tone of your article and offer some originality. Alternatively, you can dig around for images that aren’t very common. You would need to put some effort but it’s refreshing to see an image that’s not usual. Don’t sneak on copyrighted images assuming no one will notice in the huge world of web if you ‘borrow’ one. If you are using an image that is taken by someone and is not copyrighted, mention it using an asterisk. Read all about images in our article "Choose the Perfect Images for Your Article."

Include videos and gifs when applicable as well. Visuals are equally as important in today’s modern media consumption age as written content! Choose wisely.

Call To Action 

Here’s where your article creates impact. Suggestions, questions, quotes, and invitations convert your article into a premise for positive actions. As a writer you may have written an excellent article, but as thinker who has introduced his theories to the world, your main accomplishment is to convince your readers to participate. This section may sound revolutionary, but it’s only encouraging reaction. Call To Action is widely used in marketing articles, but can also be used in features and editorials. Should your readers read the book or watch the movie you were referencing? What products did you mention? Try to use words and images that are direct and interactive.

Go forth and conquer, dear reader. It’s time to structure your first article!