Introduce your topic

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Introduce your topic

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At the top of each page or post it is suggested that you write 2 or 3 attention-grabbing sentences as a lead-in or introduction. Not only does this tell the reader what the page is about, it also tells Google and other search engines.

The “snippet”

The first 150 characters (approx. 25 words) of the introduction to any web page or post will appear in a Google search. This is called the “snippet”. (Please note you can also use the “meta-description” to tell Google and other search engines what text to use in search results. Read more in the tutorials The importance of the meta description or “snippet”, and Editing the snippet.)

The snippet should:

  • include your focus keyword (or phrase)
  • be directly related to your key issue and the words people are searching on
  • include the “call to action”, or sound interesting enough to click on.

For example, we created a post called “When faced with anger, choose to love” based on an article of the same name. Here is how the post appeared in a Google search with the “snippet” below:

Make it “relatable”

The more topical, relevant, interesting, and informative a post is, the more likely it will be clicked on.

If you are sharing an article, let people know the article is about someone just like them or the person they care about. Briefly mention the challenges experienced by the person in the article.

Include a “call to action”, for example “Read how one man learned…” or “Listen to one woman’s experience…”.

Brevity and interest

These days people don’t want to read a lot of information. However, it is also important to have enough relevant words so that search engines recognise that the page or post relates to the topic being searched on. Otherwise your page won’t appear as high in search results.

In the interests of brevity it is a good idea to edit your text to remove unnecessary wordiness so that it has more “punch”. If possible get others to also read your text to ensure it is readable and clear.

When sharing an article, you don’t want to make people read a long post before they finally get to the article link. Therefore it is advisable to keep your introduction brief and provide just enough information to create interest so that people will want to read further and click on the link.

You should also structure your page or post with sub-headings and/or images so that it creates more interest for your reader.