A Quick Blog Writing Style Checklist

If you’re just beginning your blog writing career, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed with your writing style. Fortunately, there are a few simple strategies that can help ensure everything flows smoothly from there.

Prior to writing, ensure you’re keeping the right audience in mind. Doing so will enhance your writing style and structure, which in turn will boost user engagement on your blog.

Headers

Headers are an essential element of content organization. They offer readers a way to quickly scan through information in digestible chunks, making it easier for them to locate what they need quickly.

Headers also create whitespace between your page and content, helping to improve SEO. You can easily create headers in Word or with CSS.

When creating a Word document, you can add a header by selecting the Header option from the options menu near the top of the window. This header will be applied to all pages within your document and appear at the top left-hand corner.

Double-clicking the header text opens a menu of options; here, you can customize your document by choosing another first page, altering its position, and font and size.

According to your Office subscription type and version of Word, you have several header options to choose from. For instance, you can utilize a title, an introduction, or even just a brief description for your document.

Page numbers can be included in your headers when writing a long paper for school. These should usually be printed with larger or bolder font than the document’s main body.

Whitespace

Writing with white space is an effective way to make your content stand out. Studies show that white space can increase readability by 20% and improve reading comprehension – a major win for readers!

Traditionally, content was so tightly packed onto a page that it proved challenging to navigate and comprehend. This made reading an unpleasant experience for many people.

Modern designers have responded by balancing the elements on a page with whitespace, creating an intuitive flow for users to navigate information. This aids in increasing reading comprehension and relieving cognitive load.

It is essential to remember that whitespace does not need to be empty; it can be any color or design element. Whitespace can be employed to break up large blocks of text and graphics or separate smaller parts of a design.

OwlLabs’ hero section utilizes whitespace to beautifully balance a strong value statement with an inviting CTA and product image. This combination makes the section an inviting starting point, with the CTA easily clickable for you to begin your free trial.

When crafting a blog post or an online sales page, whitespace is essential for keeping content organized and easily readable. Not only does this help you reach your marketing objectives, but it can also increase conversion rate on the website. Furthermore, whitespace enhances user experience by decreasing bounce rate significantly.

One Idea at a Time

The one-idea rule is a straightforward writing technique that can help you develop, refine and connect your various writing components in an organized and convincing manner. It works equally well for persuasive as well as informational pieces.

Before you begin writing, having an idea of your topic makes the process much smoother and efficient. Once you know what you’re writing about, focus on developing each element of your blog post to ensure they work together harmoniously.

When crafting your blog posts, use search engine optimization (SEO) keywords throughout the text to help readers locate information quickly and improve search engine rankings.

Another essential SEO factor is writing an effective meta description for your blog post. This 160-character summary of your post appears on search result pages and should be carefully written.

Before beginning to write your blog, it is wise to compile a list of relevant keywords that you can research. Doing this ahead of time will save you valuable time and energy in the long run.

Additionally, adding tags or categories to your blog posts is a wise idea. Doing so makes it simpler for readers to locate similar content when they return.

Prioritize Key Information

When crafting blog content, there are numerous elements to take into account. Craft content that appeals to your target audience and helps you reach your business objectives.

In addition to providing useful content, your post must be easily navigable. If readers can’t locate what they need quickly or conveniently, you could potentially lose them as readers.

To effectively communicate key information to your blog readers, prioritize key details. This is especially pertinent for tutorial-style posts that take readers step by step through a process.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is by creating a table of contents (TOC). This structured outline with numbered headings can aid readers in navigating your post and also aid in improving SEO results.

Create some links within each section of the TOC that will assist readers in discovering more of your blog content. Doing this increases the likelihood that they’ll share it on their social media channels and drive additional traffic to your site.

Following these tips will make your blog posts easy to comprehend and likely rank highly on search engines. Furthermore, you can repurpose them into blog-to-video, podcasts or slides for even greater impact – helping draw in new visitors while keeping existing ones engaged.

Infographics or Images or Videos

Utilizing infographics, images or video as part of a Blog Writing Style Checklist effectively engages readers while providing pertinent data. However, you must exercise caution when selecting what type of content to utilize.

