This is the third (and final!) part in our series about blogging for small businesses. You can read the previous article here…
Only around 16% of people will read a website word for word. Along with that statistic, the average person will only comprehend 60% of what they read. So how should bloggers write if they want to communicate effectively?
Is your blog scannable?
The idea of having a scannable blog derives from how people read online. Essentially, people will scan the page for specific words or phrases, headings and other visual cues. It has been found that reading from a screen is more tiring than reading from paper. This means that content is read 25% slower. And this is why people employ the scanning technique.
It is fairly simple to test whether your blog is scannable or not; you could ask a person who isn’t familiar with your blogs to take a quick look at some of your recent posts. Allow up to 30 seconds on each of the posts and – at the end – ask them what the post was about. You’ll then have a rough idea of how they have interacted with and understood your blog.
Techniques to make your blog writing scannable
Any good blogger will keep the following in mind as they write and will employ a variety of techniques to make their posts easier to read…
Be creative in how you are reinforcing your main point through the blog post. Incorporating boxes and borders around quotes and key points can similarly gain the attention of your readers.
Don’t bury points. If you have a key point you’d like to focus on, ensure that you keep it up front and the main focus of the content. Similarly, don’t introduce too many new ideas. Again, this helps to avoid overwhelming your readers with information all at once. If you’re looking to cover a lot of ideas, you may want to consider a separate blog post and make it link to the other.
Think about formatting. Be sure to incorporate capitals, bold, underlining and italics to emphasise any key points you want your audience to remember.
Get to the point. Aim to keep your point short and concise.
Make good use of headings and sub-headings. Use large, bold words to act as visual cues to what is happening in the content below. Properly meta-tagged headings also have SEO benefits.
Research has found that readers’ eyes are drawn to images on the page. By placing the appropriate images strategically by your key points, you’ll have more of a chance of getting readers to read full articles. Bullet point lists that are incorporated into blog posts also tend to get a lot more attention in comparison to those at a similar length written in an essay style.
Finally, remember to use space. Bear in mind that you don’t need to fill up every inch of your screen with content. Instead, create spaces as this will help your readers not feel overwhelmed with the amount of content the will be reading.
Do you need help with copywriting and content creation? Get in touch with us for a free consultation to see how we can help you with your content marketing needs…
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