Seven tips about lists

Lists are a popular form of content. There are even article hosting sites that specialise in them. Lists catch the eye, are easy to read, and are a very simple form of content to write. Readers and writers love lists for pretty much the same reason: they’re easy.

The list format can work very well as SEO content. The need for constant content as part of a search engine optimisation plan can be a drain on creativity. Most site owners come to the end of their creative resources every now and then when it comes to providing content for their site. When this happens, a list-based article can come in very handy. Lists are also great content when your aim is to attract links, as lists tend to be popular across the net.

1. Make sure it’s relevant. Lists only work when people want to read them. Think up the sort of topics your target users are likely to want to know more about. Lists of the top 10 movie moments are very cute, but their attention-grabbing capacity is limited.
2. Make sure it’s factual. An error in a list is more obvious than an error embedded in chunky content. Ensure that everything about your list is accurate and verifiable if you want to avoid negative attention.
3. Make sure it works as a list. Sometimes, site owners who are desperate to break up their content into readable chunks simply break it down into a list. This might grab an internet user’s eye quite effectively, but if the content doesn’t really suit the list format, the user is likely to simply click away.
4. Make it original. One of the bigger problems of the list format is that just about every list known to mankind has already been written. Think hard about what your target users want to know. Questions from your site’s comments section can be a good source of inspiration for writing lists. Talk to our consultants at SEO Consult Australia about how user questions can help your site’s content.
5. Know your limit. It’s true that some numbers work better than others when it comes to lists, but it’s also important not to stretch your list too far. If you don’t have 100 tips, don’t do a 100 tip list.
6. Keep the items short. Short chunks of text work really well on the net, especially if you’re not certain that the internet user will spend much time on the page. Lists with short points work well when you’re trying to attract new users onto your pages. Longer list formats work better when you know the user will invest the time to read.
7. Don’t overuse the format. Lists get tiring after a while. Their lack of depth makes them so. Even sites that specialise in lists don’t expect users to read one list after another. If your site contains a variety of content forms, internet users are more likely to stay engaged with particular pieces of content.

Related posts:

1. Twitter lists and search engine optimisation
2. Ten tiny tips for terrific SEO
3. Three sneaky tips for SEO blogs
4. SEO planning tips: factors to consider
5. Seven tips for business blogging

Tags: content, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consult

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under SEO Lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.