7 Secrets for a Scannable Blog

7 Secrets for a Scannable BlogYou’ve got great content, but no one’s reading it.

What’s wrong?

In an era of short attention spans, scannability makes it easy for readers to find the information that they’re looking for on your blog, instead of moving on to a different website.

Relax with Whitespace

Just because you have lots of words on a page doesn’t mean that they’ll be read. In fact, your readers are more likely to feel overwhelmed by reams of text.

Adding whitespace — areas with no text — makes your writing feel less dense and easier to read.

Emphasize with Formatting

Use, bolding, italics, underlining, and changing your font size to emphasize your key points. Your readers’ eyes are naturally attracted to formatting changes, so they’re more likely to read those words.

Make sure that you don’t overuse formatting changes. A text in which everything is bolded is equivalent to a text in which nothing is bolded.

Share with Hyperlinks

Include hyperlinks to other reputable websites to support your claims and to give readers another place to read more about the topic.

Also include relevant links to other pages on your website so that your reader can learn more about you.

Break Your Text into Lists

Lists are a handy format for scannability since they break text into small, neat chunks. You can use numbered lists or bulleted lists.

Combining lists with bolded text is a great way to highlight key points while also providing more information.

Tell a Story with Subheaders

Subheaders are the signposts of your writing, telling your reader what’s next. Copyblogger recommends writing your title and subheaders first.

This technique gives you a clear outline of what your key ideas are and makes you focus on what your reader is most likely to read.

Entice with Pictures

It’s easier to look at a picture than it is to read a blog post. Once you’ve got people looking at a picture in your post, they’ll likely read the caption too. 

Include a picture with a deep caption — a caption that’s two or three sentences long and is likely to grab readers’ attention.

Also place pictures by your main ideas, so that readers who look at the pictures notice your text as well.

Attract Attention with Block Quotes

Adding a border or changing the background colour for your quotes sets them off from the rest of your text.

As discussed in the formatting section above, readers notice formatting changes, so they’re more likely to read a blocked-off quote.

Don’t let your great content get lost in poor blog design. Improve your scannability to grow your readership.

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