Steps On How to Make Your Blog Content Scannable

1 Pay attention to the title of your blog.
Don"t put lots of thought and effort into your #blog and blow off the title. That will leave your great article...unread. First impressions really matter, and titles are the "hook" to get your reader interested.
Even if you spend a long time getting the title "just
so", the rewards for your effort will be better. Think
about how the title will look in the RSS feed. What
titles make you click on RSS headings? Aim for the
curiosity, interest, and even question angles. Keep the
title as simple as possible.
If you use shocking, controversial, or big claim titles,
make sure the content meets the promise. Think
about meeting a need. Titles that express what
people often worry or think about are popular. For
example, "Losing weight without trying" would
interest a lot of people!
Indicate the general topic, for those new to the
subject or accumulating a broad base of information
and reasoning. There will be a lot of these readers,
but they"ll probably just skim your article.
Also indicate the specific topic, for those facing a
specific issue. There will be fewer of them, but they"ll
need to read your special information carefully and
may return for more.
For instance, "Losing Weight with the Cabbage Soup
Diet". Apply these principles to the title of each post,
too.
2 Look at it from the viewpoint of starting with the
conclusion. The idea of this is to lead with the
essential point you"re trying make, allowing the
remainder of the article to expound upon it. Making
the point clear from the outset is better with web
writing than leaving the ah-ha! moment until the
conclusion.
Remember, your reader may never get to the end to
discover your pearls of wisdom. Give more up front
to avoid your readers dashing off before reaching
your brilliant finale.
3 Use headings. The wonderful thing about headings
is that they help to guide your writing initially (fill in
this bit, then this bit...) and they allow your reader to
quickly look through the body of the post to see if
the read is something they want to pursue [1]further.
Headings draw the eyes downwards, which is just
what you want your reader to do when reading on
screen.
4 Make lists. Lists break up large blocks of daunting
text into manageable bits.
Look around the Internet and you"ll see that just
about everyone uses lists in some type of way to get
their message across.
Indeed, although not a blog, wikiHow uses bulleted
lists, as you can see from the style used right here.
Whether bulleted or numbered, lists allow your eye
to quickly run down the list of points. Lists carve out
the text for you, something that makes screen
reading a lot more enjoyable – and fast. Lists get
your articles and posts linked to and read more than
essay style posts; research done by Darren Rowse
and Chris Garrett has [2]proven this.
5 Rely on good formatting. Bold, italicize, and
underline your text, without overdoing it. Use these
elements of formatting to emphasize points. And
changes in the size, style, or color of font can help
make content scannable. Like using highlighter, if you
go overboard with it, it no longer serves its purpose.
Underlining should be used with care because it can
lead the reader to think they can use it as a link and
they"ll get frustrated when it doesn"t open to a new
page.
Some people groan inwardly at bolding or italicizing
in places where you wouldn"t see it in a book.
Getting used to this different style can take a leap of
faith but it helps to remember that the Internet is not
a book and the rules differ because reading on a
screen differs. Block quotes are neat. Just as they"re
used in magazine and newspaper articles, block
quotes can highlight a particularly juicy, interesting, or
profound part of your post, making the reader keen
to dig deeper to find out what provoked that quote.
6 Use links, but don"t overwhelm your reader with
them. While a certain amount of links are desirable,
you can lose your reader to them too.
7 Use images. Remember, a picture is worth a
thousand words and it certainly helps to make a text
"heavy" blog more interesting.
8 Write short paragraphs. Three to five sentences is
fine and sometimes, you can even get away with
less.
Shorter paragraphs also have the benefit of
encouraging a reader to keep reading a longer post
because each bite sized chunk is easy to digest.
Leaving space is good. Don"t seek to cover every part
of the post – allow white space to form a regular part
of your post"s overall appearance.
9 Keep your word count down low. Don"t let your
writing run away from you. Mark Twain once said: "If
you want me to give you a two-hour presentation, I
am ready today. If you want only a five-minute
speech, it will take me two weeks to prepare." Finely
crafted less words can take a lot longer to produce
than a spiel that rolls off your keyboard without nary
an editorial input. You"ll get better at writing pithier
copy without strain as time goes on but for now, put
in the effort to learn how to keep the writing shorter
and the message punchier.
The key element is to reread it several times and
anything, anything at all, that doesn"t make sense,
sound right, or add to it, comes out.
Read your copy out loud. Nothing substitutes for
reading out loud; you"ll pick up errors you haven"t
spotted reading silently and you"ll note rambling that
isn"t so evident from reading.
10 Enjoy the rewards of working on scannable
content. The benefit of making a blog post scannable
is that your readers are more likely to stick around
and even spend time reading your longer posts. It
may feel like hard work initially – and it is – but once
you"re in the habit, you"ll wonder how you could
ever have done it any other way.