The majority of website users don’t read your content word by word, instead they scan quickly through the page reading a few words and sentences as they go. That means your site visitor will avoid large chunks of text and that may mean they are missing out on the awesome information you are sharing.
Use these four quick tips to make your blog posts more reader friendly and your blog marketing efforts more effective.
Use the four-line rule
It is best to keep your paragraphs brief. A good rule of thumb is a maximum of four to five lines of text. This means breaking your paragraphs up into smaller thoughts that are easier to read on-line. Ideally aim for one thought per paragraph.
Use meaningful subtitles
Break up the flow of the text in your blog post by using meaningful subtitles. Don’t use silly or clever subtitles that don’t have an obvious relationship to the topic. Subtitles allow site visitors to quickly scan through the article and find the parts that most interest them, so make sure they are relevant to the content.
Use bullets
Bullets are a great way to break down your thoughts into a more manageable size for your website visitor. Again this allows the reader to focus on the small thoughts that they are interested in.
Highlight important words
Use hyperlinks or bold the important words in your blog post. Highlighting the keywords will make your thoughts stand out on the page and catch the reader’s attention. Make sure the words you are highlighting are actually important and helpful. Too often I see words like only, before and now highlighted and these words don’t really help a visitor identify or learn from your content.
Remember these tips for your next blog post and you won’t send your blog visitors bouncing away because they are overwhelmed by the text. Have other tips on how to get your blog posts read? Share them in the comments!
