- How do I make a longer article easier to read?
- How does a contents list work?
- Can a contents list help with SEO?
- Summary
How do I make a longer article easier to read?
If we’ve got an article which might in any way look slightly daunting to read, we owe it to ourselves and to our readers to make it look more manageable. Breaking it up with sub-headings is a great start, but we can do better than that with the easy technique of including a contents list at the start. Even an article of a few hundred words can benefit from this.
How does a contents list work?
A contents list can fulfil the same role as a good abstract, enabling readers to see what they’re letting themselves in for, and perhaps encouraging them to read on. It can be included in addition to an abstract however. And in a web- or screen-based presentation, we can make the contents list into hyperlinks, taking readers to the section directly, should they require.
Can a contents list help with SEO?
A great tip in a table of contents is to avoid writing the sub-headings as dry labels, but instead to make them interesting subject lines of their own. There could even be a significant SEO benefit on offer here: effectively by doing this, we could make the article into a series of questions and answers.
Summary
Obviously I’m stretching things by using the technique in this short blog post, but I hope it illustrates the idea.