The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging for Business: How to Format My Posts?

by | May 7, 2014

You know you need to be active online to grow your business. You know that consistently generating quality content is absolutely essential for being found on search engines, and for building credibility with your potential customers.

You probably even know that a blog is one of the best ways to ensure your website always has fresh, new, and relevant content.

But there’s a problem. You don’t know the first thing about blogging!

In the second post in this blog series, we delve into how to properly format your posts.

Formatting is important both for readers and search engines. Readers experience information overload on the Internet – proper formatting techniques help them get the most relevant information from your content and decide if they want to read it in depth. Search engines use formatting cues to understand what your content is about, and rank it accordingly.

So what are the important formatting elements for blog posts?

Headings 

Most of your blogs should have headings throughout the content. These headings will guide the reader through the content. Online readers will skim a piece of content before deciding whether it is worth reading fully or not – compelling headings throughout your blog should give the reader a good idea of what your blog is talking about, without giving everything away (otherwise, why would they need to read the rest?).

Ideally, your headings should use the “H2” formatting option. You should be able to choose this option while creating your post on the backend of your website. As long as you have an attractive, legible H2, you should use it for headings because search engines will take the cue that the H2 content is among the most important content on that post. If you do not use H2, the headings content will not get the same level of attention from search engines.

Bolding 

You should bold key phrases throughout your blogs to help skimming readers find the most salient points. Bolding should be used to highlight and draw attention to the phrases or sentences of your post that you feel readers should focus on. If readers could only read what you have bolded, would they still get an overall idea of your message?

Bolding also gives search engines another clue as to the topic and relevance of your post.

Lists and Bullet Points 

Readers love content structured in numbered lists and easy-to-consume bullet points. It helps them understand the information quickly and organize it in their minds. Lists stand out from the rest of the text and draw the eye.

According to an article in the New Yorker, “In the current media environment, a list is perfectly designed for our brain. We are drawn to it intuitively, we process it more efficiently, and we retain it with little effort.”

If something you are discussing can be conveyed via a list, you should take advantage of this effective technique.

Short Paragraphs

As mentioned above, readers are pressed for time and are often skimming your content. They will frequently skip over lengthy paragraphs, or decide they don’t want to invest in reading your article if it seems too dense.

Many writers, new and experienced, mistakenly fill their online content with longwinded paragraphs.

Short paragraphs introduce a new beat in the flow of the post. They are easier to read on a screen (or a mobile device) and easier to digest. They’re also more conversational, which is what blogging is all about!

Short paragraphs encourage people to actually read what you’ve written, because it’s presented in bite-sized pieces.

Call to Action 

Calls to action are absolutely essential to your online marketing efforts. If you want to drive inbound leads, you need to explicitly tell your website visitors what to do next. Use action words and get them to come to you!

Blogs are a great vehicle for introducing a call to action. If you give someone valuable, relevant, useful information, they will be more inclined to do business with you now or in the future. Don’t waste that opportunity – give them something to do when they get to the end of your post!

Link to Other Content 

Your blog wasn’t created in a vacuum. It’s not a separate entity from the rest of your website, your other blogs, or even other content online.

Where appropriate in your post, link to related information and articles. Ideally, you should mostly link to resources you have created, such as an informational page on your website, your FAQs, or other blogs you’ve written. These links are crucial for pulling readers deeper into your website and giving them more decision-facilitating information.

Furthermore, you can include a list of popular, recent, or related posts to keep interested readers engaged in your content.

Finally, you should join the online conversation and link to other articles around the web. This is great for enhancing your credibility and engaging with others in your niche.

Links are also yet another important signal to search engines about what the pages on your website are about.

Just remember, use your judgement and don’t overdo it – you wouldn’t want every other sentence throughout the entire post to be linked to something!

Bonus: Google Authorship 

Google authorship has emerged as an important component of any blog. All you need to do is link your Google+ profile (which you should create if you do not already have one) to your blog.

Doing so lends authority to your content, positions you as an expert, and improves your credibility with Google’s search.

Click here for instructions for setting up Google authorship on your blog.

The Bottom Line

Blogging best practices change all the time; it is essential to stay as current as you can with the latest formatting techniques to help your posts stand out from the content clutter on the web. Not every formatting approach will be appropriate for every post, so use your judgement about what will work best for each particular post.

Appropriate formatting can be the difference between a block of text that no one wants to read, and a popular, inbound lead driving piece of content.

Check out our previous blog in this series: The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging for Business: What to Write About?

In our next Beginner’s Guide to Blogging post, we will discuss how to craft enticing, effective titles.

>> Core Online Marketing will work with your business to ensure you have quality, on-going content for your blog. Attend our free online marketing seminar to learn more about online marketing fundamentals or contact us today to find out what we can do for you.

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