In an age where content is everywhere and distractions are universal, it’s difficult to garner the attention of somebody for more than a minute or two. Particularly in the online realm, this challenge is one of the biggest obstacles facing brands that wish to be seen, read and heard by others.

In particular, written content faces steep hurdles due to the nature of multimedia. With ample bandwidth, even users on the go can absorb podcasts, videos, audio and content that requires less effort on the part of the consumer.

With most blogs facing a  huge challenge in keeping the attention of readers, it’s important to look at how you can maximize the amount of time people spend reading your content.

Use Visual Aids

The biggest reason why so many people quickly leave web pages is because of monotony. In an age where video and multimedia dominate, asking people to read plain text for long periods of time is difficult to execute successfully.

As such, pinging users with content that helps break the monotony is crucial. These visual aids can come in many forms – and still require reading – but nevertheless disrupt the mundane. For example, infographics can help summarize complex amounts of content into much smaller and more aesthetically-pleasing segments.

Vary Up Your Writing Style

Another great way to ensure longer posts in particular keep the attention of readers is to make sure that you break up even written content into different formats. This can take many forms, but a few examples are quite common.

For example, using bullet points to summarize smaller and more important facts and observations can help guarantee people read what you are writing.

Smaller paragraphs as well can provide a bit more subconscious incentive to continue reading; long, drawn-out paragraphs can become all too monotonous and difficult – particularly for mobile users – to follow.

Another option is to use quotes and indentations to further segment content and provide a bit of visual difference that’ll keep readers following through with the post.

Multimedia Can Save the Day

Last but not least, consider the effect that different forms of media inserted into each post can have on the reading experience. We already discussed how the use of visual aids can provide a bit of interest above and beyond simple writing, but other elements can help drive home points and summarize information more easily.

Videos are a prime example, but you may not have any videos created or available to provide this outlet of interest. Many bloggers use animated GIFs as a way to express emotions and concepts; this can help further segment content and provide users with a bit of visual stimulation.

Whatever multimedia best conveys information for your audience besides simple text is worth using to keep their interest.

To avoid pinging users and readers with noise and boredom, varying up your content is crucial. You can do this by including multimedia, altering your writing style as needed, formatting to ensure different segments stand out, and by including visual aids to further drive home the point. If you follow these tips, the average time a reader spends on your post or page is bound to increase.