Content writing for personal, professional and business websites can be a challenging task, and just because someone has years of experience in print journalism does not mean that he/she is prepared to write effectively for the web. A new book entitled Audience, Relevance and Search explores the factors that make content writing stand apart from traditional journalism. One of the biggest differences is the nature of an online audience. In print journalism, readers hand over much more control to authors, as they absorb the contents of a book in isolation from other material. In other words, it?s much easier to click your mouse and browse away from one website to another in search of a more compelling read than it is to do this with printed articles or books.</p> <p>As such, content writers must be prepared to write in a fresh and engaging manner if they are to stand out from the crowd. It is estimated that an average reader can scan around 250 words per minute. Audience, Relevance and Search suggests that online readers spend 82% less time going through any single article than they would with printed material. As such, content writers must be able to convey key information to readers who will likely spend less than a minute reading their work before moving on.</p> <p>The web is not generally the place to publish long-winded, elusive philosophical prose. Online readers are looking for nuggets of information that they can glean quickly. The first few sentences of any article must clearly indicate what the content writer is arguing and provide an incentive to read on.</p> <p>But there is another even more significant difference between online freelancers and print journalists?content writers must not only keep the whims of human readers in mind, but also the algorithms of online search engines. An article, blog post or any other material written by content writers must come up prominently in search engines if it is to be found at all by readers. As such, sprinkling popular keywords throughout the article is as much a duty of a skilled content writer as is writing in a clear, concise and compelling manner.