You know it’s important to create readable blog posts that get not only readers but sharers and engagers too, right? With social media creating the new guidelines of content marketing these days, blog content needs to not only be readable but it needs to be engaging and sharable, as well. In this article, I’m going to show you how to create readable blog posts so that your blog can do better on search engines, social media, and with your followers in general. To sum this whole article up, you need to write your blog posts as if you’re writing a best-selling novel. Keep reading if you want to learn more about how you can do this. P.s. You don’t have to be a best-selling novel writer, either!

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Create Readable Blog Posts: Your Titles and Headers

You ever read something boring? If you’re like me, you don’t read it very long. I had to read boring articles back when I was completing my MBA. Nowadays, I don’t read boring article. The first thing I notice to decide whether the article is boring or not is the title of the article. I definitely judge a book by its cover as do the majority of internet readers. The one thing me and you don’t want is for other people to see our blog post titles and think “boring!” and then move on. Creating readable blog posts always starts with the title of the article as well as the headers within the article.

Easy Tip #1: Sell with Your Titles

The best way to create the perfect blog post title is to create a title that sells what you’re trying to inform others with your post. You need to sum the post up into a clickable Call-to-Action title that sells the content. When a reader clicks to read your post, you’ve sold a big part of the content. So, I suggest you search Google for topics you get into. Find the best post that lures you in and remember that title. Write down a few of them and use them as cheat sheets to help you determine your title.

Easy Tip #2: Click Bait Only if it is Honest

There is a fine line between ethical and unethical click bait. I recommend not using click bait as much as you can. However, if you can honestly use it and it results in accurate information, then you might want to at least experiment with it. However, I wouldn’t assume it to be a winning strategy. Most websites that are getting a huge engagement that are using click bait are already very large with a lot of fans. Most of their fans will see that content regardless of the click bait. Use caution with click bait, it can seriously harm your reputation.

Easy Tip #3: Use Numbered Lists

If you found this article on Google or whatever search engine you use, chances are, you clicked into it because of the number of tips I have created for the article. 26 tips is a lot, and you can do a lot with them. I’ll be completely honest; I used the number of tips as 26 for a strategy. My keyword research at the time showed that the biggest article had 16 tips. I use 10 more elements more than the largest article. They usually get read before lower number articles. It works. Use numbers but also try to give more numbered elements than the larger article on search. For example, if you wanted to compete with this article, you should do 36 tips post and please, feel free to do that!

Easy Tip #4: How To Articles

Aside from numbered list posts, The ‘How To” articles tend to do very well. In fact, I would not recommend making a question your title unless it is exclusively ‘How To’. Of course, the post shouldn’t evolve around you asking a question but rather explain how to do something. People are always looking for ways to do their tasks. Article showing them is a lot better than paying someone to teach them. I know that hurts those making money doing it, but it helps you make a better blog post. When creating these how to articles, make sure you are targeting topics that don’t really have any answers but are questioned a lot.

Easy Tip #5: Keywords in Titles and Headers

Definitely use targeted keywords in your titles and headers. Try to get the keywords or key phrase in the beginning of your title but they can pretty much be anywhere in the headers. For markup’s sake, all of your headers should be H2 and higher. Don’t use H1 markup for your headers because that is what your actual title is.

Easy Tip #6: Treat Headers like Titles

When it comes to creativity, your headers should be as good as your titles. Headers will help keep people on your blog post. The idea is to keep readers reading as long as you can. This will dramatically help your position on search engines and improve your overall marketing presence. If your title is awesome but your headers are boring, you aren’t going to keep readers on your content for very long. If your article is boring, that reader probably won’t come back and that is definitely a problem.

Easy Tip #7: Be Short but Sweet

Don’t make huge titles. If search engines are cutting off your titles in search results, you’re definitely doing it wrong. People don’t like to read like they used to. Long sentences are not completely avoidable. However, you can still keep the majority of them short. Your titles and headers should be a part of that majority. Keep them short but sweet. Make sure they still sell but are not super long and require more effort than anyone wants to commit.

Easy Tip #8: Write for Your Audience

No matter what, you need to be writing your titles and headers for your perfect reader. Who do you want to target with your content? Who do you want your audience to be? That is who you should always write for. Go find them on other blogs and especially on social media and see what makes them click into something. What makes them comment? What makes them share? All those answers can significantly help you with creating perfect titles for perfect readable blog posts.

Easy Tip #9: Don’t Use Filler Words

Filler words are words that are used to create a longer form of content. An example would be this sentence “That’s really cool if you think about it, isn’t it?”. That sentence doesn’t do anything but fill a space. It makes a paragraph longer or a title/header longer. It doesn’t call-to-action or excite the reader. Every sentence you write should grip the reader’s attention and keep them hanging on. That is what I mean by writing as if you’re writing a best-selling novel.

