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Ten Simple Ways to Improve Any Blog Post in Minutes

Posted By Ali Luke 9th of March 2017 Writing Content 0 Comments

Ten Simple Ways to Improve Any Blog Post in Minutes | ProBlogger

Are your blog posts as good as you want them to be?

Perhaps you don’t seem to get many comments or shares. Or maybe your recent posts are great, but you feel like your older ones are lacking something.

You don’t need to rewrite each post from scratch to improve it. Often, a few small tweaks can make a dramatic difference.

Here are ten of my favorites to try out today:

1: Make the Title Stronger

Some bloggers have the knack of writing powerful titles; others struggle. If you find yourself going with the first title that comes to mind, it might need a bit of work.

Good titles grab attention and make a clear promise to the reader. Compare:

Write Better Blog Posts – not specific enough, doesn’t make it clear what the reader will gain from reading this post

Ten Ways to Improve Your Blog Posts – better, though still a little too generic

Ten Simple Ways to Improve Any Blog Post In Minutes – much more specific, makes a clear promise, appeals to readers who want quick and easy solutions rather than lots of theory or detail!

2: Shorten the Introduction

When you’re drafting a post, it’s easy to let the introduction drag on a bit too long, as you get into the swing of writing. That’s absolutely fine … but you don’t need to leave everything you’ve written in place!

Is your introduction gripping and engaging? Does each sentence draw the reader into your post, maybe by giving them a vivid picture of the problem they want to move away from – or a  promise of what’s about to come?

If your introduction seems to ramble a bit, cut it down. Readers rarely need to know exactly where the inspiration for a particular post came from, for instance.

3: Add More Images

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a blog post that had too many images! A large image at the start is always a great way to draw the reader’s eye … but you can also use images along the way to break up the text and to add useful information (e.g. screenshots, book covers).

If you’re struggling to find good images to use, check out Where to Find Free Images Online for links to lots of great sites.

4: Create More White Space

“White space” is all the stuff around the words of your post. It might seem an odd thing to think about when you’re trying to improve the post itself – but white space makes it easier for readers to engage with your actual words.

You can add more white space by:

  • Writing in short paragraphs.
  • Using bullet-pointed lists (like this one!)
  • Including quotes (see #5)
  • Using subheadings (see #7)

If the text on your blog seems a little cramped or difficult to read in general, consider increasing the font size and/or the spacing between lines. You can do this by switching to a different WordPress theme, by adjusting your theme options (for some premium themes), or by editing your Style.css file.

5: Include a Quote

Quotes from other people can help support the points you’re making in your post. You might use a quote to kick-start your post, or you might include one part-way through.

Normally, quotes are set in “blockquote” formatting, which will often be indented on the left-hand side – creating extra white space.

For lots more on using quotes in your posts, check out The Why, How and When of Using Quotations on Your Blog.

6: Add Links to Other Posts

Have you written about a related topic in the past? Include a link – either part way through your post, where it’s relevant, or at the end of your post in a “Further Reading” or “Next Steps” section. This is a great way to draw people further into your blog – and it can be very handy if you want to cater for readers of different ability levels; you can link to basic information and definitions for beginners and/or to more advanced posts for experienced readers.

Of course, you can link to other people’s posts too: this provides just as much value to your reader and also helps you build relationships with other bloggers (who’ll almost certainly be delighted by the link)!

7: Use Subheadings as Signposts

Like it or not, most readers will not read every word of your carefully crafted post. They’ll scan through for the parts that are most relevant to them.

Subheadings are very helpful for these readers: they “signpost” what’s coming up. If you haven’t used subheadings, or if yours aren’t very clear, go through and make sure that each key section of your post begins with a subheading that explains, briefly, what you’re about to cover. (In this post, for instance, each item in the list begins with a subheading.)

8: Add a Conclusion

Is your post rounded off nicely … or does it just stop? Your conclusion is just as important as your introduction: it ends your post neatly, giving readers a sense of completion – and it also often prompts readers to take action.

