Best-of-the-web content: Graphical Tips

[EGOL]

3 to 5 tips on how to use graphical layout (font, images, graphics, organization, menu, etc) to make content irresistable.

My first reaction to this is...  Don't expect to put lipstick on a pig and have people line up to kiss him.   If you don't have great content to begin with the graphical layout will probably not make much difference.

**Font... **  Use lots of subheadings.  These break up the reading and allow marginally interested people an opportunity to scan your article for topics that are personally interesting

Organization...   I use a two-column layout.  Left column is text and the right column is photography, graphs, data tables, references, videos, related content menus.    Sometimes I have way more right column stuff than text so I mix the images, data, etc in with the text column.

Images... I make it a point to have one really nice image at the top of each article.  I really like spanning the page with a wide image but if I can't find a good one I find or create a kickass image for the top of the right column.

I often spend good money on images.  A staff member here takes great photos and makes great line graphics.   I often license photos or pay a graphic artist to make illustrations.  We often spend a lot of money purchasing props for photos.

I have lots of articles that are accompanied by hundreds of dollars worth of photos, images, data, videos.  A few that have over a thousand dollars worth of this media.   I can also have a week or two spent on research and writing.  Good content can cost a lot of money.  Collecting the data needed to make one graph can require days of labor.

You need to be really careful because....    It is easy to lose money on this type of content.    It is easy to lose money on this type of content.    I said that twice for emphasis.  I have spent a lot of money on content that has bombed.

If you are producing expensive content for low volume or low value audiences then you will probably lose money.

Photos, video, data, graphs, and art will not be successful if you don't present it well.  They are not magic bullets.   So before you spend a lot of money on lipstick be sure you have a princess instead of a pig.

**Menu... **  If you go to wikipedia you will see that most article of substantive length have multiple subheadings and near the top of the article there is a small box listing those subheadings as on-page anchor text links.   Those on-page anchor text links, in my opinion, have on-page optimization value that is exceeded only by the title tag.. and that is the most important tip of this post - in my opinion.

[MoosaHemani]

Thank you for the quick advice sir!

[BobGW]

Thanks EGOL! I will contemplate and apply. Priceless advice as usual.

[BobGW]

Hi Vadim,

EGOL is very active here at the Q&A, and he simply responded to some of my questions early on in my content writing. He gave advice that was over the top in usefulness, and it stuck with me more than anything else anyone has told me about content - mostly how to write best-of-the-web articles. EGOL doesn't even do content marketing. He writes such absolutely fantastic content that lots of people come to and link to his content without him promote it

[AWCthreads]

Sorry to burst your bubble Bob, but EGOL is a hobbit.

He drums up his ideas for best of the web content while riding his unicorn across the shire.

A sighting of this hobbit is more rare than reports of run-ins with a sasquatch, the Loch Ness monster and ET in area 51.

It doesn't help that his avatar is actually a photoshopped headshot of George Will.

To make matters worse, the only footprints he leaves are pages of kickass content across the web.

[vmialik]

"on-page anchor text links, in my opinion, have on-page optimization value that is exceeded only by the title tag"

Pretty big statement  can you speak further on this? or provide a link if you have addressed this before?

To the best of my knowledge its not included in the http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/services/ranking-factors-2013/ that's what I am referring to by a big statement...

How in search engines' eyes are these links unique to Headings that divide the content accordingly?

Thanks

[KeriMorgret]

And bank account deposits.

[EGOL]

**you speak further on this? **

It's a personal opinion .  I believe that when I have these on a page I get more long-tail traffic.

Add them to your pages and then you can have an opinion too.

[vmialik]

For, long-tail traffic, definitely worth a try! Thanks

[EGOL]

Lots of my writing is done from a NordicTrack elliptical.  I put a shelf in front of it, added a computer, two monitors... then put a keyboard on top of the display.  Any post to Moz that I make between 7pm and midnight is from that elliptical.

[AWCthreads]

And the legend grows.......