Once users are on your site, you need to KEEP them there. How? Format blog posts to be engaging and easy for skimmers to consume content. Here’s how…
How to Format a Blog Post if You Want Better Engagement
Like any other online activity, people can come to your blog posts and click away before reading the entire thing.
It happens to even the best writers!
Maybe high bounce rates and short session durations are disheartening and you’re left wondering if it is even worth writing blog posts.
Who reads blog posts anyway?
According to OptinMonster’s Ultimate List of Blogging Statistics and Facts (Updated for 2021), even in 2021 more than 400 million people view 20+ billion pages online.
So the question isn’t “How many people are reading online content?”
The real question is:
“How can I improve my blog posts to attract more readers, keep them engaged enough to read my blog posts?”
And this is where this article comes into play! We will show you how you present your content to keep your readers on your post longer.
The Importance of Formatting a Blog Post
Most experts will tell you that online readers are skimmers. In fact, OptinMonster again shares their insights on skimming:
The sad fact is that these users might spend a few seconds on your blog post, and if it doesn’t meet their needs, they’ll move on.
However, strategically formatting a blog post for readers and skimmers will help people find the information they are seeking.
Formatting a blog post allows users to:
- sort through your content
- find the information they’re looking for
- skim longer.
With enough visuals and clever subheadings, it’s possible to get a skimmer to read further into a section than they would have using long, boring blocks of text.
Unless you’re writing for an audience expecting scholarly articles, reading this block of text in a blog post just won’t cut it.
What is the Basic Structure of a Blog?
When structuring a blog post, you must first identify the topic based on keyword research to come up with a data-driven plan.
Not knowing exactly what you’re going to write about will not give your post the best chance at receiving the traffic that you’re also hoping will stick around and read the content.
Once you’ve identified the topic, you’ll need to understand the intent and how to present the content that best suits the search intent. What does the topic cover and how can you give readers the best answer?
From there, understand the anatomy of an optimized blog post which includes more than just the words (and pictures) you see on the page.
An Intriguing Blog Post Title
Also called a Title Tag in SEO, the title of a blog post is one of the most important parts of a post for both SEO and potential readers.
Your title tag is the first thing people see in the search engine results page (followed by a meta description).
When formatting a blog post title, it should be catchy, yet informative enough for people (and Google) to know what the post is all about.
The headline for a blog post should be concise while still attracting attention. The goal of this sentence is to make people want to read the rest of the article and learn more about the topic. A strong headline will make readers more likely to click on an article and share it on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Good Headlines include:
- Your main keyword
- No more than about 60 characters
- Power Words
If you can create intrigue or incite an emotional response, you’re more likely to get visits from search.
Just don’t write click-bait headlines.
The On-Page Title: An H1
Don’t know what an H1 is?
It’s simply the main heading of the blog post that is seen after a user clicks into the page from the search engine results page and is assigned by a bit of HTML code.
Not to worry though! You don’t need to be a developer as most websites have this automatically coded into the system so you don’t even have to think about it.
The H1 (or headline) is important because it sets the tone for what follows and, once again, reaffirms to Google what the page is about.
So yes, for those a little confused, we are telling you that you now have two titles, but the H1 is the visible title on the page and can be different from the SEO Title you created previously.
Subheadings
Just as you would have for a writing assignment or professional document, subheadings in a blog post separate sections into sub-subsections of the overarching topic. These subheadings can be H2, H3, H4 and so on.
Again, coding knowledge is not required as most blogging platforms have an easy selector to indicate these as you go (just like a word processing program that allows you to choose headings).
More Engaging Ways to Format a Blog Post
Blogging for your business means letting go of many rules about writing learned in school.
Yes, you need proper spelling and grammar.
Being clear and concise is valuable.
And forming an outline or strategy for your topic is recommended.
However, blog posts are not huge chunks of text to spill every detail without emotion or special voice. Instead, they need to be formatted in a way that will engage the reader, make the content more readable (or scannable) and allow your brand voice to shine through!
This is where we get into some advanced blog formatting techniques.
Create Easy-to-Read Lists
In her article “A List of Reasons Why Our Brains Love Lists,” Maria Konnikova describes listicles as “a venerable media format.”
Why?
Maria explains that when we’re presented with new information “our brains immediately try to make sense of it.”
Lists help our brains by:
- Posing a pre-existing category
- Organizing information
- Limiting content
Don’t limit yourself to creating listicles though! Draw your readers into all of your content with easy-to-read lists.
You can try bulleted, numbered or description lists.
Use Compelling Visuals
Images are a crucial part of engaging users who have landed on your blog post, they can help to illustrate a point and bring the post to life.
The visuals you provide in a blog post can be:
- Funny
- Sad
- Shocking
- Informative
Choose from a variety of images such as:
- Graphs
- Charts
- Infographics
- Pictures
- GIFs
- Videos
- Slideshows
- Quotes
- Memes
- Screenshots
- Flip Books
- Illustrations
It all depends on the message you, as the author, are trying to convey.
Visuals are not something we add because we think it looks good. Instead, they play a specific role in every blog post.
One note on images:
Ensure you are within legal rights to use these images if you’re not using your own. There are a wealth of stock photos sites, including free ones to use when needed.
Shorten Those Paragraphs
We know we’ve already touched on this topic near the beginning of the post, but it’s important enough to have its own section.
Gone are the days of making your English professor happy with the long paragraphs of text.
Blog readers are not the same as thesis or book readers. Instead, online readers have short attention spans and large blocks of text are simply too hard to digest online!
When formatting your blog post content, keep paragraphs to no more than about 5 sentences, but the preference is about 2 to 3.
Want to make a strong point?
Try a single sentence paragraph for impact!
Emphasize Text with Additional Formatting
Want to make some of your text stand out in your content?
Use bold and italic formatting to make a point, make content stand out or break up bits of text.
As a bonus, Google confirms bolding words can help with SEO, just use these features sparingly.
Provide Internal and External Links
Do you sometimes touch on a point in your content that, when expanded on, could divert attention away from the original topic?
When formatting blog posts, create links to other content on your website or to authoritative pages that provide more detail about the information you have presented.
Not only does this provide a good user experience (allowing readers to decide if they want more information), both internal and external linking provides additional SEO value.
External links (those leading readers to a page off of your website):
- Improves the credibility of your content by providing references.
- Assists search engines in determining the quality of your page.
- Creates connections between your website and other relevant sites or topics.
- Increases the value of your content to readers.
Internal Links (those leading readers to other pages on your site):
- Connects content to help Google understand your website structure.
- Establishes a relationship between your existing content.
- Can pass link value to increase the chances of ranking your pages.
Are You Still With Us?
The data suggests you didn’t make it this far in the post. Still, we can’t help but hope that our tips for formatting blog posts and how we formatted the blog post lead you to skim to this bit of advice:
The purpose of writing articles for your business is to provide your reader with valuable information. If you’re not formatting your blog posts for today’s online readers with ridiculously short attention spans, you’re not going to succeed at content marketing.
Don’t waste your digital marketing budget on well-written content without formatting it so readers can consume it using headings, lists, emphasized text and images.
And if you’d like help with improving your content’s ability to rank, reach out to us to learn how our SEO and Content Writing experts can help your business.
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