10 Killer Tips: How to Format a Perfect Blog Post
When it comes to content marketing, appearances are everything. Taking the time to format your articles into the perfect blog post can be the difference between website visitors who convert into leads, and readers who get bored after just a few words. Adam Thompson points out that “if [your blog] doesn’t look inviting, attractive, and easy-to-read, you’re less likely to earn social shares or natural backlinks.” Failing to format can ruin your best intentions of growing an audience and subscribers, improving your SEO, and generating leads.
Plus, formatting the perfect blog post is relatively pretty easy. Conceptualizing, researching, writing, and publishing high-quality content can be pretty darn time-consuming. Separating your content into easy-to-digest chunks and formatting for publication can generally be accomplished in as little as 15-30 minutes, tops. Here are the sharpest tips we’ve found anywhere for ensuring your content’s user-friendly:
1. Use Subheaders
If you had to pick just one type of formatting to include in each perfect blog post you publish, it should be subheaders. Check out the remarkable difference in the image below, where the same content is displayed both with and without subheaders:
Aren’t you just so much more drawn to the section on the right? Use keyword-rich subtitles to give your content appeal to both readers and search engines.
2. Keep Your Posts Narrow
If you’re using a Wordpress or Blogger layout with a particularly wide content column, you could be detracting from your user experience. Pick a new layout, or adjust your column width. Annabel Candy recommends 80 characters or less in width. Consider the big difference between the images below:
3. Bold Text
Is there anything more attention-grabbing than bold text? Writing an entire piece of content in bold would definitely be overkill, but using this tactic to highlight important sentences is a brilliant formatting technique. Occasional bolded sentences have a place in the perfect blog post, and can improve the stickiness of your content marketing.
4. Use the Right Images
Your blog posts should always include - at a minimum - one piece of visual content. Pick an image, infographic, embedded video, Slideshare or meme to catch the eye of your readers.
That being said, not all images are created equal. Marketing Experiments found in a study that pictures of actual employees have a 95% higher conversion rate than stock photos. Their conclusion was that there’s nothing inherently wrong with stock images, but there is a problem with pictures that don’t look believable. Don’t pad your blogs with pictures of smiling models eating salad, especially if they don’t enhance your comment. Rely on images that fit and further the message of your perfect blog post.
5. Use Graphs
For content marketers in technical industries or covering data-heavy topics, graphs can be a crucial tool. Data visualization can break up the monotony of dry articles, and they’re perfectly primed for sharing. Whether you’re creating or curating graphics, they can add significant visual interest and depth to your perfect blog post. The graph below is a fine example of data that’s relayed in a visually-appealing and easy-to-share way:
Be sure to support your graphs with text to get the most SEO credit possible for including fresh research and facts in your content.
6. Use Lists
- Most web users don’t read, they skim.
- Lists stand out and are easy to read.
- Get what I’m saying?
Does anyone need convincing that modern blog readers love list posts? They’ve got serious viral appeal - as evidenced by the ultra-popular websites Buzzfeed and Cracked. Whether or not you format your entire blog as a list, including bullet points (as shown above) can allow you to convey important messages to visitors who are just skimming your article.
7. Use Short Paragraphs
You don’t need to apply traditional rules of composition when creating the perfect blog post. Short paragraphs draw emphasis to important points. As Darren Rowse points out, “large slabs of text” can be downright unappealing to blog readers.
To learn more, read 13 Writing Rules to Ignore for Becoming a Legendary Content Creator.
8. Leverage Text Call-Outs
Highlighting the purpose of your blog posts or particularly important points in text call-out boxes adds some serious emphasis to your thesis statement:
Text call-outs can quickly become irritating to readers, but when used sparingly, they’re a great hybrid of text and visual content.
If you’re curious about how to implement these on your own blog, we recommend Wordpress’s discussion on how to easily code these into your content.
9. Use Image Captions
When a website visitor starts reading a blog post, where does their eye go first? To your header image, of course. Including image captions can allow you to hook visitors who aren’t entirely sold on the idea of your article, and convert them into readers.
