One way to grow a readership that you may not have thought of is to increase your blog’s readability. Even if your content is amazing, if it’s not easy for your followers to access and read, they won’t be following for long. Here are five impossibly easy ways to make your blog more readable.
Break Up Your Text
Writing in smaller paragraphs or using titles or bullets to separate your points is not only easier to read, but more appealing to readers as well. We often don’t have time to sit down and read blogs for hours on end, so readers should be able to quickly scan your post to find the most important “take away” messages.
No Crazy Colors or Fonts
Fonts and colors are fun, but they don’t improve your blog’s readability. Stick to dark colored text on a light background, and try to limit yourself to 2 or 3 fonts across your entire blog. You can use fun fonts on your header or post titles, but your text body should be simple and readable. And while we’re at it, make sure your text is large enough to read!
Align Your Text to the Left
Left-aligning your text is insanely easy to do and makes an immediate difference. Center-aligned text is confusing to the eyes because it does not follow a straight line – it goes all over the place! Try this out yourself by first writing a post with left alignment, then format it centered and try to read it.
Size Your Photos Consistently
This will make your blog not only more readable, but more professional as well! Find out how wide your post area is (for example, mine is 620 pixels wide) and size all of your photos to take up that entire space. You can do this easily either in an image editing program or in your blogging dashboard when you upload your photos.
Please, oh please, no music! Ever!
Want to know how to instantly lose readers? Have music, videos, or ads that automatically play when your blog loads.
How do you ensure your blog is readable? Share your tips!
{ 53 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh, I couldn’t agree more with ALL of these things! That last one- I say a big, huge AMEN. Usually if a blog plays music, I’m out of there as fast as I can click out!
Paulina recently posted..Thankful Thursday {June 21st}
Ditto here!!! Blogs and music don’t mix for sure!!!!!
Ana recently posted..Começar à Segunda Feira / Starting up on Mondays
Now even that was easy to read! Exactly how posts should be
Krista @therenoprojects
No music is great!! Thanks for the tips!
XO
designmyheartout.com
I agree with EVERYTHING. Another item? Make commenting easy. I know some people are limited to the plug-in they are given but it drives me crazy if I can’t figure out how to comment or make it work.
Rachel recently posted..Under the Sun Lit Trees – Pam’s Head Shots
I’m so sorry – I didn’t know it went through twice. The irony! Totally user error on this one.
Rachel recently posted..Under the Sun Lit Trees – Pam’s Head Shots
I agree… I LOVE leaving comments, but I can’t spend 5 minutes logging in and out of different apps and typing in codes to submit one!
Girls Run Faster recently posted..Dead Last Trumps Did Not Start
I love ALL of these. Another item? Make commenting easy. It drives me crazy when I cannot figure out how to comment or make it work. I know some people are limited to the plug-in they are given but make that extra effort & it will go swimmingly.
Rachel recently posted..Under the Sun Lit Trees – Pam’s Head Shots
Absolutely! I have such a hard time commenting on some Blogger blogs. Do you find it easy to comment here?
I am totally guilty of the center alignment, but I just feel like I don’t talk in complete sentences – let along paragraphs! I just ramble and whatnot, oops. I will maybe try and work on it though, thank you for these tips!
Sammantha!
I just started using center alignment because I thought it looked better….oops! I guess I’ll be switching back!!
Christie recently posted..Beauty Kit {$135 Value Giveaway}
Great tips! Thank you for mentioning the music. I keep my speakers off, because it can be startling when you’re cruising along quietly visiting sites and go to one that has a “soundtrack”. Especially, if you’re surfing in a quiet place like next to the Hubs in the middle of the night!
I also like lots of white space. The words and photos stand out more. (Love your site design, btw!)
Peggy @The Decorating Files recently posted..DIY: Party Cap Place Cards
I’ve definitely done the same to my boyfriend when he’s sleeping!
Great tips Kira! Thanks!
JoAnna recently posted..Almost there!!
All very useful advice. Also avoid flashing graphics or animations unless they are specific to the post, ie if you have designed an animation.
Paper Acrobat recently posted..Theres been a Murder!
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
Amy Powell recently posted..Beat the Heat: 5 Ways to Enjoy Austin in the Summer
Thanks for these tips. Amen on the music thing. I hate clicking on to a website that randomly starts making noise.
Kristen recently posted..Vacation: Around the Ship
Being some what new to blogging, these are helpful tips. Thanks!
Erika recently posted..Shoe Save Ten
Thanks for all of the tips Kira! They are all helpful in making a blog easier to view for the reader. Editing my blog is now on my todo list! Hope all is well!
These tips are great! They are so basic, yet entirely true and commonly overlooked. Thanks for sharing.
Juliette Gold recently posted..Jean-Charles de Castelbajac
Yes, yes, yes! And omg the music? That’s one of my BIGGEST website/blog pet peeves! And the photo sizing tip seems like something so small, but it goes a long way in making a site look polished & professional. As for the text, I like full justification, where it’s flush on both sides — that’s just from all my years working at a newspaper, lol!
Tiera recently posted..Mixplate Monday 6.25.12
Yes, justified is just fine too : ) Just say no to center alignment!
Great list!
Text colors are my nemesis. Why on earth would people put yellow text on a white background? Immediate cause for an un-follow!
Beth (i run like a girl) recently posted..Postcards from Lower Alabama
Great tips! I try to keep my paragraphs small and my photos BIG because that’s what my readers seem to repond to.
Sue Mathison recently posted..L’Italia Con La Familia
This is great! Thanks for the advice!
