Thanks to author Molly Greene for this post:
Did you know that how you format a blog post can influence whether or not you can hold your readers’ interest? Although great content should be the core of every post, the way you present information can also affect your blog’s readership and ratings. Incorporating customary operating procedures into each article you write will help you both standardize your process and tick all the boxes required for building a successful blog. Here are six basics you want to be sure to weave into every post, every time:
Write “scannable” posts
Internet readers tend to scan articles and huge blocks of text scare them away. Here are a few tips to make your content more scannable:
- Ditch long paragraphs. Yes, that’s right, reduce large paragraphs into smaller groups of four or so sentences. If you format each post using small paragraphs, you’ll keep more readers on the page.
- Break up text with bold subheads. Bolded subheads will both stop and hold the reader’s eye and define blocks of information for them.
- Use bullets and numbers. Rather than long explanations separated by commas, break strings of data down into bulleted or numbered sections – this will help the reader stay put and scan your article.
Use links: Three important points
Point #1: Link to relevant sources. Linking to other bloggers’ great posts is helpful to them and good for you. Google likes to see articles refer to related content, and it will build authority for you with search engines.
Point #2: When you’re setting up links in your blog post, always choose “open links in a new window.” If you don’t, you’ll lose readers who close out the browser window instead of hitting the back button. Your website will be history, and they probably won’t try to find their way back. And yes, it happens a lot.
Point #3: The “anchor text” for each active link should succinctly describe the content it’s linking to, or be the actual title of the article or page you are referencing. This will also make Google happy.
Examples:
Bad: “Link here to read a good post on the subject.”
Good: “For more information, read Oprah’s post about How to Start a Book Club.”
Visuals
Always include at least one good image in every post, whether it’s a graph, screenshot, photo, poll, or illustration. Images break up the copy and provide visual interest (even though your content is surely mesmerizing). Use one near the top of your post so Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn will include it as a thumbnail in your share.
Post length
I’ve read post length suggestions that range from 200 to 1,200 words, but I think the answer is clear: Posts should be long enough to successfully get your point across without a lot of fluff. Some bloggers suggest that search engines like longer posts because it increases their ability to “read” what the post is about. If you write longer posts, be sure to make them “scannable” so readers aren’t overwhelmed. Some bloggers insist that short posts is the way to go. In my opinion, it depends on your readers, the topic, and the formatting style you use in an article. Bottom line, make your posts as long as they need to be to deliver.
Proof and edit well
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the obvious here: You really, really need to edit and proof every single post well. After I complete edits on an article, I give them all a final once-over in my website dashboard preview pane before I hit the “publish” button.
Even so, once in a while an eagle-eyed friend who has my back will send a nice little email that contains an “oh, by the way…” message and sweetly cite a typo in my latest post. I love that – image is everything, and we often just don’t have a second chance for readers to form a good first impression. Proof and edit your blog posts carefully.
Email posts as an excerpt
I recommend that you set up blog posts to be sent to subscribers as an “excerpt” (first couple of paragraphs only) as opposed to emailing the entire post. Subscribers who receive the full article don’t need to visit your blog to read it. An excerpt will encourage more actual website visits, which will help boost your blog traffic stats. And who knows? Someday an agent or publisher may inquire about the popularity of your blog, and every little visit will help. Make sense?
Remember, your job doesn’t end when the article is published. Make it a point to respond to comments as soon as possible after they’re posted. We all have incredible online buddies who, although we’ve never met, give support and friendship. Treat your readers this way. Get familiar. Think of comments and replies as having a conversation with friends.
Molly Greene is an author, blogger, and blogging coach with a preference for reading, writing, remodeling, real estate and rural life. Her nonfiction titles include the soon-to-be-released Blog It! The author’s guide to building a successful online brand, and the self-awareness guide, Someone Worth Becoming (July 2013). Molly is working on a second novel, Rapunzel; her fiction debut, Mark of the Loon, is available at major online retailers. Meanwhile, she blogs about her crazy, ever-changing world and self-publishing topics at Molly-Greene.com.
Great advice! Thank you!
I’m still learning all I can do with WordPress. I haven’t been able to figure out the excerpt feature yet, but that’s part of the fun of starting a new project– building it!
