That sounds silly… why wouldn’t a blog be readable, right? It’s a blog; you read it, pretty simple, right? Well, the point I am making is that it should be reader friendly. You take the time to put valuable content on your website, make the SEO efforts to drive traffic to your website and land them on a specific blog or page on your website, you want them to stay there and read or wander your site, right? So, be sure when they get there that they find what they are looking for, easily and your website is visually appealing.
You got them there, now keep them there
Once you have visitors landing on your website, you want to be sure the content on your website, to include your blogs are reader friendly so they will stay. If they are confused or look at your content as just words on a page that they will have to read the whole thing to get the gist of what you are saying, you will lose them.
So how do you keep them there?
Readers want to be able to skim the page and look for things that apply directly to them or to their situation and business. Not everything you write will be 100% necessary for 100% of the folks that land on that given page. So, what you have to do is make it to where they can skim for what is important to them.
- Photos and graphics that apply to the text will help tell the story and thus can advise the reader what that section is about. Should they determine that it is applicable; they will read and continue reading.
- Break your sections out with titles or headings. This helps break up long paragraphs of writing in a simpler way than just a paragraph break, plus, you provide a separation between the points and tell them what the next paragraph will be about.
- Keep in mind that using header tags <h2> is also a great way to pre-format (size and font) your text by using styles in your word processing.
- Plus, it’s great for search engine optimization as well.
- Utilize bulleted or numbered lists so they can read the items and see some sort of separation between the points and they know if they read the first few words that the bullet will continue about that same theme. Like this bullet is about bulleted lists, you got that from the first few words.
- Utilize bold, italics or underlines to emphasize your main points, however, be very careful not to overdo this. Keep in mind that underlining is usually associated with links so I would be less inclined to use underlines over bold or italics.
- Similarly, using colored text can be used to draw eyes to certain keywords. Keep in mind that this needs to be done to a minimum as too many colors or actions going on within your text can confuse the eyes and you could lose the reader.
Give them more
Should you have a blog or content that could be clarified or explained, you may not want to do it on that blog, but maybe you already did in another blog. This is a great opportunity to provide them with that additional information via an internal link to that other blog or service. By the way, this is great for search engine optimization too!
Provide a call to action
Clearly you have a point of having them on a website, be sure they can easily find your contact information and know what you are offering them as far as services or products so they can act on that information. Nothing like having great content and letting the reader just leave or worse, that they have to search to find out how to contact you.
I hope these ideas have been helpful for understanding the reader as well as providing additional value on your website for the search engines. Should you have further questions about website readability and functionality of your website or search engine optimization I provide 1-on-1 consultations for you to DIY (do it yourself) as well as classes, or I offer these services to do it for you. However, should you have further questions; I would love to hear from you. Contact me to so I can help you.
~Kristen
It’s a very nice summary of how to make your blog posts easy to navigate and read. People just don’t want to read a bunch of undifferentiated paragraphs!
You got that right Beth! It gets mundane!
Great advice. You can write the best blog but if it’s too busy or all bunched into one overgrown paragraph people may shy away. Separating into parts with bold faced titles etc will break it up and make it easier to read. Plus as you said only some of the blog may apply to different readers so will give them the chance to read what applies and get great value. This in turn may make them take action and stay on your site
That’s right Mike. Thanks for noticing. We all have different interests and are in different aspects of our business so some things will apply more to some.
Great tips!
I naturally like to write in lists, bullets and tips in “chunks”, but I like some of the other ideas as well — adding more graphic elements and color are things I will incorporate in the future. Thanks!
That’s great Cathy! People like lists and bullets. You are doing great then. You are welcome!
I was thrilled when I mastered the bold faced lines that bridge my paragraps. I am so enjoying writing my blogs & I never thought I’d say that. Its somewhat cause I either have the photos I want to show off or I make the graphics.
It surely helps when you love what you are writing about and can look at a blog or content on your website and see that it looks well put together. Great job Roslyn
Great tips Kristen, I was making the mistake of having everything centred, now my text is always left aligned.
Excellent… agreed, centered is not the way to go for text… it could be beneficial for headers and such, but not regular content. Great idea to change it up.
Great tips Kristen. I agree it’s important to make it easy for your readers so they stay longer.
Thanks Vicky… so very true.. we need to keep them on our site as long as possible!
I think the call to action is what so many people miss, and one of the things I try to keep top of mind. And a great point — your image should facilitate understanding, not distract from your content. Good read!
Yes… I too forget sometimes when trying to provide valuable info to our clients is to just ASK for the sale or remind them that I can help. Thanks!