How to Write Scannable Blog Posts

As bloggers, it’s important for us to make our posts easy to digest. Most likely, your readers are way too busy to read all of your blog posts. They’re looking for key points that they can put into practice quickly. And what do you always want to do? Give your readers what they want. Here are some tips on writing easy-to-scan blog posts.

Break up your paragraphs.
I don’t know about you, but whenever I see a post in my Google Reader that’s just long paragraph after long paragraph, I immediately skip over it. I don’t have time to read something that looks that intimidating. Break up your paragraphs into sub-paragraphs.

Put your major points in bold.
I regularly scan blog posts for the major themes. I very rarely read an entire post word-for-word. By putting your major points in bold, you’re making it easy for your audience to still take away the major lessons, without having to spend too much time to learn them.

Make use of bulletpoints and numbered lists.
Posts with these elements are easy to scan and easier to remember later. Don’t hold your major points hostage in a long paragraph.

Make links stand out in your post.
Make sure that links are somehow identified in your posts (via an underline, or a different text color, or something). This makes it easy for your readers to scan and find additional information and resources.

Making your posts easily scannable is just one more thing you can do to get on the good side of your readers and keep them coming back for more.

  • Share/Bookmark

If you liked this, you might also enjoy...

  1. How I Write My Blog Posts
  2. Making Your Blog Function Across Different Browsers
  3. How to Point WordPress Pages or Posts to an External URL
  4. 5 Reasons Why It’s Scary To Start A Blog (And How To Get Over Your Fears)
  5. Guest Posting Reminders: Palm Meets Forehead Edition

View Comments to How to Write Scannable Blog Posts
  1. Dr Jon P Heins DC
    September 15, 2009 | 8:43 AM

    Thanks for the tips Lisa I especially like your point “your readers are way too busy to read all of your blog posts. They’re looking for key points that they can put into practice quickly. And what do you always want to do? Give your readers what they want.”

  2. Johnluffa
    September 15, 2009 | 8:44 AM

    I 100% agree with you there, and your post clearly illustrates this.
    I tend to scan when I get online too. My eyes are far too lazy to wiggle through long paragraphs.
    Not too sure why that is :)

  3. Lisa Morosky
    September 15, 2009 | 3:54 PM

    @Johnluffa I think you’re like a lot of people. We’re so used to having information immediately nowadays. Have to cater to that mentality when you’re blogging, too. Thanks for the comment!

    @Dr Jon P Heins DC Thanks for commenting. That’s my blogging motto. Everytime I do something on my blog, I have to ask myself if what I’m doing is giving the readers what they want, or if it’s just giving me what I want. Hopefully, it’s both. :)

  4. Harsh Agrawal
    September 22, 2009 | 10:27 PM

    Another 2 cents from me..
    Add Images . Images speaks hundred words. Also You are using Thesis theme , you can use its post styling feature to show more prominent quotes or topics heading.

Leave a Reply


Wanting to leave an <em>phasis on your comment?

Trackback URL http://LisaMorosky.com/2009/09/how-to-write-scannable-blog-posts/trackback/
blog comments powered by Disqus