Writing Articles for Mobile Audiences

Have You Prepared Your Articles to Go Mobile?

Mobile browsing isn’t just budding; it’s an intricate system that’s ripe for the picking. Before we get into how to write for a mobile audience, let’s take a closer look at a few core mobile consumer trends:

• Instant Gratification: Mobile audiences want their questions answered immediately. This immediacy is prevalent in artificial intelligence which is at the whim of consumers (e.g., Apple’s Siri and Android’s Evi).
   
• Diverted Attention: Many mobile consumers use their devices to kill time or steal a moment to catch up on news, sports, download music, check their email, and check social networking sites.
   
• Travel and Entertainment: Local searches for reviews and providers of entertainment, restaurants, services, flights, hotels, etc., are in hot demand by mobile users.

Bearing these mobile consumer trends in mind, ensure your articles are friendly to mobile users with the following tips.

Make Your Articles Easy to Read

Traditional paragraph length dictates approximately 2-5 sentences. This does not apply to mobile content. Check out the vertical length of the following 2 sentence paragraph:

The Latin phrase per se (meaning: by itself or through itself) may be just two little words, but the combination has big implications. Commonly used in legal terms, per se is used to convey something requires no reasoning, no reference, or it implies it’s intrinsic.

Now compare it to the squeeze of a mobile device’s screen:

The Latin phrase per se (meaning: by itself or
through itself) may be just two little words, but
the combination has big implications. Commonly
used in legal terms, per se is used to convey
something requires no reasoning, no reference, or
it implies it’s intrinsic.

That’s twice the vertical length for one paragraph! So how do you maintain your message and the mobile user’s attention as well as provide them with the feeling of instant gratification? Help them find information quickly by using bolded headers between paragraphs as well as employ bulleted or numbered lists whenever possible.

Important Information Should Form Bookends

Mobile users will determine your article’s relevance to their needs and wants in the first paragraph. If the reader likes what they see, they may skim your article by reading the first and last line of every paragraph. Some may even skip to the end right away to see if the article will be worthwhile after all. Provide the most important information of your article in the beginning and the end of the article, like informative bookends.

Build Forward Momentum

Provide mobile users with a clear navigation route by making your relevant links stand out for easy selection. Provide 1 relevant self-serving link in anchor text in the last paragraph of your article so it reiterates your article’s main point and then provide the same URL in your Resource Box to provide the user with clear forward direction. Once the user is on your quality, informative, and relevant landing page, provide the reader with additional relevant links that will help them continue on their journey (as well as keep them on your site). For example, let’s say you’re a science teacher and you publish an article on EzineArticles.com discussing a variety of methods to teach gravity to younger students. The link in your article might link to additional gravity experiments, which in turn links to another portion of your site providing more experiments, etc.

The mobile browsing market is growing. Seize this opportunity by being ready! Ensure your articles are easy to read, provide information straightaway, as well as build forward momentum by strategically placing relevant links.