So you have decided to write blogs as a part of your Content Marketing Strategy. While you may already be a great writer, blogs are written in a specific way in order to be read quickly. Easy to read blogs can increase the time on page, reduce bounce rate, and overall help your website rank organically. Today I’m going to go through (and use) all my greatest tips on writing easy-to-read blogs.
Table of Contents
Make Everything Shorter
In the past, for SEO many people were pushing blogs of 1500 words or more. Those days are long gone especially in a Mobile-First World. I always aim to have blogs sit around 700-800 words, and they often rank well! While you shouldn’t write less than 300 words, anything around 1000 is a bit too long. Got a lot to write? Consider breaking the topic down until you have multiple blogs around 800 words each.
Blog length isn’t the only thing better shorter. Keep paragraphs and sentences short. The most common issue I see that even I suffer from is run-on sentences. Try to break them up into shorter, easier-to-read sentences. Paragraphs need the same treatment, no one wants to read a giant wall of text.
Use Easy to Read Language
In order to reach the largest audience, you need to write at a reading level that the most amount of people can read. This means avoiding big or difficult words. So what reading level should my blogs be? A reading level of Grade 8 is suggested.
That being said, depending on your audience you may need a higher reading level. Make sure to understand your audience when deciding on reading level and tone.
It’s super easy to check the readability of your blog by using the free Readability Test Tool by WebFx.
Make Your Blog Easy to Scan
If someone is coming to your blog, make it easy for them to get the exact information they need. For example, someone came to this blog for the specific purpose of learning more about Headers. This blog is very easy to scan and the reader should be able to find the Headers section easily.
Use Headers (Properly)
In the past Headers were just a different way to add styles to text. When it comes to SEO Headers are vitally important to understanding the structure of your content. See for instance the way I’ve used Headers on this page.
- (H1) Basic SEO: Writing Easy to Read Blogs
- Note on H1: Your Title will always be the H1 and the blog will only have one H1 Tag
- (h2) Make your Blog Easy to Scan
- (H3) Use Headers
As you can see each Header dives deeper into the Title Topic and gets more specific as you go down. In essence: Use Headers, because they make your blog easy to scan, because it makes blogs easy to read.
Add a Table of Contents
Any blog with lots of headers would benefit from adding a table of contents at the top. Use anchor links so readers can quickly travel to the section of the blog they need. I like to stick to adding only H2 Headers, but if you do decide on one large blog you can add H3 Headers as well.
Don’t know how to add Anchor Links to your blog on WordPress? I love this blog on Kinsta: How to Create Anchor Links in WordPress
Be Bold
If you have a really important answer that people may be looking for in the middle of a paragraph go ahead and make it bold. Even if the answer may be hidden using font stylings like bold and italics makes them stand out.
Use White Space
You want to remove as much distraction as possible for your reader. Increasing white space around your paragraphs and header sections makes it easier for the reader to focus. Some of the best ways to increase white space:
- Your blog width should be around 500 pixels on desktop
- Using Shorter Paragraphs
- Consider using Bullet Points whenever possible
- Use the “Seperator” block on WordPress to seperate sections of content
- Avoid having extra stuff on BOTH sides of the blog, stick to one side
Easy to Read Blogs are Easier to Write
I might be biased but I find using the above tips to make the blog easier to read, makes them easier to write! Keeping content short and to the point is easier for your visitor to read and takes less time to write. I love to use headers to map out my content before I write. I even did it with this blog!
While others may not agree with ALL of my suggestions, I have personally had lots of success using these methods. What are your tips for easy-to-read blogs? Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments.