I’ll admit it, I am a habitual article scanner, and knowing that 79 percent of Internet readers read the same way, when I write a blog post I have to keep that in mind.
How do I do it? How do I keep the habitual scanners around to read more than 20 percent of an article, the average amount an Internet user reads of a blog post.
The best way to find out the answer to those questions is to learn from the best. Let’s face it, you wouldn’t start ripping apart your house to add an extra room going off of the advice your buddy gives you who has construction experience. Let’s hope not anyway.
You want to learn from experienced bloggers, bloggers that have a proven track record of success and loyal followers.
From reading and being a dedicated follower of some of the most successful bloggers in the world, I compiled a list of what I think are must-have attributes your blog should have to get readers to not only click on your blog post but actually read it.
5 Must-Have Attributes Your Blog Needs To Keep Readers Reading
- A Great Title: This one is a no-brainer. You need to hook your reader in with a title that says you’re not going to waste their time if they click through. An article title that is too vague will leave people thinking that the rest of the article is probably the same.
- Short Paragraphs, Subtitles, and Bullet Points: You can’t stop people from scanner your article, but you can grab their attention and slow them down. If someone sees something on a post they think might give them a lot of information without spending a lot of time and reading, they might read a little more, and then a little more, then maybe the whole article.
- Utilize Infographics and Images: Through research, scientists have found that the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than plain text. Just like I stated above, this can be a perfect way to slow down the average blog scanner by giving them a lot of information in a small portion hopefully encouraging them to read more and more of your post.
- Links and References: Anyone can write anything on the Internet – fake news, made-up stats, rumors – you name it, there is a market out there for everything. But if you want your readers to take you seriously, you need to back up your claims and advice with links and references to reputable sources.
- Leave a Section for Comments and Feedback: This is huge for someone who is a habitual scanner. I often find myself skipping the whole post and heading down to the comment section first. I do this for two reasons: If a post has been online for a while and there are just a few or no comments listed, that would lead me to believe this post may not have much to offer. Also, oftentimes you can tell by the non-bias comments and discussion if you want to move forward with the marketing blog post.
I remember often reading the old saying “Content is King”, but that is not entirely true and more so false. Two million blog posts go up on the web every day. Out of those 2,000,000, how many of those blog posts do you think go viral or even get nearly as much attention as the writer would like? Probably not many.
If you want people to read your blog post, you have to know your readers and know what’s going to hook them in to stay and read the whole post. Structure your blog post around these quick tips and I guarantee you will find more dedicated readers.
Great article and helpful tips.
Thank You!