Your image caption should fit the theme of the picture, but it should also be descriptive of your article and engaging. Ask questions, include power stats, and strive to be intriguing. Image captions are nearly as important as blog headlines, so they shouldn’t be neglected.
10. Use Multiple Sizes of Subheaders
If you’re writing a long or complex piece of content, consider including different sizes of subheaders. Start your article off with an H1 tag, separate larger sections with H2 tags, and initiate paragraphs with H3 headers, a concept that’s illustrated below:
The larger your header size, the more significance it carries for SEO. While some user experience experts recommend not exceeding 4 text sizes per page, don’t be afraid to use multiple header sizes for formatting the perfect blog post.
Don’t let your effort spent writing the perfect blog post go to waste by failing to format! User experience matters in the age of content saturation, so honor your reader’s time by using subheaders, engaging images, visual content, varied text sizes and lists to keep them engaged and reading.
Do you format your blog posts before hitting publish? What are your favorite tools and techniques for breaking up longer pieces of content marketing?
Comments (46)
Wow Amazing Work Jasmine, It really helps me
I’m glad you liked it :)
Hi Jasmine,
Thoroughly enjoyed your article and will try implement these formatting tips. My biggest annoyance when blogging on wordpress, isn’t with the stuff listed here as they have buttons in the editor, it’s the more technical stuff like line height and font types. I know basic html and can do inline formatting, but was wondering could you do blog post about how you would create a blogpost from start to finish? I feel as though I am missing something, as a) posts take forever to create as each line has to be manually given formatting code and b) you say it takes 15 minutes! Would love to hear from you soon.
This was a great article, and very helpful.
Thanks, Camika.
Excellent tips Jasmine, we are of the same mind — used your tips 40+ years ago. Very impressed.
Extremely helpful tips! I have recently started my blog and been reading various articles on how to improve blog traffic. Can you advise any articles on your site?
Thanks, Chedric. Follow the link to find articles on the topic. I’m sure some of them will be of great help o you. Good luck with blogging! ;)
Thank you. As a new blogger I am still looking for tips and found a few things here I will apply to my own blog
Omg this is amazing
Thanks for the compliment, Steve! :)
Great blog – a good reminder
I will try them. because I have problem with my free blog I write good content in my opinion. I opened social media account this blog but I do not get any traffic. I hope It will help me. Thanks
Nice sharing. I will try the tips to my blog. Thank you.
Extremely helpful tips! Thanks
I really love your ideas for blog writing but in addition, I would say, write an informative content to engage users on your blog.
ahethr
hi, great work jasimine
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I’m about to really invest in this portion of my website and I appreciate your basic information. It will help this novice a lot!
great informative work
Nice blog…very helpful…Thank you…!!
A very informative article, thanks. There’s a very good WordPress Post Formats beginner’s guide on wpblog to learn all about Post Formats, for better understanding do have a look at it too. Thanks
very valuable tips. how many images/videos are good in a post? Found Yoast post format, introduction and conclusion para are bold. Does that format a better one?
Love your article, this help me to writing with true formatting.
Ueududyx
Thanks for sharing grateful article,i am goona to applying it,
Nice capture. I am also following these steps and I have seen quite a good improvement in post.
The tips you share to write a Formatting is really very useful for me. It will help me to improve my writing skills. Thank You!
Hi Jasmine,
I am quite new to blogging, and have created a page on Google’s Blogger. Most of my posts are about my life journey, having come out of a difficult phase of my life.
I however need some guidance, especially on how I present my content, the lay out of my page etc.
One of the best formatting posts I’ve read in a long time. Thank you for providing this! Who knows, maybe Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style” will one day be Strunk, White, and Henry’s “Elements of Style”. Keep them coming.
very good
This was the article I was looking for! All the right elements for doing a good blog. I appreciate you!
A very informative article, thanks.Love your article, this help me to writing with true formatting. One of the best formatting posts I’ve read in a long time.
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Hello Jasmine and thank you so much.I’m a beginner and have started to write to my travel site. Your advice is so helpful to me. Surely, will read more of your articles in this regard.
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