Formatting blog posts would seem quite obvious to most when explained, but we still often come across really badly presented content on a regular basis.
Reasons hampering the correct formatting of blog posts can range from a badly set up website to the person posting the content not giving it the love and care it needs to be read by website visitors.
So, while we’re not going to bombard you with too much of the technical jargon surrounding HTML H tags we will give you some insight so that you can speak to your web designer and be sure that they have you set up correctly.
But first let’s talk about formatting blog posts to get the most out of them.
Use headings
Just like the one we’ve used here.
Content should always be presented in an easily scannable fashion that allows the reader to quickly skim through the material to get to the most important points.
A lot of content is read on Smartphones these days so making it as easy to digest is critical.
Headings break up the copy into bite sized pieces and draw the reader’s attention to the subject matter therein.
Sentence length
Keep sentences short and to the point.
Do not be afraid to break up whole paragraphs into one and two sentence pieces.
Once a sentence exceeds 20 words on a blog, it is believed that the reader may start to lose interest.
Yes, we’ve broken that rule already in this article. We’re not saying EVERY sentence. There is always a balance between readability and maintaining a level of creative writing.
Bullet and numbered lists work
- Lists are easy to follow
- Lists are easy to scan
- Lists are east to write
- Lists can provide a lot of information in a short space
- People love lists
There you go. It was that easy. 😊
Use bold text
Another trick to getting the most important information to your reader is to bolden text.
Much like delivering a speech, the person you are most likely to listen to is the one who knows how to mediate his/her voice, in volume, speed and pausing.
Bolding text is like raising your voice just a little for emphasis.
Images and Captions
CAPTION: WordPress is designed for blogging
Images are important.
Not only do images improve your searchability on Google – provided you are using Alt-tags, they also look nice and once again make your content more scannable.
A good image will draw the reader to the copy surrounding the picture so be sure to use ones with relevance.
Also be sure to caption images where applicable.
The technical stuff
If your blog is set up correctly your HTML-H tags should be formatted and styled according to your CSS-style sheet.
For WordPress this is really easy as one simply used the Heading tags to achieve this.
Heading 1 = H1, Heading 2 = H2 etc up to H6.
Google loves H tags.
H1 denotes the most important heading, and each subsequent number is a less important heading, down to H6 as a relatively unimportant heading.
According to Google use of headings allows them to understand the content structure better and where the main emphasis is.
Google actually gives more weight to content under HTML H tags.
Pro tip – only use one H1 Tag as this is the main heading of the content.
