How to make it easier to read your blog
How do you make it easier for people to read your blog posts?
Making people read your blog posts can be one of the biggest challenges you face as a blogger or as a blog writer.
Whether you write for your own blog or for your clients, you want people to read what you write.
It is not blog post ideation.
It is not publishing.
It is not even promoting your blog.
It is making people read your blog posts.
Everybody is in a great hurry.
There is an onslaught of content on the Internet.
7.5 million blog posts are published every day combining all the platforms.
Not just blog posts.
Humongous amount of content is published per minute.
Do you know what happens in terms of data & content on the Internet in 60 seconds?
This table tells all
via @Domotalk #contentmarketing#socialmedia#voicemarketing#digitalmarketing#AMG https://t.co/j2zDm3l7gg pic.twitter.com/PTCs7aAJpi— HeidiCohen – Top Global Marketer (@heidicohen) July 18, 2022
With all this deluge of content, people read your blog posts only when it is absolutely essential for them to read them and if they don’t read them, they won’t be able to achieve something crucial.
Go to Google and search for “blogging tips” and see how many results come up.
How do you choose which link to click?
33% people click the first three links.
Even if a majority of people click the first three links, very few have the patience to read complete blog posts.
I’m not saying you just write points and skip the main content.
There is a way you can make it easier for people to quickly go through your blog posts.
People skim through blog posts, they rarely read
It is said that within the first 30-50 seconds your visitors should be able to make out what the blog post says.
They quickly see the headline.
This skim through the subheadings.
They go through the bullet points.
They read the quotes.
They view the pictures.
And then they quickly leave your blog to visit other, similar blogs.
Even if people don’t read the entire text of your blog post, you can format your blog post in such a manner that people consume the maximum amount of content.
Here is what you can do.
Present your main proposition through the headline
The headline tells people what your blog post offers.
It tells what they’re going to gain when they read your blog post.
It attracts people to your blog post.
It gives them a reason to scroll down and read the remaining text.
If the headline is not inspiring enough, they won’t stay.
Many people leave your blog just after reading the headline because the headline doesn’t captivate them, it doesn’t hook them.
The headline of this blog post is quite straightforward: How to make it easier for people to read your blog posts.
There is no ambiguity.
You exactly know what the blog post is going to tell you.
If you want to learn how to make it easier for people to read your blog posts, you are going to stay and make some effort to read.
Otherwise, you will leave.
End of story.
Write single-sentence paragraphs
Single-sentence paragraphs are less intimidating than big chunks of text.
Just capture one thought in one sentence.
Have one sentence in one paragraph.
Use lots of white space that gives the impression that one is having to read less.
Sentences with lots of white space are also easier to read on mobile phones.
Express important points through subheadings
You may like to read: How to use subheadings to make your writing more effective
You can see that this blog post has multiple subheadings.
The subheadings are in a larger font type compared to the body text.
They immediately stand out.
They convey to you the main point of the smaller text.
By merely going through the subheadings, you can make out all the important points that I’m discussing in this blog post.
You should write the subheadings in such a manner that by merely going through them, your reader can get the complete gist of what all your covering.
Avoid covering too many topics in a single blog post
I have seen many bloggers do that to write longer blog posts.
There is an SEO rumour: the longer your post is, the better are its chances of ranking higher on Google.
Are you writing to a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don’t).
Nonetheless, just to make sure that a blog post is more than 1000 words, or more than 2000 words, bloggers include many redundant topics that don’t belong to that particular blog post.
Even I have done that many times.
But now I’m going against my own advice.
Write smaller blog posts.
Stick to the main topic.
Give enough information.
Don’t needlessly extend your blog posts.
I will give you my own example: I never read complete blog posts on other blogs that run into 2000-3000 words.
I just quickly look at the information I’m searching for and then move on.
Make the most important point in the beginning itself
Just to make sure that your readers don’t miss out on the most important thing you want to convey to them, say it in the beginning itself.
If you feel that you need to create a narrative and then after you have made people read a few hundred words only then you will come to the main point, you are mistaken.
People may not go that far.
Hence, whatever you want to say, say it within the first 100 words
Use bulleted lists
Bulleted lists
- Are easier to skim through.
- Need little text.
- Allow you to make pointed observations.
- Are easier to remember.
Some bloggers use very long sentences in bulleted lists, which is not advised.
They even use complete paragraphs which, again, is not advised.
Try to keep each bullet points not more than 5-10 words.
Use block quotes to highlight important points
If you scroll up a bit, I have quoted from a Google link using block quotes.
In case you want people to notice a chunk of text while quickly skimming through your blog post, enclose it within block quotes.
It immediately becomes visible and catches attention.
Use images to make important points
Very few people miss images.
Insert the images around your key points so that when people view the images, they also read your important text.
In fact, whenever you are making an important point that you don’t want people to miss, use a relevant image above or below.
People may not read your complete blog post if they really don’t want to, but the tips mentioned above will help you make them read most of your blog post.