Properly Formatting Blog Posts

In the search engine world, they always say Content is King. Building your blog to become an authority for the search engines should be your most important goal. By writing brief posts, including graphics and providing useful links your blog will be right on its way to catching attention and generating traffic for your site.

10 Things to Remember When Writing Your Posts:

1. 1.   People Don’t Read, They Scan! A study found that only 16% of readers actually read the entire post, word for word. Suggestion: Keep it brief and easy to extract information at a glance.  

2. 2.   Use Bullets and/or Lists When Posting. You want to catch people’s attention not scare them away with an overload of verbiage! Suggestion: Don’t write in full paragraph form, it’s too long and too much to read.

3. 3.   Don’t Try to Sell Something in Your Post. Use your blog to build trust and authority. Or use your blog to build yourself as an expert in your field. Provide useful and interesting information – not a sales pitch! Suggestion: Become a trustworthy expert first and then readers will come to you for advice/help.

4. Include the Facts! People don’t care about your opinion until you have become an expert first. Build up your credibility by citing reliable sources and backing up information whenever possible! Suggestion: Use reliable resources to your advantage.

5. Use Informative Titles. Titles are important in giving the reader an idea of what your post is about. You want it to catch their eye, but avoid vague, over creative and under informative. Suggestion: Keep it descriptive, enticing and creative.

6. Avoid Complicated Vocabulary. Too often blog writers use extensive vocabulary, industry specific words or acronyms and/or wordy posts. Multiple studies have found that most people comprehend the best reading at an 8^th grade level, so don’t lose your reader with impressive vocab. Suggestion: Keep it simple, easy and fun to read.

7. Write Unique Content. There’s nothing wrong with repackaging information, but add your own thoughts and/or recommendations. Expand on the news story or trusted resource and support your claim. Suggestion: Have a well informed opinion.

8. Use Headings and Sub Headings. Headings let readers know you’re your post is about with out having to read the whole thing. Again, reference rule #1. Suggestion: Keep your post organized and easy to read.

9. Bold or Highlight Important Concepts. This is easy, draw attention to the most important concepts and/or terms. It makes it easy for readers to know exactly what they should read versus what they can scan through.

10. Use Images & Links. Make your post interesting and enticing! Adding relevant images to your message helps show the reader what your post is about at a glance – and pictures make reading so much more fun! Suggestion: Be creative – pictures can relay a point with out any words!