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How many times have you done a Google search – or even Microsoft Bing – and after accessing several of the many results presented, in addition to not having answered your question, you are left with more unanswered questions than you had before?
Everyone – without exception – is a layman or beginner in many subjects, but it seems that many of the sites do not know this and create content assuming that people already know several things and then what happens is precisely the situation in the paragraph above.
The time has come to change that and even more, to build loyalty with your audience by creating content specially designed and created for them.
Is the Internet for experts?
When we look at the scenario above, it seems so!
The feeling one has nowadays is that there are no more sites for laymen or beginners in any subject. The content – whatever it may be – seems to be destined if not for specialists, at least for those who already know a lot about it.
And what about those who don’t know anything? Those who are still learning and taking their first steps? Or even someone who doesn’t want to be an expert in anything one day and their only goal is to have a simple question answered through an equally simple, clear and didactic answer?
It is not the privilege of an area of knowledge, although in some the situation is even more characterized, as is the case with many of the subjects that we deal with here on the HostMídia blog, such as technology, Digital Marketing and topics related to the day to day of companies. .
Many sites even manage to attract many visitors, but in the end, they return to the search engine results page (SERPs), not because the content is not good, not complete or lacks information, but because it does not consider beginners and laymen on the subject.
Okay, there may even be a link for each specific terminology of the subject being addressed, but no one wants to click on 10 other links that can link to as many others, when I was just expecting an explanation that maybe could be presented in a paragraph or two . Who knows even more, but that didn’t force you to browse through countless pages on the same or several sites.
Some will say that this is a trick to induce the visitor to browse other pages on the site and that even this is included in any Digital Marketing guide. It’s true, but is everyone really willing?
Wouldn’t it be better, more courteous, more respectful of the visitor, rather than forcing him, to give him the option?
In other words, creating content that serves both lay people and those who already know a little, or even a lot, means that according to the degree of knowledge, some will consume from the first to the last line, others will click on some links , others in none, a group will use the CTRL + F and there will still be those who will use the subtitles to get to what interests them.
Is the content of your blog or content site prepared with this in mind?
Why create content for laypeople and beginners?
In addition to the reasons that we have already presented, creating content whether for a blog or other types of sites thinking of laymen and beginners, there are other reasons.
In the 1990s, with the rapid advancement of many areas of technology, especially computer-related subjects, a well-known publishing house released several book titles and all were of the “programming for lay people” or “C language for lay people”, in which the word layman appeared in prominence in relation to the rest of the title.
It was the line “for dummies” – the layman’s English correspondent – that became famous for books with a yellow cover and that took into account precisely this audience that was excluded by other publishers, after all, every programmer was once also a layman!
It goes without saying how many books they sold of all titles. It was a success!
Implicit in this example is the first reason – to differentiate the market for books designed to teach something. But there are others:
- Broadens the audience reached – presenting content in the way we mentioned, makes it useful for different levels of knowledge of the subject;
- Shows respect – also indicates respect to connoisseurs and lay people;
- Fideliza – as a direct result of the previous one, the chances of the visitor favoring your site are great, after all, after so much navigation, he finally found one that explained everything the way he wanted/needed;
- Better knowledge of the site – another natural behavior in front of such sites is exploration by the visitor, who is naturally curious to see if other content is as concerned with informing as the one that brought him to the site;
- Engages – the much sought after engagement comes organically, after all, there is a greater chance of a layperson passing the link to another, compared to the sites of “experts” in the subject, without even having to ask;
- Information / learning – unlike many sites, which the lay visitor sees them only as specific to “experts”, ends up being a source of learning and information.
Therefore, when we add to all that we have discussed so far, a compatible language, without errors in Portuguese, with good approaches and focuses on what is most interesting from the point of view of the visitors, accuracy and credibility of the elaborated content, as well as the personality and originality of the content, reader loyalty ends up being a consequence.
5 Tips for Creating Content for Dummies / Beginners
Once you have embraced the idea, it is quite likely that you will want to know what to consider when creating content for laymen / beginners, after all, for those who know a lot, everything seems easy, simple, logical and natural.
The first step is precisely to remember that it was not always like this, although different people have different cognitive levels, that is, there are those who have it easier and those who have less.
1. Level below
Beware of the interpretation of this! It doesn’t mean that the level of content presented will be lower, nor that your visitors will be too.
When we look at lay people in different areas, this kind of understanding becomes clearer.
Think of someone just starting to learn to drive. For those who already know, it is obvious that to change gear, you have to step on the clutch, but those who are in the first class, in addition to not being so obvious, can generate a question not always asked: “but why do i have to step on the clutch?”.
That kind of concern is great! It’s great because it enriches the content. You will start answering things that other sites, other blogs don’t answer. It will give the reason for being of things. Its origins. It will go deeper than the others.
At the end of the day and despite the title, it will be a higher level.
2. Remember who consumes the content
We have an entire post dedicated to this issue: “Who do you create content for? Robots or people?”.
The true obsession with SEO and appearing on the first page of Google often makes those responsible for creating content forget that in order for it to fulfill its primary purpose, it needs to serve people.
It’s no use appearing very well for the algorithms of the search engines, if when people arrive at the respective pages, what they find does not suit them.
It even seems kind of romantic, but the literary character, style and personality in writing, but which contribute to retaining the visitor, is increasingly rare. Boring, impersonal texts, which only reveal a concern to link keywords in the most appropriate amount, predominate on the sites.
3. Awaken the teacher in you
As much as you have never exercised the activity, there is a little bit of a teacher in each of us.
It usually emerges when we become fathers and mothers, which is when the desire to make the little ones understand the explanations that accompany their many questions at a certain stage of their lives arise.
And if we think about it, they are the most typical lay people we know, just as we once were.
As they still have many difficulties, either because they still know little, their language is not fully developed, we have to resort to analogies, examples, comparisons, stories. This type of resource we employ whenever matters are more complicated.
Leaning on things you know helps a lot.
But there are other resources, such as the use of synonyms, etymology, semantics, that is, the language itself.
4. Use Google
Yes, Google itself helps to know what people usually ask about a certain topic. Not infrequently for some research, especially of the “what is such a thing?”, usually appears: “people ask too”.
Look at the type of question asked associated with the central topic, as this gives you an idea of what you usually want to know about it.
Discussion forums and sites like Reddit, or even question and answer sites, are also a helpful tool to find out what kinds of questions people have about certain subjects.
5. Ask other lay people for help
Although obvious, few turn to laypeople to help compose a subject.
As paradoxical or even strange as it may seem, asking a layman about what he knows, and particularly, what he doesn’t know about something, can be extremely useful and important to create enlightening content.
In a way, this is a return to the first tip (question about clutch), but from the perspective of the other.
And more than knowing what he doesn’t know, once the content is ready, you can gauge how understandable it managed to be.
Conclusion
Creating content for a website or blog aimed at laymen / beginners, if done correctly, can be a great way to retain visitors.
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