Building an easy to read posts improves the user experience on your blog.
Like it or not, readers often judge your blog post book based on the cover of formatting.
Publishing helpful content is not enough. Readers need to be able to easily read or scan content to promote your blogging success.
Scanners rule.
Loyal readers devour every word of your posts but many folks scan from paragraph to paragraph.
Of course these people read a fair chunk of your blog posts but creating scannable, easily digestible posts is critical to your blogging success.
If readers scan, digest and share content quickly your blogging presence expands just as quickly.
On the flip side, folks head for the hills if your blog appears to be blocky, awkward, difficult to scan content.
Easy scannable posts:
- goad readers to share posts
- lower your bounce rate
- improve conversions
- inspire readers to comment on your blog
Presentation counts.
I learned this lesson the hard way.
For a minute – aka long time – I paid little attention to formatting some 7 to 10 years ago.
My blog appeared to be a collection of run on, terribly formatted, visually vile posts tough on the eyes, like looking into the sun with a magnifying glass.
But I turned tail, gussy-ed up my blog and accelerated my success by learning how to properly format blog posts.
Follow these tips to create easy to read blog posts.
1: Paragraphs Please
Create frequent paragraphs to break up work.
Craft scannable, simple to read blog posts.
Nothing mucks up blog posts like block-style, run on paragraphs, which are basically the blog formatting version of vomit.
Hit the “enter” button.
Use paragraphs liberally. If you overdo it in one direction, use too many paragraphs versus not enough.
I spied a cell phone blogger recently who treated formatting and paragraph usage as a vampire treats garlic and wooden stakes. After 3.5 seconds I wanted to throw my Chromebook out of the window, losing all semblance of humanity at the non-scannable, block style, hideous posts.
Paragraphs.
Use ‘em.
2: Shoot Some Bullet….Points
Pop in a few bullets.
I mean use bullet point lists. Liberally.
Add one to most if not all blog posts.
Bullet point lists add order to blog posts. Readers let their peepers effortlessly scan north to south, feasting on each point made.
Bullet point lists also drill home points of emphasis. Consider using to stress practical tips or important steps.
3: Font Frenzy
Italics.
Bold.
*Astericks.*
Even the dreaded and oft-maligned underline tickles the formatting pickle if properly utilized.
Change fonts to create a sense of contrast about blog posts. Contrast makes posts interesting from a formatting perspective.
I change fonts up to keep readers on their tippy toes. Doing so is good for scanning, reading and it keeps reader’s eyes open better than tooth picks.
4: Short and Sweet Sentences
Readers love scanning, digesting and using short, curt, to the point sentences. Make your point. Exit stage left.
Spare folks the newbie blogger run on sentence, that seems to make a point, but back tracks, and maybe was on point 10 minutes ago but now that you think about it, the sentence did not make much of a point anyway, because the direction changed so many times you’d have thought a rudderless boat was being driven by a toddler after 455 espressos while watching Sesame Street.
Yeah; don’t do that.
Short and sweet makes the point effectively and gives readers something to scan quickly and easily.
Conclusion
Visualize your blog through the eyes of readers.
Do you like what you see?
Or do you need to make changes?
Craft an easy to read blog post by following these tips.
Accelerate your blogging success by tidying up your user experience.
