The Basics of Good Content Structure

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Good content structure is crucial to writing content that people can easily consume and understand. Good structure also makes the writing process easier for you! Here are the four main elements to well-structured content:

The introduction – The first sentence of any article or blog post needs to be carefully crafted to catch your readers’ attention. People should be able to grasp the gist of your article just by reading the first sentence. Likewise, the first paragraph should elaborate on the first sentence and get people interested in reading the rest of the content.

The expectations – Before jumping into the meat of the content, let your readers know what to expect. This can be as detailed as “we’ll cover X, Y, and Z now” to as simple as “here’s how to do X.” The most important thing is to prepare people to receive whatever you’re about to discuss.

The main talking points – Go through each of your talking points, one by one. Make sure to separate your content into easily digestible chunks. Don’t just write a 500-word article from top to bottom, but break it up into subsections and subheads. Also make sure that you word as much of your content in “what’s in it for you” terms. Users should feel like you’re speaking directly to them. It often helps to present a few different solutions, angles, or opinions for your main points. Give examples. People are much more likely to remember an example demonstrating a principle than just the theory.

The conclusion – The last paragraph of your article is the conclusion. The conclusion should sum up everything you just wrote about, plus perhaps reiterate the most important point. Sometimes it’s best to leave the user with a concrete piece of action he can take immediately after reading your article. At other times, the conclusion just wraps up the article. If you’re selling a product or a service, include a call-to-action in the conclusion.

These are the main parts of good content structure. Following this structure will help give your readers a good sense of what to expect from your content and will help keep them engaged as they’re reading. It also will make it easier for you to organize your thoughts into a coherent order before you start writing.

Does your business need some fresh content? Ask me for help!