Easy Tip #10: Get Personal

If you read any of my blogs, you’ll notice that I’m personal. I write my blogs as if I am speaking directly to you. I use personal words like “you” and “me”. I use contractions which are writing “aren’t” instead of “are not”. I do this all for a particular reason. I do this because it makes my blog post personal and relatable. I write as if I am talking to you as if you’re in front of me. And let me tell you this, it works so well that every big popular blogger is doing it. Don’t believe me? Go see for yourself. Get personal because personal is relatable. The other way is boring much like a college class that you don’t want to be at.

Create Readable Blog Posts: Refine Your Content

Now that we’ve covered the headers and titles, its time for the nitty gritty. Your Blog Content! Your blog content matters when you want to create readable blog posts because it keeps people reading. You can have the best titles and headers ever but if your content is junk, no one is going to keep reading it. But lucky enough for you (and me!) blogging has been going on since Web 1.0! This means we’ve had over 30-years of blogging activities to show us what works and what doesn’t work. For 25 of those 30-years, I’ve been paying a lot of attention. So, let’s get on with the readable blog posts tips!

Easy Tip #11: You have a 10-Second Window

It takes about 10-seconds for us to decide if we like the content we are going to be reading or not. We usually skim through it before committing. So, you need to make sure all your content is awesome. But you especially need to ensure that the beginning of each paragraph or section lures a reader in. You need to write powerful statements, questions, and call-to-actions especially at the beginning of each section. If you slack on this, you’ll lose a majority of your readers.

Easy Tip #12: Lengths Matter

For this article, I’m writing well over a couple thousand words. But 26 tips, 26 technical tips at that, is a lot of words. So, it makes perfect sense to write this much. However, if I were to write a how to article for example, I position those as the ‘I need to learn this fast’ style of articles. So, you’ll want to keep the articles under 1,000-words. If you can keep it around 500-words, you’ll be better off. When someone wants something fast, we need to give it to them quickly. Master that ability and you’ll be a popular blogger; I promise you that! But if you’re writing something like this article, definitely make sure you provide everything that needs to be in it even if that means a longer article.

Easy Tip #13: Format Your Posts

Don’t just make a header and paragraph for each section. This is often advice that I even fail to accomplish. And I know better! Try to add some format to your articles. You can use blockquotes, different fonts and sizes, images, videos, different background and font colors, bullet and numbered lists, and unique formats such as custom menus and such. Definitely make sure the post is user-friendly by all means but make it a little exciting in format. It will pop out a little bit more. But it really depends on your blog and niche. Not everyone needs formatting – look at Copy Blogger, plain Jane black and white with very little formatting going on, yet very popular!

Easy Tip #14: Make it Easy to Read

Don’t write an article as if you’re writing a college paper. I’ve written a ton of college papers because I have two master’s degrees. But I was lucky enough to be a blogger before a student, so I know what readability to focus on for both types of literature. There is a time for professional papers – university. And there is a time for non-professional papers – blogs. Write for elementary school student not college students. No, don’t assume that comment means we’re dumb. We just prefer easier reading without words we need to think about or look up because we only use them….in school. Make sure your content is easy to read by everyone.

Easy Tip #15: Don’t Get Crazy with Themes

Your actual blog theme also matters. People sometimes make the mistake of getting bright themes or themes that are really flashy. We all look at screen all day long anymore. Our eyes are a lot more sensitive these days than they were before smartphones and computers really took off. Those bright and flashy themes look for a minute and then they burn out our eyes! If your theme is too bright, that will be the first thing that kills readability. They won’t even give your content the chance it deserves. I try to keep it simple and as easy on anyone’s eyes as it can be. I suggest you do the same.

Easy Tip #16: Structure Your Content

Do you a favor and me too! Plan your post out before you write it. Plan it out and structure it. By structure, I mean what section goes here and what section goes there. Navigating your post is as important as navigating your blog website as a whole. The structure of your content needs to make sense. Look at this post! I put titles and headers first, and then content, and so on. I did this to keep it structured. Titles and header comes before the content, it just makes sense. You need to adapt to this structuring as well or you can confuse your audience.

Easy Tip #17: Write For Me

I’ve already covered being person and using personal words like “you” and “me”. But it doesn’t stop there. You need to write for humans and humans, only. You to read and master your knowledge on basic article SEO or search engine optimization for blogging. Then you need to strategically place your keywords throughout your content without sacrificing the need to write for humans. If you keyword stuff or write in a way to please search engines, you’ll get caught. Simply that. Google will catch you because it uses some pretty advanced AI in its algorithms. And humans will catch you because all of the worst content websites have abused this style so much that it is easy to spot. Go check out one of those “Only in your state” blogs for reference of abusing SEO tactics.

