How to Make Your Blog Posts Easier to Read

Can’t seem to generate a strong following with your blog no matter how many posts you make? You can spend countless hours researching and writing new content, but it’s not going to yield any real benefits unless visitors actually read it. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common problem experienced by many newcomers to the blogging scene.

The good news is that you can make your blog posts more attractive and easier to read by following some simple steps.

Dark Font, Light Background

A good rule of thumb when formatting your blog posts is to use a dark color for the font and a light color for the background. For instance, black text against a white background works well, as the two colors contrast with one another to improve the visibility of your text. If you use yellow text on a green background, however, it will be painfully difficult for visitors to read, at which point many will leave your blog without ever returning. It’s not uncommon to see blogs and websites with dark backgrounds and light fonts, but again, these are harder to read. The bottom line is that your text needs to stand out from the background; otherwise, your readers will struggle.

Include Images

Don’t make the mistake of creating pure-text posts for your blog. Every blog post should contain at least one video or image. Adding media such as this to your posts will make them pop with a greater level of aesthetics, which almost always has a positive impact in terms of visitor engagement. Visitors will be more likely to read your posts if they contain images or video.

So before publishing your posts, upload an image or embed a YouTube video. It only takes a couple of minutes to find a relevant video or image, but doing so will make a world of difference in terms of visitor engagement. Just make sure you have the right to use the image or video and give attribution to the source when required.

Use Bold and Italics

According to a study conducted by Empirical, the average Internet user only reads 20% of the text on a page. Therefore, you need to draw the visitors’ attention to the important elements in your posts and pages. This can be done through the use of bold, italics, bullet lists, numbered lists, sub-headings, links, etc. Including these formats in your posts will encourage visitors to read the important parts of your content, resulting in a higher level of engagement.

Proof and Edit

Before clicking the publish button, go over your post one last time, reading it aloud to yourself. Does the post make sense? Can any sentences be improved? One trick you can use is to copy your entire blog into a blank Word document and run a spell / grammar check — the checker may catch things your eyes overlooked.

Making small changes to your posts, such as rewording a sentence or using a different format, can make them easier to read so proofread and edit your content before publishing.

Have any other blogging tips that you would like to share with our readers? Let us know in the comments section below!