Before creating your infographic, deciding if the information presented will be engaging for your target audience is essential. This will determine how much jargon is used, how detailed it is and how well it represents the data in question.

If you’re creating an infographic on clothing costs, using a price calculator to show how much a particular item costs compared to others on the market is ideal. This helps your readers comprehend what they’re paying for and if it might be beneficial to spend more money on similar items in the future.

You can also incorporate data from other sources to make your infographic stand out. Kaggle, for instance, offers free access to a wide range of datasets on topics ranging from basketball to global warming – perfect for making an eye-catching infographic!

When creating infographics or other types of content, it’s wise to take some time to craft an outline so you know exactly what information will be included in the post. Doing this will guarantee all the key points are covered and keep readers engaged.

Bullet Points or Numbered Lists

Bullet points or numbered lists effectively break up lengthy paragraphs and add visual interest to your blog post. Furthermore, these types of list formats make it simpler for readers to locate key information quickly and conveniently.

They’re beneficial for SEO, since they increase the chance of receiving a featured snippet on Google. But it’s essential to learn how to utilize them effectively so your content is easy to read and appealing to your audience.

First, ensure the order of items on your list remains consistent. If you’re comparing two or more things, separate them out into distinct lists for easier reading and reduce confusion about their placement.

Another mistake is using numbers instead of bullets in a list format. Numbers may suggest an order or ranking between items, leading readers to favor one item over another.

To avoid this issue, use symbols for list items instead of numbers. Symbols tend to be more precise and look better when used in a blog with a list format.

No matter if you choose to use a bullet point or number, consistent punctuation throughout your blog is essential. This holds especially true for lists. While it’s often beneficial to capitalize each item in these types of lists that consist solely of single words or short phrases, it isn’t mandatory.

Blog Post Style

Here are a few basic guidelines to help you with your blog post structure. These are fairly obvious things, but it never hurts to make sure you cover the basics.

Blog Post Structure

your blog post structure is highly important. Remember that your post is likely to be read in multiple formats, especially mobile formats on phones and iPads. Additionally, everyone’s busy these days and has information overload, so, it’s important to organize your content in a way that people can get valuable information quickly and easily without filtering through too much excess fluff. The basic items to check are:

• Format for Scannability (the ease with which a particular body of text can be read and the main concepts understood by the reader)
• Use paragraph headers (usually, levels 1 through 3)
• Paragraph headers should be within 15-60 characters in length for best SEO performance
• Add Bullets or tables to organize lists
• Add links to related posts [when applicable] in the blog post’s body.
• Add the Related Internal Reference link at the bottom of the article.

Photo and Graphics

it’s long been known that nearly everyone is visual and that pictures speak more than words in a compact way. So, paying attention to your pictures and your infographics to quickly and efficiently communicate your main points is essential. These items should be helpful:

• Always add pictures to an article
• Add process step picture to clarify written instructions
• Add infographics, if you have them
• Populate the Caption, Alternate text, and Image Title Attribute properties on Photos
• Always set the open in separate tab property

SEO Essentials For Writing Blogs and Pages

SEO is a critical part of any blog post. However, no one can be an expert on all the search engines out there. So here are a few quick things that are appropriate to almost any search engine:

• Use Hierarchical categories and sub-categories to relate topics
• Add Menu should only hold essential categories organized for shallow logical navigation (minimal clicking)
• The Menu should contain both page and category structures
• Periodically review and update menu to ensure recent changes, if appropriate, included

Driving Blog Visits

Most of us write blogs to disseminate information, ideas, and help others. So people must be able to find our blog and want to come back to our blog. Here are a few quick tips:

• Publish new blog posts on social media (Twitter, etc.)
• Revise blog posts as they age and add additional content (e.g., new pictures,  infographic, more current information, expand essential facts, etc.)
• Republish revised blog post to social media (Twitter, etc.)

Content Strategies

blogs are all about content so you need a strategy to make sure that you can publish regularly and that you publish when your blog is likely to have the most interest to your reading community. Here are some ideas:

• Keep a list of articles to be published
• Pay attention to seasonal and calendar-driven opportunities, if they apply to your blog’s content
• Read site comments and address issues
• Use blogs to document questions and answers from your readers. Also, be sure to answer the reader’s comment directly.