Tips for writing better blog content

Anyone can write content for a website or blog… but not everyone can write well. Copywriting is a skill, and like any skill it can be improved with a bit of guidance and some practice.

How people read

First, an upsetting truth. Readers don’t read. Web users typically read only 20% to 28% of the text on a web page. This is because they’re not reading but scanning — they’re looking for information which is relevant to them and their goals.

You’re probably doing the same right now. Maybe I caught your eye with ‘20% to 28%’ (numbers stand out, and suggest truth, especially when hyperlinked) and you also saw ‘scanning’ in bold and that slowed you down (bold - like link text - draws the eye, but don’t over-use it or it becomes exhausting).

The more you can help people scan, the more likely they’ll actually read.

Sentences

Short sentences are easier to read. No one reads every word in a sentence — your clever brain has learned it’s far more efficient to glance over the shape of the sentence and make a guess as to what the whole thing says.

Glancing at sentence shapes is one of the reasons why reading in a foreign language is so much slower (because you’re actually looking at every word) and it’s also why you fall for this kind of word-based optical illusion:

(Did you spot the duplicate word? Most people don’t, because their brain is hurrying through to get the meaning from the sentence, rather than reading every word.)

Long sentences require a heavier cognitive load, and so they slow down comprehension.

Rhythm

Short sentences are good, but don’t get predictable. Super-short sentences have impact; longer sentences feel thoughtful.

Read what you’ve written out loud, and pause only where to punctuation dictates. Are you breathless? Throw in some more commas. Do you sound like Christopher Walken, or William Shatner? Maybe delete some punctuation, or upgrade it to full stops.

If you’ve got a short list, always go for 3 items. Threes feel manageable, neat, musical. But if you’ve got to list more, list all the items. ‘Etc’ is a miserable and lazy device which forces the reader to guess the impossible.

Paragraphs

Walls of text are for books, not blog posts. Small paragraphs make it easier to get the gist of an article.

A well constructed paragraph continues a theme, but is independent of its neighbouring paragraphs. It allows the reader to glance down the page, read a bit of each paragraph, and get a good sense of what it’s all about.

Keywords

Start sentences with keywords, especially at the start of headings and paragraphs. Don’t force it if it feels too clumsy, but leading with keywords is a great way to give clues to your topics, and help readers scan.

An example. In the ‘sentences’ section earlier on, the 2nd paragraph originally started: “It’s the reason why reading in a foreign language is so much slower”.

When I re-read that in the edit, I realised it wasn’t clear what “it” referred to. I knew I was talking about sentence shape, because I’d just mentioned it 11 words earlier, but the reader who hasn’t read every word and is scanning the start of this paragraph doesn’t know that.

So even though it made a longer sentence, I changed it to: “Glancing at sentence shapes is one of the reasons why reading in a foreign language is so much slower”

Big words vs small words

Small words: now here’s a contentious issue. Everyone understands small, easy words. If you want to be as straightforward and as transparent as possible, use the most common version of a word.

“Buy” not “purchase”. “Use” not “utilise”. “Go” not “proceed”. The most common version is often also the shortest word.

(Side note: can you describe your job using the ten hundred most used words? It’s tricky but a great practice for writing in plain English)

If you’re writing for a general audience and you need to be as clear as possible, go for the simplest versions. But. Language is rich and nuanced. If there is a longer word that can do the job more precisely or more beautifully - and it’s appropriate to your readers - by all means proceed.

Just remember this: big words don’t make you look clever. Research from the Thomas M Cooley Law School in Michigan found that the more educated the person and the more specialist their knowledge, the more they preferred sentences written in clear English.

Active voice

Switching from passive to active voice is often the fastest way to energise your writing.

Simply put: the active voice puts the emphasis on the person doing the thing.

(If you want the technical explanation: in the active voice the subject performs the action stated by the verb. In passive voice sentences, the subject is acted upon by the verb.)

Passive: “The seed round was raised by founders X and Y.”
Active: “Founders X and Y raised the seed round.”

People like the passive because you can hide behind it. It’s particularly useful for nervous companies with uncomfortable truths. Compare: “Mistakes were made” versus “We made mistakes”. Take ownership.

Repetition

Avoid repeating the same word or phrasing — it makes your writing feel stale. If everything is “great”, maybe sometimes it should be “good”. “So,” is a fine way to link ideas and show progression of thought, but don’t start every new paragraph with it.

Don’t get a bout of thesaurusitus, but shake up your vocabulary a little to keep things fresh.

Proofreading

This is the easiest thing to get right. Spellcheck your work. Get someone else to read it for autocorrects and duplicate / missing words before you hit publish. Check all links. Job done.