Is your blog formatted for success?

You’re writing blogs regularly, on topics that your audience wants to read but how do you get them to actually read it? That’s where you need to think about how your blog is formatted. The format is all about how you break up your text with paragraphs and bullet points, using images to capture attention and then captivating headings to draw people in. If your blog is just a load of words dumped on a page they might be the best words in the world but no one will read them. 

Not sure where to start? Here are my top 7 tips to format your blog and get your audience reading! 

Easy blog formatting tips

Make your headline count

It’s the first thing that people see and, despite advice, we all judge a book by its cover…..or its headline. Make sure that you’re including your focus keyword but most of it make it catchy and intriguing. 

Subheadings matter

Think about when you read something – do you read it word by word or do you scan down the page and when you see some text in bold read that before deciding if it’s worth your time? Exactly. Your title headline grabs the reader's attention while the subheadings convince them that they should spend time reading your blog. 

Don’t be afraid to use H2 for main headings and then H3 or even H4 for smaller subheadings. 

Pictures say 1000 words

Include images, it’s that simple. Not loads and they need to be relevant but pictures help to break up the text and people like them. My personal advice would be to avoid just using stock images, they’re everywhere and chances are your audience will have seen them before. Remember, quality over quantity.

Also, remember to add a caption and alt tag for your images! 

Break it down, and up

Break down your points using headings and break up your text with paragraphs and bullet points. Each paragraph should be one to four sentences max.

But don’t put each sentence on its own individual line.

It looks weird.

Plus when you read it in your head it’s all choppy and too broken up.

Use your judgement and if your text looks too blocky then try and split up the paragraph, if it’s too broken down then group some sentences together. Don’t worry too much about grammar, focus more on the visual appeal. I know something you didn’t think a content writer would say!

Lists aren’t just tasks to complete

There are a few different ways to format your blog structure and a great one is lists, like this blog. Lists offer a natural broken down structure that’s chunked up and easy to read. From the start, people know what to expect and that offers some reassurance they aren’t going to be stuck reading an endless blog. 

Be bold

Using carefully bold text can help your reader pull out the important bits. It’s unlikely that your reader will be diligently reading every word so bold sections grab your attention and make your blogs easier to read. 

The same goes for italics – they can help emphasise a point and highlight that sentence as different to the rest. Just remember that italics can be hard to read so use it sparingly!

Keep it simple

Above all – the best advice I can give you when formatting your blog is to keep it simple. If it looks busy to you then it’s going to be hard to read. 

Formatting your blog is just one part of having a successful blog – the topic, keywords, SEO, the frequency, all play a big part too. But once you’ve cracked the formatting you’ll find that people spend longer reading and become more engaged in your topics!

Need more help to polish your blog? Take a look at my top writing tools to improve your blogs.

If you’re stuck on how to start blogging drop me a message and let’s see if we can work together.