Writing readable posts

As a blogger, it is important that your blog content be readable to your site’s visitors.

Wikipedia has this to say about READABILITY.

All your created blog content should not only be informative and help your readers with great information, it should be easy to follow along and read on the screen as well.

Here are some tips to creating a blog post that is easy and enjoyable for your site visitors to read:

1. Create titles and introductions that are compelling and make your readers want to read your post right away.  Recent studies show that while 80% of people will read headline copy, only 20% will read the rest.
2. Break your text up into shorter paragraphs.
3. Your page should be broken up using white space, images, use of bullet points or callouts.
4. Use headings to separate the different ideals and topics as you create your posts.
5. Your reader’s eyes should flow easily down through the page.  Shorter sentences are best also.
6. Unless you are writing to a technical audience, use simple and less complex words in your content.
7. Use transition words. Transition words are words like ‘most important’, ‘because’, ‘therefore’, or ‘besides that’. Transition words words give a signal to your readers that something is coming up.  For example, use ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’, etc. when summarizing  and ‘hence’, thus’, ‘consequently’ in your conclusions.
8. Use a variety of words, not the same ones repeatedly. (I frequently use MS Word’s thesarus feature to find words that have similar meanings).
9. Read your finished post aloud to check its flow or have someone else read it and provide feedback.
10. Aim for value in your content.  Your content should help your site visitors and not sound like you are bragging about what you know.  This will develop trust and connection betwen you and your audience. Ask yourself “will this information be of use and informative to my readers?”
11. Learn prope SEO (search engine optimization) techniques: use of keyword optimized titles, a good keyword ratio, keyword anchor text, and the use of your targeted keywords in the first and last sentence.
12. Don’t forget to end with a CTA (Call To Action) for your readers.  Read these 3 reasons

How to check the reading level of your content

Statistics published by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) indicates the average prose adult literacy level is basic to intermediate.  Writing your blog at a simple reading level isn’t to insult anyone’s intelligence, it simply helps make your point quickly, efficiently, and effectively to your site visitors.

Checking Your Blog Content Reading Level

You can use MS Word to check the reading level:

Type your content into MS Word.

1. Click on File Menu>Options>Proofing tab
2. Under the “When correcting spelling and grammar in Word” heading, you’ll see a box that says “Show readability statistics.” Check this box, then exit out of your options and go back to your document.
3. Run a standard spelling and grammar check.
4. The higher the score on the Reading Ease test, the easier the document is thought to be to read…
5. The grade level is equivalent to the reading level of students.

Online Resources:

WebFX Readibility Tool

Juicy Studio

Readable

Learn More about Creating Readable Content

I have learned a lot about readable content as a member of Wealthy Affiliate’s online training platform. See the video link below:

How to Create Readable Content That Ranks

You can sign up for a FREE trial membership and see this video training and much more.