Eight Easy Ways to Improve Your Blog’s Readability

Are you getting all the blog readers you want?

Would you like to attract and keep more regular blog readers?

Perhaps it’s time to give your blog a review.

Here are eight ways you can easily and quickly make your blog easier to read.

Proofread your blog posts

Use spell check and then proofread it yourself to make sure you’ve used the right words. If you’re bad at spelling and grammar, have someone else proofread it.

Make your blog easy to read

Literally. Use short paragraphs with white space in between. One sentence can be a paragraph. And sentences can be short. As I learned in journalism school, don’t use a two-dollar word when a 25-cent word will do. Bulleted and numbered lists make it easy to scan and read through information.

Dark type on a white background is best for readability. If you must use light type on a dark background, make your font one size bigger to make it easier to read. Avoid using script or handwriting fonts. They work ok in headlines and artwork but are hard to read as text.

Make use of blog headings

Headings are great for making important points stand out and making your posts scan-able.  The blog headline should be size 1. Sub-headings should be in size 2 or 3.

Make your blog simple

Keep your blog free of clutter; busy, heavily patterned backgrounds and too many badges, buttons, ads and graphics filling your sidebars distract readers from your posts. Don’t stuff your posts with keywords or irrelevant links. Google’s smarter than that; so are your readers.

Make your blog posts short

Unless you have a literary blog (and sometimes even if you do), try and keep most of your blog posts between about 600-800 words. Really try to stay under 1000. If your blog post is running really long, consider making it a two-parter. Busy readers are often put off by lengthy blog posts or may decide to come back to it later when they have more time. Shorter posts encourage them to stay and read right then.

Make your blog quiet

Avoid the temptation to use auto-loading music or auto-starting videos. Many people surf the web at work or have multiple windows open. A sudden blare of music is a top reason for readers to close out of a window quickly.

Make your blog load quickly

Use the smallest size image that will do the job and show up clearly. There is no reason to use an image larger than 72 dpi for a blog post. And there is no reason to have the longest dimension wider than the width of your blog posting area (usually 600 pixels).

Make your blog spam free

Activate Akismet. It’s free, but if you’re using your blog for business, you really ought to be paying them something. They’re worth their weight in gold. People are much more likely to read and comment on blogs that aren’t loaded with spam comments.

Do you have any other tips for improving your blog’s readability? Please share your thoughts and questions in the comment section below.