OK then, what is the setting on WordPress.com that makes the emails send as an excerpt? I’ve always wondered and if you know it would save me the time of searching for it. 🙂
I am considering a blog. This was very helpful
Thank you for the pointers. As I was reading this, I realized that all I have to do is write to my own preferences because everything you mentioned, describes me. Thank you again.
Write ON!
Molly, I wholeheartedly agree with your six points even though I’ve seen many bloggers, including the biggies, go against what you’ve shared re: anchor text, post length and visuals. A number of them have gone so minimalist that you can barely see the site title.
The advice about blogging has a lot to do with the blogger’s purpose. For those who are going after traffic and Google ranking, attention to SEO may be paramount. For those building relationships for the long haul, capturing visitors’ contact information in exchange for a free downloadable ebook may be most important.
Making posts scannable requires switching gears if you write mainly magazine articles or books. The editor of my first book kept commenting on my paragraphs because they were more like blog posts than typical book text (That’s because they were blog posts originally.)
After years of writing a newsletter and blog for two domains, I grew weary of doing both and decided to write just for my blogs. Then I send my newsletter subscribers an excerpt and sent them to the blog for the whole article. I know that all of them won’t click over to read the whole thing, even though I try to make it very enticing.
One of my mentors said it’s important to offer just the excerpt to get your readers in the habit of clicking. Those who won’t click over to read the full blog post probably are not engaged enough to comment if they went to the blog nor buy my products and services either.
Respecting the reader’s time and attention is important too, as Where Writers Win mentioned.
Case in point: One of my neighbors is my morning walking buddy, and she supports my efforts, but she almost never clicks over to read the full article on my blog. That is until I wrote about domestic violence on Valentine’s Day. Because she volunteers for a charity that provides safety, training and housing for abused women and children, her interest was piqued. She had to click. She was amazed at the extensive coverage in my blog post, and was pleasantly surprised to see that I mentioned her charity.
Those bloggers who have already built up millions of followers can do whatever they want. The rest of us need to follow your advice.
So well said and I appreciate your thoughtful comment! Bottom line, we each need to determine our goals and intentions for our blog, and that in turn will determine what we write about, our typical post length, and the frequency of our posts. I’m all for reading what everybody does and then … doing what I think is right for me. Thanks, Flora!
I agree with Molly and Shari about the excerpts. As a subscriber to blogs, give me a peep first. Otherwise, I feel like I’m being force-fed. But as a blogger myself, I have to say that it’s getting very crowded out there and competing for readers should warrant implementing these suggestions by Molly. Because we all know that only the strong survive.
Couldn’t agree more, Jacqueline — it’s a mad house out there in cyberspace! As authors it’s incumbent upon us to provide better words, but also to give ourselves the best chance to been seen and heard (contrary to what our parents told us when we were little, lol)
Cyberspace IS a madhouse, and getting more crowded all the time. I think the determined, committed, focused blogger who delivers good content – in whatever niche they’re in — will survive. We have to believe we’re in it for the long haul!
Hey Molly. Great post. I know writers especially have trouble making the leap to short paragraphs, but it really does help readers digest the info (at least online).
I strongly disagree about emailing excerpts, though. Whatever format your readers are digesting your content in, they are giving you their time and attention which is the start of a relationship. By only posting the full article on the site (which is admittedly better for your stats), you are always making readers come to you, which isn’t a good way to build a relationship. By emailing the full article instead, you are building a stronger bond for the long haul.
Sorry Isla, we’re with Molly on this one. A) We do want folks to come to an author’s website, because that helps traffic but also offers a chance to browse what else the author may have on offer (like their book!). B) As a subscriber to many blogs, I don’t want a long email, let alone 20 of them… A brief excerpt tells me immediately if this is info I need to read and absorb, click on later to enjoy, or ignore, and C) There’s plenty of crowd-sourced wisdom behind the excerpting vs. full posts issue from those who do it for lots of clients and have had plenty of proving ground to try it both ways: Excerpts win.
Your point about relationship building is great and very important – but part of building reader relationships in this crowded space these days is respecting the readers’ time and attention, too 🙂
Isla, thanks so much for weighing in! I agree with my hosts. I want an excerpt in my email, as well. Also, if your subscribers forward your (full) posts to friends, those friends will never need to visit your website and find out more about you. Excerpts win for me, as well. My relationship-building happens in “comments!” By the way, so nice to meet you!