Make Your Blog 1047% More Readable
See what I did there in the headline today? I made an outrageous claim about how to vastly improve your blog’s readability, instantly making this post more interesting, which leads me to my first tip of today’s post…
1. Write Juicy Headlines
Make sure the title of each blog post isn’t an afterthought, it’s the invitation to read the post. Make it alluring. Use numbers, make outrageous claims, say something that makes people want to read more.
2. Make Your Writing Skimable
If you’re a regular around here, you know that you can get the gist of most of my posts in a few seconds. I love bold, bullets and small paragraphs. I do this because it makes my posts easy to skim. According to Jakob Neilson, 79% of online visitors only skim the content they read online. If that’s how your readers want to absorb your content, make it easy for them to do so. You’ll be rewarded with loyal followers and return visitors if you’re writing is great and easy to digest.
3. Use Visuals
Images are even easier to absorb than text. Make sure your blog posts contain some imagery. It can be a photo that relates to the theme of your post or maybe even a chart or graph if you’re talking about numbers or statistics. These visual cues draw in readers and help them quickly make sense of your post. They also break up the text and give the eyes a break.
4. Link Relevant Content
If you want to bump up your blog’s page views or elaborate on a point without rehashing something you’ve written about before, link to previous content. If the reader wants to know more they can click, and if they don’t you’ve made the post a quicker easier read.
Okay, I can’t actually promise your blog will be 1047% more readable, but these tips will get you well on the way 
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Thanks for these tips. I plan to start a blog, and need all the help I can get. How will people find me?
Comment by Willow Renee — March 7, 2011 @ 8:44 am
Willow, you’ll need to market the blog just like any other site. I’ve posted a lot of articles here on marketing and a couple of ebooks on these topics too.
Comment by Meredith — March 7, 2011 @ 9:00 am
Your juicy headline certainly worked!
Even though I *know* you can’t measure readability I clicked right through (and so glad I did!)
Comment by Tara — March 7, 2011 @ 3:06 pm
[...] Make Your Blog 1047% More Readable I can’t actually promise your blog will be 1047% more readable, but these tips will get you well on the way… [...]
Pingback by Crafty Connections- March 8th « creativeapples fine art photography — March 8, 2011 @ 6:57 am
Just found you via Creative Apples …glad I did! Recently started my blog and anxious to learn – will be back to read more. Thanks….
Comment by Karen — March 8, 2011 @ 8:02 am
[...] some really great ideas and I know you could come up with great topics if you follow these tips! Smaller Box also has a few great tips on how to make your blog more readable. These tips are also a great way to improve your blog for your [...]
Pingback by Sunday Afternoon Housewife » Blog Archive » Monday Link Love: Blog Boosting Tips — March 14, 2011 @ 4:54 pm
[...] Unreadable posts should really be called “unskimmable.” Flighty web readers (like yourself) are interested in consuming information and moving on. There’s so much content online that if they don’t like what they see on your page, they can easily leave and find their intended information on another Google search result in seconds. You’ve got to grab them…and you can’t intimidate them. [...]
Pingback by Are Your Blog Posts Unreadable? | Unmovable Speech — November 23, 2011 @ 3:58 pm