How to format blog posts
Have you ever landed on a blog and bounced straight back off it again? I have… Do you know what makes that happen more often than not? It’s not because the reader has read some content that they disagree with or don’t like. It’s not because they can’t resonate with what you’re message. Nope they’re not there long enough to even read anything.
They bounce because they don’t like the way it looks. How superficial you might say! Fact of the matter is in a world with millions of blogs and websites, appearances matter. This is true for your blog design but also for your actual posts.
If the reader makes it past the homepage of your blog, but lands on a page which is hard to read or unappealing. I’m happy to bet money on the fact that they’ll not be hanging around long. They’re spoilt for choice and they don’t want to work hard for the information.
At blog post level this all comes down to how you format it. How to format blog posts is so important.
So, simple yet sooooooo overlooked. Making sure your post is easy to consume is such an important thing to do. Many bloggers miss the important factors of how to format a blog post. Making your posts are easy to read, means that the traffic you do get will stick around and they will probably even come back.
As humans we are a little lazy very busy and so we want information quickly so we can move on. Making your content easy to skim read will make your readers love you. This is why learning how to format a blog post becomes really important. You might have crafted a masterpiece but the truth is that readers on average will only read about 20% of the text on a webpage! So you need to make sure they can see your golden nuggets!
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Use images/photos
Humans process images 600,000 times faster than text. Yep, 600,000 times! Nothing makes me sadder than when I click into a post and it is like War and Peace laid out in front of me. The wall of text is so overwhelming. It’s your job not to overwhelm your readers, but to take them through your content and give them a pleasant experience. Use images/photos and any other visuals (think video, infographics and even GIFs!) to break up the text and punctuate your message.
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Use Lists
People LOVE a list. They are so easy to consume, mega skimmable and perfect to use in blog posts. People want fast content and lists give them that very thing. The most skimmable content format alive is a list, so make good use of them if it fits your topic.
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Keep your paragraphs short and punchy,
Try using a maximum of 2-3 sentences per paragraph. The extra white space around your text gives it space to breathe (and the reader too). White space gives a confident and professional appearance to your layout and it will be appreciate but your audience.
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Include an infographic
If your post includes fact and figures why not create an infographic. These are super sharable and help people process the information, as well as breaking up the text.
I created an infographic pin for my post 13 things all bloggers should do on Twitter and it has been repined so many times. You can check out my tutorial on how you can make a infographic yourself using the free tool Canva.
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Use headings and subheadings
To punctuate the lovely short-paragraph and white-space layout you now have you should use heading. This breaks the content up into sections and adds to the positive reader experience.
If you include your keywords in these headings you will also be improving your SEO too! Try to use H1 and H2 tags. So the H1 tag is your blog post title and the headings within your post are H2s.
In WordPress just click on the Paragraph drop down to see your available options.
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Use bold on the important words
Using bold text really helps your reader skim down the page and highlights the parts of the text they should pay attention to. Don’t go crazy, but use bold where appropriate to help your readers.
Whether you’re writing a short and sweet 400 word post or an epic 2-3k word one you need to bear these factors in mind to make sure your readers can get to the end of your post.
Could you format blog posts a little better? What are you going to do after reading this post to make your posts more reader-friendly?
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