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Making a Blog Scan- and Skim-Friendly

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Short attention spans are the norm among blog readers, and I recommend keeping that in mind when you’re composing your blog posts. It’s much more common for readers to scan blog posts than it is for them to actually read blog posts, word for word, from start to finish. So what makes a blog scan- and skim-friendly? Let’s look at a sample blog post, below:

Clear Headlines Make a Blog Scan- and Skim-Friendly

So do short, to-the-point paragraphs that are no longer than five lines. That’s where that straightforward and uncomplicated writing style I recommend comes in handy—it’s a lot easier to keep paragraphs short when you’re using simple vocabulary. What else makes a blog scan- and skim-friendly?

  • Bullet points
  • Bullet points
  • Bullet points
  1. Numbered lists
  2. Numbered lists
  3. Numbered lists

See what I did in the example above? Basically, you want to make your posts easy for your readers to absorb, making your blog more readable and more memorable. Here are some additional tips:

  • Make your headlines descriptive and to the point, so the reader knows what your content is about without having to read the post.
  • Make your subheads similarly descriptive, so a reader can jump down to the section in a post that interests him or her most.
  • Put your conclusions or main points UP FRONT—this makes your topic and slant clear, while also making your copy more enticing to the reader.
  • Condense copy into bulleted lists or itemized lists.
  • Underline or highlight important ideas in the text so readers don’t have to go looking for them.

Photo credit: Kevan / Foter / CC BY

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