News today is fast, fragmented, and often flooded with sensationalism. Readers are bombarded with a constant stream of information from numerous sources, which makes it difficult to know what’s worth reading.
Even the most compelling articles can struggle to cut through the noise and make an impact on readers. As such, news websites need to find ways to stand out from the crowd and make their content as engaging as possible. With that in mind, here are some recommendations for making news sites more interactive, engaging, and interesting for users:
Use Images
News readers are likely to be reading articles on the web or on their mobile devices. This means that images are especially important for breaking up long-form articles and making text less visually repetitive.
Simply adding a relevant image to each of your articles, perhaps a chart, a graph, or even a photo, can make your content more visually appealing and engaging, particularly if you choose images that are large and high-quality.
With that in mind, you should make sure that your image choices are relevant, and significant, and that they add something meaningful to your article.
Mix up Your Storytelling Formats
Regular news stories are likely to follow a relatively standard format, which can make them predictable and less engaging for readers. To keep readers on their toes, you could mix up your storytelling formats.
For example, you could try experimenting with different article lengths, writing formats, and narrative styles. For example, you can create humorous articles about dark orphan jokes. You can make the readers engaged by the simplicity and humor it has.
You could also try to incorporate more interactive elements into your articles, such as polls and quizzes.
Make Your Articles Scannable
News readers’ attention spans are decreasing, meaning that people are less likely to read an article from start to finish.
To account for this, articles should be written in a scannable format to make them easier to skim. This can involve writing shorter sentences; using subheadings, lists, and bullet points; or including bolded or highlighted key facts or statistics.