Easy Tip #18: Write For Me….Part 2

Again, write for humans not for algorithms! Listen to your audience. Read your comments. Follow trends on social media. Pay attention to forums, other blogs, and even Quora. Your audience is asking specific questions about the niche. That is what you should be blogging about. Blog about things that no one else is covering but is being asked about. Blog about things that are being covered but you have a different take that’s better. Blog about what is currently trending. You should be writing readable blog posts about topics that people are searching for. That is how you get a dedicated and loyal audience for your blog.

Easy Tip #19: Scroll Friendly Content

This is a tip not many people bring up. Where is your hand when you’re reading from a computer? Mine is on my mouse and my finger on the scroll slider. How about when you’re reading something on your phone? Mine finger is on the screen, pulling the page down. Scroll friendly means you’re making a post formatted to where it is easy for the reader to be scrolling through while reading. This is where you need to break up paragraphs, try to use less words, put the action in the front if you will. No one just wants to stop and read a big block of text anymore.

Easy Tip #20: Reread Your Post

Listen. Everyone makes spelling and grammar mistakes. I’m sure you’ll find a few in this article. Even though I reread the article. But you do want to double check your post after you finish to make sure you spell everything as best as you can. You might also consider letting someone else read it to see if they make sense out of it. If you have no one else, just read it out loud. I find that helps out a lot when I am reviewing my content before I post it.

Create Readable Blog Posts: Uncommon Tips

Now I want to share uncommonly shared tips. I’m sure others suggest these tips in some form or another, but they’re not commonly suggested in article like this. This are blogging hacks if you will. They’re almost secrets to make your readable blog posts even more readable than they would be just by following the advice above. These took some years and experimenting to learn and master.

Easy Tip #21: Write Your Title Last

Really. Name your blog post “untitled” and then write it. Reread it for spelling and grammar. Then reread it again. After that, you should be able to determine the perfect title for the masterpiece you just created. Sometimes, I feel like we write a title and then try to make every piece of content we create next on the post appease to that title. I think the title should come naturally after the content. The content is the creator of the title. Try it and see if it helps.

Easy Tip #22: Master Keyword Research

One of the best ways to be a content writer is to master keyword research. You need about 8 to 12-weeks to completely master something. If you master keyword research, discovering new blog post ideas will come very naturally. This really helps with creating readable blog posts too because you naturally know that the blog post has a better chance of doing well in search engine rankings. And when it does do well, it feels really good and gives you an idea of how to keep making it happen like that.

Easy Tip #23: Be Really Picky of Guest Bloggers

I’m not telling you to not accept guest blogging. Guest blogging is a great tool to get your blog more content while allowing you focus on something else that requires attention. It also helps to make you feel like your blog is going places. It is a reward to see other people who are so passionate about your blog that they want to write for it. But there is a difference between passion and being sneaky. The one who want links, no sponsored labels, and write generic content are not passionate about your blog. They are passionate about getting a backlink. And that will kill your blog’s reputation in a click of a button. Be picky. Do your research.

Easy Tip #24: Tools to Help You Write

Consider using tools that help you become a better writer. Tools like Grammarly for example will help you create better sentences and choose better words. There are other tools out there to help you do this. I use Yoast SEO for WordPress and it has a built-in feature that judges the readability score for each post you make. It is a really convenient tool to have and that is a part of the free edition, too. Anything to help us be better writers is a good thing in my opinion.

Easy Tip #25: Update Your Old Content

After your blog post has had a full year of being in the public, check your analytics to see how it is doing. If it has no new visits, then it’s time to update the content. You do this by editing the post and changing what needs to be changed. You can highlight the new stuff to give the readers an idea of what has changed. Finally, edit the title and put the year in there or ‘Updated for Year’ or something like that to show it has been updated for the new year. This will help get search engine ranking and readers back on your best content.

And Lastly, Easy Tip #26: Make a Goal For Each Post

When you’re writing a blog post, you should have a goal for the post. This will help you better create readable blog posts because you’ll be writing with an objective in mind. No post should have a goal that is too big and hard to accomplish. But the goal should be relatable to the success of your overall blog goals, and it should be doable. Maybe a certain amount of traffic. Maybe a certain amount of new email subscribers. Whatever the goal be, make sure you write your post with the goal in mind.

And there you have it – over 3,400-words of fine tips on how to create readable blog posts. This article has been a pleasure to write. I love making these tip article to help you out and you can expect more of them as I continue to make this blog better. But I do need your help if you’d be willing to help me. All you have to do is share this post with someone who would enjoy it such as a friend that also blogs. That would help me out a bunch if you could do that.

Now over to you – what are you doing to create readable blog posts on your blog? If you could add another tip to this article, what would that tip be?