If you’re not sure how to finish your post, you could:

  • Invite comments (“Do you have any tips to add? Leave a comment below!”)
  • Encourage readers to implement what you’ve written about. (“Try just one of these ideas this week…”)
  • Offer extra resources (“Click here to download my .pdf on…”)

9: Proofread Carefully

One very simple way to improve your posts is to proofread them – carefully. It’s so easy for typos to sneak in, and your spellchecker won’t necessarily catch all of these. If, like me, you tend to leave [notes to self] when you’re drafting, do make sure you’ve gone through and filled in any blanks!

If you’ve written a particularly important post (perhaps a guest piece for a large blog or a post that you’re going to be sending a lot of traffic to), then it might be worth asking another blogger to help proofread: sometimes, fresh eyes can spot mistakes that you missed.

10: Categorize it Correctly

This might seem like a small thing, but it can make quite a difference to readers: make sure you’ve categorized your post correctly. Definitely avoid using “uncategorized” as a catch-all default – this tends to look haphazard and unprofessional.

Not all blogs use categories as navigational tools, but if your does, it’s particularly important to check that you’ve put your post in a sensible category. That way, people interested in that particular aspect of your topic can easily find past posts that are relevant to them.

 

Improving your blog posts doesn’t have to mean spending hours rewriting them: a few little tweaks can really make them shine.

You don’t need to do all ten of these for every single post on your blog, of course. Instead, pick one or two that you’re going to try out this week (either when you work on a new post or when sprucing up an old one).

If you’ve got any quick blog post fixes to add to the list, too, drop a comment below!

About Ali Luke
Ali Luke blogs about the art, craft and business of writing at Aliventures. She has two free ebooks on blogging, Ten Powerful Ways to Make Your Blog Posts Stronger and Ten Easy Ways to Attract Readers to Your Blog … And Keep Them There: to get your copies of those, just sign up for her weekly e-newsletter (also free!) here.
Comments
  1. Hello Ali,

    All good pointers for bloggers. We have a lot of proofreading to do once we write our posts to make sure we keep up with good grammar and punctuation. I strongly recommend using grammarly for the same. I had done a review of the tool a few weeks back on my blog.

    • Proof reading is where many bloggers suck .. I guess its more fun writing a post and moving on to the next point of duty – but that can kill a post and wish it forever RIP in paradise. Lol

      But I think giving a giving a written draft to another person to proof read is a great idea. That allows the impatient blogger to focus his attention on some other thins that matter.

      Yea grammarly, prowritingaid are fun tools….. But I think I love a human proof reader – especially if he’s got unusually big glasses. Lol

      • Proofreading is definitely not the most exciting part of writing, but I agree with you both that it’s important.

        While no-one’s perfect, and I’ve seen typos on plenty of big blogs, a LOT of typos and little mistakes tends to give the impression that the blogger is rushing their work or simply doesn’t care.

    • Awesome Post,
      This is my first time on your blog and I really loved your each aritlce.
      However as I seo guys I always has some cofusion:-

      #1:-I want to rank my one of my site only in uk so what are the best link building practise to ranking in particler country?[I think this is not local SEO]

      Waiting for reply.

      Cheers Nekraj

      P.S: Just bookmarked your blog.
      P.P.S:Just subscribed in your email list.[wating for free knowledge is coming in my inbox]

  2. Hi Ali,

    When I first started blogging my posts resembled a traditional essay (very long paragraphs). I quickly learned this was a great way to make my readers fall asleep. White space is the key!

    • Definitely! I think a lot of bloggers make that mistake starting out. Good on you for realising that it wasn’t working and correcting it. :-)

  3. There are some nice tips here! Some I do without thinking about it (or putting them into words), some I can improve on. Thank you.

    • Also make sure to re-optimize your existing content.

      You need to keep an eye on your search rankings for various keywords that you are trying to rank for on Google. By keeping an eye on them, you can decide which posts to work on after some time (if they are not getting any views).

      SEO is really important while working on your old content.

      Use compelling headlines, use relevant links and make sure to add stunning visuals (you can use Canva) to make your posts appealing.

