Keeping it Short and Sweet – How to Keep your Blog Followers Engaged

Short Words

You’re aiming for engagement and accessibility. Don’t daunt your readers with convoluted, overly acadmic language. Keep it personal and low-key. And avoid dense jargon – your readers will skip unfamiliar words.

 Short Sentences

Long, chunky sentences frustrate the hasty web reader. For instance, what reads better? “We have just published a new blog post on how to write for the web. Please visit us to read it” or “Just blogged on web writing! Check it out here!”?

Short Paragraphs

Structure your blog paragraphs like a newspaper article. Keep the important info in the first line (it might be the only line that gets read) and limit your paragraphs to 2-4 sentences. Big blocks of text are daunting to web readers.

Short Pages

One average, only about 20-25% of your words will be read. Don’t waste them! Usually a post of about 300 words does well, although depending on your subject and readers, you can always mix in some longer posts. And remember: don’t get carried away. Search engines don’t like overly short posts and better than overly long posts. Likewise, sacrificing clarity or completeness for shortness is not a recipe for success.

As always, Sue is happy to offer help and support with your web projects.

Happy blogging!