Guest Post: How To Entertain Your Blog Readers To The Very End By Kelly Edwards

Today I would like to welcome Kelly from Bringing Up Georgia. If you haven't visited her blog before, here is a little more about her:

Kelly Edwards is a 28 year old mummy blogger based in Northamptonshire, blogging about being a first time mum to baby Georgia with humour and honesty. In her professional life (when not on maternity leave!) she’s a content writer for a number of leading exhibition stand providers where she manages a number of blogs.

Kelly has some fantastic tips for bloggers about keeping readers interested until the end of your posts. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

Entertain your blog readers to the very end by Kelly Edwards

 

Online readers are like toddlers. If they get bored half-way through reading your beautiful article, they’re off with no sign of commitment onto something else, leaving half read blogs trailing in their wake.

It can be a gruelling world for bloggers to counteract this but there are a few rabbits you can pull out of your hat to make sure they stay entertained to the very end.

Learn about online reading habits

To take advantage of these tricks, it’s important to know how people read online. Knowing this will make it easier for your readers to carry on reading, giving them no cues to bolt.

Unlike reading a book or magazine article, there’s something about the online world that demands speed, accuracy and attractiveness.

Most people would probably stick with a magazine article to the bitter end if it started to get a bit dull, but the same can’t be said for online articles. Any reason to ditch the article and move on and most people will take it.

Online eye gaze studies

Eye gaze studies have shown that when people read online, that they read in an F, or E shape. Top left to top right, then down the left hand side, jotting in every now and again to read headings and scan copy.

This means that readers first see the title, then scroll down and scan headings. It’s very rare that people read online as intensely as they do with a printed material.

So, here are a few online reading habits and tricks you can use to make it as easy as possible to captivate your audience.

Use headings to break up your content

Take advantage of how people read online by adding headings – at least 2-3 headings per 400 word article.

Not only will this visually break up the article, but it will also make sure that the reader knows what’s in store in the article. This gives them positive reinforcement as to why they should continue reading.

If you also add these with a heading 2 tag, then this will help with SEO to show search engines what your article is about.

Keep sentences short and simple

 

People rarely read as intensely online as they do in print. This means that people will often skim read articles, missing words every now and again but getting the basic gist.
This is why it’s important to keep your messages and sentence structure simple. Short sentences are easier to read, while longer sentences add extra complexity that will turn off an online reader.
As well as keeping sentences shorter, language should also be simplified. People don’t want to have to work hard to read online reading complex jargon. So, if there’s an easier word you can use… use it. Unless it’s absolutely necessary, or adds some oomph to your article.

Short paragraphs are easier to skim read

When skim reading in an F or E shape, keeping paragraphs short can help your article look more enticing to read and mean that each line is a potential inlet.

As well as providing an extra inlet, it having shorter paragraphs is less visually daunting than a huge block of text that seems like a chore to read. They’d rather not read an essay as it’s harder to take in what you’re trying to say!

So, use up to three sentences per paragraph and you’ll be providing some great inlets, with more of your article being skim read.

So, use these three simple tips to improve your article writing and you’ll be sure to keep most of your audience to the very end – like I have with you!



 

Fab tips there from Kelly! Now time to show her some love.
Visit her blog, Bringing Up Georgia
Find her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram
And don't forget to leave her some comments below!