      Great tips.

      • Great addition, thanks Anil — I think it’s always a very good idea to go back to older posts and improve them (both in terms of SEO and the reader experience).

  4. What a post!! Little things that can make a good impact on our blog posts.
    Thank you, Ali, This post is definitely going to help a lot of bloggers to make their posts more reader-friendly.

  5. This article is really cool. You simplified the whole process

  6. Though I agree with the media part, but using too many medias on a site can be counter productive by increasing the resource size, loading time and hence the bounce rate.

    Reduce the length of your paragraph. A paragraph shouldn’t drag more than 4 lines. It helps fix readers’ attention.

    Capture ur readers with your introduction by:
    1. Asking questions
    2. Using facts / statistics
    3. Telling short stories
    4. Telling them what they already know with a new twist

    End your introduction with a call to action and inntiate comments.

    By the way. This is a nice peace Ali.

    • There’s a fine balance here. I think having a few images in a blog post is no problem, especially if you’ve resized them before uploading and you’re using .jpg or another compressed format.

      Great tips on introductions!

  7. Funny!! I just read a post from you on Jeff Goins site. Great info!!

  8. Hey Ali,

    A blog post needs a compelling heading which can look appealing to your readers. Use at least one strong word.

    The subheadings add one more point in the better readability. Make sure you optimize your post with the visual content.

    Adding a video can be more effective than just the text.
    Don’t forget to optimize the images with the ALT text.

    Thanks for sharing with us.
    Enjoy your day.

    ~Ravi

  9. Hi Ali,

    It was an amazing piece of information.

    Thanks for keeping us in loop.

  10. Hello Ali,

    I have been reading your posts here very carefully. Your posts are so informative and easy to grasp. I am also willing to edit and revamp my old posts. These tips will definitely help me a lot.

  11. Hello there,
    4th point [Create more white space] got my attention. Actually it is new one and helpful also. White space around text have great impact on readers. I’ve seen lots of websites crafted with tight formatting that makes reading quite difficult. But your articles are well constructed with adequate amount of white space.
    Thanks a ton for sharing something new

    • Thanks Niki! I think white space is one of those things that it’s easy not to think about … but giving your words a bit of extra room can make it so much easier on the reader!

  12. Hi Ali,

    The headline part is very important. I use Title experimental WordPress plugin from the go.

    This allows testing different versions of an article headline to later pick the winner. Seems a reliable tactic to have a better headline message from the get go.

    Adding more relevant images to tell a better story is one tactic I have been using on the blog recently. Also a good strategy to deploy when resharing same content in a community.

    Thanks Ali, nice read.

    • Thanks for the tips, Shamsudeen! Testing different headlines sounds like a great idea: I remember seeing Smart Blogger do that a lot, a little while back.

  13. This is super piece of information Ali I know how important is this to make your blog post more appealing. Title and image are 2 first way to get use attention. If you work on these 2 well and put your content good in between then you are going to get lot of traffic.

  14. Awesome article! I’m about to start posting on my blog next week and will use this to make my life easier. Quality doesn’t have to be pages long but you do need to get to the point and provide the reader with the answer! Love the headline part.

  15. I always struggles with deciding a attractive post title for my blogs. This isn’t that hard but for me it is. This post is really helpful and indeed i always feel very thankful to you whenever i read any post on this excellent blog. thanks for sharing this information with us.

  16. Nice information Ali.. I will definitely implement these strategies for my blog posts

  17. Hey Ali,

    Effective Titles play vital role for improvement of content or we can say that it sells your content.

    Quotes and images are very helpful to withdraw attention of reader and from my opinion they work. Eventually, thanks for sharing these incredible tips.

    With best wishes,

    Amar kumar

  18. Hi,
    I love this post so much! Thanks for the post, Ali. This was so helpful! I’m always looking for little ways to improve my blog.

  19. Hey Ali

    I have added a lot of pictures and a video or two on my posts and now each post is getting more readers.

