The Definitive Blogger’s Guide to Readability

Most people consider blogging to be a hobby rather than a real occupation but to get your work read you need to master the definitive Blogger’s Guide to Readability.

Most people consider blogging to be a hobby rather than a real occupation but to get your work read you need to master the definitive Blogger's Guide to Readability.

But in the world with hundreds of millions of bloggers, it is getting increasingly difficult to win over the audience without taking a highly professional approach.

It doesn’t only mean that you have to write high-quality posts.

On the contrary, your articles must be readable if you want to increase the number of followers.

This is one of the crucial success indicators, but only a small percentage of skilled and experienced bloggers actually pay attention to it.

If you want to ensure a long-term popularity of your blog, you must dedicate enough time to the readability.

There are digital tools such as Hemingway App that can help you to improve the overall appearance of your posts, but you should also learn and understand the basic principles of blog post readability.

In this post, we will show you the definitive Blogger’s Guide to Readability.

 

the definitive blogger’s guide to readability

Blog Design and Readability

As a blogger, you can design posts so as to highlight the most important conclusions and direct readers’ attention to things you want them to notice immediately.

Harrison Crowder, a blogger at Resumes Planet, recently noted: “Blog design goes hand in hand with article scanning as the average visitor takes a quick glance to decide whether to read a post or not”.

What is the purpose of a careful design?

Here are some of the definitive Blogger’s Guide to Readability essentials:

  • A reader can instantly discover the main point of your article.
  • The reader can figure out the complexity and readability of the text.
  • Reader is convinced to read your post completely.
  • A reader is eventually inspired to share content on his or her social media accounts.

But how exactly do you design a good article?

First of all, you have to create a logical structure that leads readers seamlessly from one paragraph to another.

Secondly, you have to emphasize important statements.

The last but definitely not the least important thing is to create high quality content.

Besides that, there are other rules you need to respect while writing a post.

These are more or less technical suggestion, but very significant in terms of blog readability.

Let’s check them out the definitive Blogger’s Guide to Readability one by one here!

Most people consider blogging a hobby; not a real occupation but to get your work read you need to master the definitive Blogger's Guide to Readability.

  1. Text Structure

There is not a single follower out there who enjoys reading long one-paragraph articles.

You have to break posts into several units to make them look more appealing.

Add enough whitespace after each paragraph to clearly draw the line between different parts of your post.

This is the basic rule of online writing and you absolutely have to follow it.

 

  1. Lists and Bulletins

Blog posts that include lists, numbers, and bulletins drive user engagement much more than any other type of article.

This happens because people love specificity, so they read listicles to follow text structure easily.

Lists and bulletins allow you to display a lot of information while not burdening the reader.

Using numbers, you can rate information by importance and also highlight key findings.

On the other hand, you should avoid listicles if you cannot write short and concise points.

 

  1. Headings and Subheadings

As the online author, you must be aware of the importance of headings and subheadings for the overall level of readability.

These elements ensure simpler scanning and improve the SEO potential of your articles.

You can play with headings and subheadings as you wish, but this is the most common structure:

 

  • Title: Heading 1

 

  • The first major point: Heading 2

  • Explanation of the first point: Heading 3

 

  • The second major point: Heading 2

  • Explanation of the second point: Heading 3

 

  • The third major point: Heading 2

  • Explanation of the third point: Heading 3

 

  1. Typographical Tricks

Typography can help you a lot when you want to highlight certain words or phrases without breaking the existing text structure.

You can do it using bold letters, italics, or underlines.

This is what most bloggers use when they want to differentiate between very important and not so important parts of the post.

Most people consider blogging to be a hobby rather than a real occupation but to get your work read you need to master the definitive Blogger's Guide to Readability.

  1. Fonts

Fonts have the power to make or break your blogging dreams.

If you choose the right font, you can expand a base of loyal followers, but if you select the wrong option – it will chase people away.

Fortunately, a number of studies already analyzed font efficiency and we will present you key conclusions in this field.

A research conducted by Font Reach proved that more than 60% of the top million websites use Arial.

It’s by far the most popular font on the Internet, way ahead of Neue Helvetica, sans-serif, Verdana, or Tahoma.

However, the font you choose depends on user interface and web design, so you should find a solution that matches these criteria.

There is one font you should avoid, though.

Times New Roman is often perceived as the most boring and outdated font, so we don’t recommend it as the first option for your blog.

To cut the long story short, there are the fonts used by the biggest players online:

  • Google: Arial
  • Wikipedia: Sans-Serif
  • CNN: Arial
  • Yahoo: Arial (home), Georgia (content)
  • MSN: Arial
  • New York Times: Georgia
  • Wall Street Journal: Arial

 

Design Features That Make Blogs More Attractive

Design tricks that we mentioned above are mandatory if you want to make all posts clear and readable.

However, there are a few more features that can make your blog look more attractive than competitors’ pages.

Here are some of these tips:

 

  • Use a drop cap: This is a large initial letter that drops below the first line of a paragraph, usually used at the beginning of a post, section, or chapter of a book. It attracts attention and inspires people to keep reading your posts.
  • Intriguing introduction: Well begun is half done. This means you could start a post with a brief overview of the entire article to make readers more interested. But you can use the opposite tactic, beginning posts with an intriguing story that really boggles the mind of a reader. It’s often a superb way to catch the attention of new followers.
  • Use the golden ratio: The golden ratio is essentially a mathematical ratio that you can apply to web design. If you design blog page according to this principle, you will foster organic and natural looking compositions that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
  • Background color: This segment of web design is very important for blog image. Background colors must fit your branding strategy, but white still makes the best option for most bloggers. However, you can play with contrasting colors of the text and background to find the combination that is both beautiful and adequate for the subject of your blog.

 

CONCLUSION

Successful bloggers pay attention to the smallest details, including the overall readability of their posts.

It’s not enough to write high-quality posts anymore.

Instead, you need to design each post carefully and structure them so as to fit the requirements of an average reader.

This means breaking articles into smaller paragraphs, using simple sentences, listicles, attractive fonts, and many other elements that make posts visually appealing.

In this post, we gave you the definitive blogger’s guide to readability.

Did you already use some of these tactics?

Do you have other interesting tips to share with our followers?

Feel free to let us know in comments and we’ll be glad to discuss the definitive blogger’s guide to readability with you!

 

Short bio:

Warren’s lifestyle is full of hiking adventures. When he’s not busy with his guitar or enjoying the sunny day outside, he excels at blogging skills and leaps through social media. You can meet him on Twitter and Facebook.

 

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