Four Tips for Writing Persuasive Content

Crafting good content for websites can take a lot of practice. Follow these four tips to improve your content quickly. Doing so could help improve your website’s popularity and authority.

1. Find a Creative Concept

Creativity should play a role in every piece of content. Even posts about technical subjects should include some level of creativity, whether that means finding a way to re-conceptualize common points or slipping in a few jokes. No one wants to read boring content, so do anything you can to keep readers interested.

2. Check Your Facts

Man with Magnifying Glass

Image via Flickr by paurian

Even one inaccurate fact could make your website look untrustworthy, so double-check every sentence to make sure your content makes you look like an authority. This can get difficult when you need to write posts about subjects you don’t know much about. That difficulty makes it even more important for you to check everything.

If you know an expert, have him or her read your content to find common mistakes. You may also want to compare your writing to the information on sites like:

  • Wikipedia
  • WhoWhatWhen
  • Snopes

When in doubt, use Google to find similar content on trustworthy sites.

3. Avoid Logical Fallacies

People often use logical fallacies without realizing their mistakes. Many people will not notice. They may even agree with your content despite its flaws. Discerning readers, however, will find these fallacies troubling enough that they never return to your site. Some of the most common fallacies include:

  • Straw Man—Attacking a seemingly related argument instead of the statement at hand (example: Mr. Smith says that global warming is real, but he doesn’t have an explanation for why we got so much snow last winter.)
  • Appeal to Authority—Relying on a person’s authority to make statements seem true regardless of their merits (example: Sarah says to eat 15 tacos a day. She’s a popular fitness trainer, so she must be right.)
  • Bandwagon—Saying something is true just because a lot of people believe it (example: Nine out of 10 people believe George Washington had wooden teeth, so it must be true.)

It’s important to learn more about fallacies, so you can avoid statements that weaken your content.

4. Get Help When Proofreading

Typos, misspellings, and convoluted sentence structures can make your writing look amateurish. When careful readers see numerous mistakes, they may wonder why they should take your writing seriously. This makes proofreading an important part of content creation. Always proofread your writing at least twice. Reading it out loud will help you find confusing sentences and improve flow.

Don’t rely on your word processing software to find all of your mistakes. If possible, have another person read your content before you publish. If you don’t have someone to read your content, consider using an online service like Grammarly.

What common mistakes do you find while browsing web pages? Do these mistakes make sites seem unreliable to you? Follow the four tips mentioned above so your site doesn’t push away potential readers and customers.

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