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Creating a focus within your article is especially important on the web because internet readers generally do not have the attention span they have for print media. Web-surfers want information quickly, concisely and accurately and will move on to another resource when a piece starts to ramble off-topic.

Creating Focus In Web-Based Articles

Focus in an article starts with topic selection. Each article should focus on only one specific topic. This maintains your ability to be thorough and offer a good deal of information on the subject without making the article overly long.  

Some tips for topic selection:

• Determine what is useful for your target audience — remember you are there to serve the needs of the reader. Your own needs are secondary.

• Choose a popular topic — but not one that is so prolific that you´ll sound like you´ve just regurgitated (or worse, copied) what everyone else has written.

• Offer a different take on an old subject — give the subject your angle. This way, you can present tired topics in a way that offers new information for your readers. An example? Instead of ´how to paint a wall´, write ´best tools for painting interiors´.

• If you´ve got a lot to say, write more articles — this keeps the focus on the issue at hand, rather than skipping in and out without giving anything truly useful. Writing multiple articles also works to your advantage: you can write several articles with little or no further research, and multiple articles get your name (products and website) out to more potential visitors. Creating a series of articles shows you as an informed expert, too.

• Avoid the overview — readers do not want to be told that someone somewhere has the information. Clicking on an article for information and finding nothing but another directory is discouraging and tempts readers to just start over with a new search. Give your reader facts and details. Don´t drive them to a site elsewhere. Besides, odds are they´ll never remember where they found you if you don´t make an informative impression.

Your effort, as is the case for many authors submitting articles on the web, may be to increase your website or product´s visibility. The fact that you are a site owner, product or service expert makes you a valuable resource for readers. But if your articles lack focus, you probably won´t achieve the promotional goals you desire. Instead, you´ll lose the reader´s interest and they´ll simply move down their search list in hopes of finding something that provides a specific answer to the question at hand.