Please pardon my newbie-ness, but is there an easy way to find out how many pixels wide my content box is so that I can size my photos accordingly? Thanks for being gentle
Andrea – You use Wordpress, right? When you upload a photo, look at the size options. The “full-size” option will show your maximum width. Hope that helps!
Oh gosh, automatic music on any site is so irritating. I started making all my images the same width a while back and it makes such a big difference. It looks much more professional.
Great tips once again! I’m still new at this and struggling with the image part but I very much agree with the photo sizing.
Great tips! I totally agree about the music on a blog… arghhh… drive me nuts!
lamina @ do a bit recently posted..my creative space: pouch city
Agree completely with the music. Uhg, that is my number one pet peve for websites, it’s terrible!
For the folks who use wordpress there is another option for text alignment rather than left align, it’s called “align full”. It gives you the look that you find in magazines or newspapers, where the text lines up on either side as best it can. Personally, I like the look of it
Thanks for the post, and double thanks for encouraging people not to use music.
Awesome tips!! Another one I would say is make it really easy to find the subscribe button!! And not just subscribe through email, but also through RSS. I don’t want to subscribe through email & just recently figured out how to add blogs to my RSS feed that don’t provide a link. I have definitely lost some good reads because I was unable to subscribe in the format I wanted.
Linda recently posted..Photo a Day June
I totally agree with you !!! I still have old posts I need to change … but I would like to add that pictures should not be very big so they can load easily.
xxx
Nina
http://trendsurvivor.com/
Yes, that’s a great tip also! I size my photos to the correct width so they are not such huge files.
Awesome tips! Going along with your suggestions about fonts…I’m not a fan of super-boxy fonts that look like old fashioned type. They just don’t seem friendly to me.
Angela@veggievinyasa recently posted..A Day Late
Excellent tips! Luckily I do these already but am eager to read all of your other posts… your blog is so helpful. What a great resource .
alyson recently posted..Mirror, Mirror on the… Furniture
Thanks for visiting, Alyson! Hope you learn lots!
I love your blog and I’ve been checking your “primp my blog” posts to make my blog better. I found a html code for justify text alignment, I think it makes the posts look more professional. If you’re interested I can send you the code and you can share it with your readers.
Keep up the great work.
Take care.
Sheyla @ Pink Wedges recently posted..Shoesday Tuesday: Messeca’s Kelly Flatforms
These are really great! Curly, fun, colorful fonts totally make a blog look unprofessional, and unreadable. Especially when the background is a color that contrasts the font color *insert shudder*. Music, Ohhh, PLEASE no music! Sometimes I get up lots of new blogs in different tabs and can’t figure out where the music is coming from! These are awesome tips, and extremely helpful especially for new bloggers!
Yey. I was very pleased to be able to go down this list ticking them off saying yep, yep. I do occasionally central align text if it’s one line between photos.
Couldn’t agree more about the music
the monko recently posted..Science in the Sun
FYI, “Find out how wide your post area is (for example, mine is 620 pixels wide) ” – I tried viewing your blog on 3 different browsers… IE, Firefox and Chrome. Your pictures in each are all too wide and lap over into the next column on the right. So maybe your area is less than 620 pixels?
550 pixels works great now! Looks good.
You’re right, Dan – I recently redesigned my blog layout and for some reason, the photos haven’t resized themselves on all pages. I resized this one manually for your viewing pleasure.
Oh… good tips.
Ditto! Thanks for the reminder!
Chels recently posted..Chicken in a Bag
It seems like my blog is this long slow methodical work in progress (smile). I’m always stumbling across great suggestions like yours to tweak it a bit. I agree that dark colors on a white background look best. I also switched over to a wide responsive theme that still looks good on small devices like ipads and iphones.
RAD! haha @ the music part, this is soo true. i super love the blog, lady,love from canada!
Thanks for the tips! I especially agree with the music on a blog. I cannot stand that and I’m out of there asap, no matter whether I like the song or not.
Oddness/Weirdness recently posted..Video of the Day: U-Kiss’s "Stop Girl" MV Teaser, Black and White Version
Great site!
I recently started inserting the “more” tab into my posts, so the blog post is cut short, and people have to click on “more” if they want to read more. I put the break in a spot that is as close to a cliff-hanger as possible. This makes the posts shorter, so people can scroll down and see the beginnings of several posts more easily, and I’m hoping it also produces more clicks (views).
Kylie recently posted..Awkward Christmas Moments
Worse than music is ads that turn on when you enter their website. One of my favorite repurposing blogs yells at me every time I open her page. I wouldn’t return if I wouldn’t like her stuff and tutorials so much. Since I know, I turn off the loudspeakers. But usually, I’d close the page immediately..
Nice reminders, thanks,
Franziska
(btw, I tried to tweet your post and clicked on the shareoholic tab and it showed encrypted letters, you might want to update the plugin)
Franziska recently posted..T-Shirt Headbands
Love this! Every single last one of these is true. I absolutely cannot stand ads all over the place. The sidebar is the only place they should ever be, in my opinion. I’m pleased to know that I’m already doing all of these things!
Dani H recently posted..office wardrobe essentials
I really dislike some of the new formats that only ahow the first few lines of a post, causing the visitor to click again to read the post. Those are the sites I don’t bother with again.
Pat Q recently posted..Some More Cards
whoaaaa…!! i don’t like blog that playing music automatically, they stolen my bandwidth
kang topjer recently posted..Sms Gratis Ke Semua Operator Via Internet? Pakai Google Saja
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