    I have also implemented small paragraphs and shortened sentences. This works great.

    I need to reduce my introductions now. That’s my next point;

    • Really good that you’re getting more readers, Lisa — keep up the tweaks and the great work! :-)

      • I will keep doing some more tweaks Ali. I have been told that I need to add a couple of links to authority websites too. Do you know if this is something that will help out in referencing too? Any idea?

  20. True. I think all of these are ways to deal with everyone’s short attention span online. Blogging is so different than reading print material or a book; you have to assume it’s a child with ADHD reading your post sometimes.

    Also helpful w/ the titles… i need to brush up on that, as it could be a whole lesson on its own. thanks! Missy

    • Yes, reading online vs reading print (or even reading on an ereader) is very different. I think readers expect different things, and they’re also often browsing blogs while distracted or while multitasking.

  21. This is a good refresher, I always have struggles with titles for SEO and headings enough to make it compelling, still need to work on these and other tips you have suggested.

  22. Hey,
    Really this tips are simple and can easily improve your quality of blog post as well as your ranking.
    I remember learning this tips were hard at the time I started a few years ago.
    but now we can learn and grow easily.
    Including quotes and well researched titles are some of the best ways I use to make a quality rich post.
    thanks for the roundup post for a great blog posts.

  23. Many thanks for this article. Useful info and will now add images to my news/blog.

  24. Thanks Ali. Writing good titles always seems like a challenge for me. I use Yoast for SEO and it’s always a challenge to make it happy.

  25. I would like to add another thing to this already awesome list – embed videos and presentation. This will increase dwell time, reduce bounce rate and enhance user experience.

  26. Hello, Ali!

    Without the proof-reading and fixing the obvious errors and hitting the content published; it is like the burger made out of toppings and served to the customers.

    I spend a good time on the proof-reading during the phase of content writing as well as after I am done writing, to:

    – Make sure it is error free (as much as I can to spot the errors.)
    – Add the personalization.
    – And add the story-telling touch that it is all connected and not steering away from the topic.

    Then come the title and the writing tone.

    On the title, I believe it is the most important part to define how well your content will do.

    Because title makes the readers interested to click.

    How good your content is, it will be hard to win the interest if the headline is not much better!

    Then the writing tone…!

    I keep the slow pace with it.

    I always say to not write the content in width, write in height.

    The higher you’ll attempt to write the content, it will mostly be one or two liner which puts the good impression on the readers to understand the content is easy to read.

    So, great points you got! :)

    ~ Adeel

    • Hey Adeel,

      You really covered some great points here. Story telling touch in a content is really effective. it keeps your audience engaged in the post thereby, decreasing the bounce rate.
      Loved your points.

    • Hey Adeel,

      You really covered some great points here. Story telling touch in a content is really effective. it keeps your audience engaged in the post thereby, decreasing the bounce rate.
      Loved your points.

      Regards
      Jitendra

  27. Really great guide, Ali! I’ve seen these principles work for reviving old posts and bring them back out as a new post, too.

  28. Excellent article Ali, I’m guilty of not doing a fair amount of the above – I’ll get busy and see If I can apply your tips. Many thanks

  29. Great post with great points. I learned some of the points the hard way at the beginning.
    Visual is so important, especially for people who scroll fast. Titles and images are super important.

  30. Thanks for this remarkable post of yours, Ali!

    For me, the most important of all the tips you’ve shared in this post is…. Make the title stronger… Most copywriters said that your headlines will make or break your business. The same is through with writing a blog post. I admit that I’m one of those idiots who fails to capture and engage readers with poor and lousy headlines. I’m still on the process of getting valuable tips from others like you so as to improve my quality of writing a blog post.

    One more thing, do you proofread your posts all by yourself or do you hire someone to do it? Yes, proofreading is really very important but I think it is different skills from writing a blog post…

    Thanks again for the so-many-valuable tips from yours!

  31. It is beneficial to identify ways in which to improve our blog regardless of whether we have 500 comments or 50 comments.

    One can become complacent with blogging and do as they have always done.

    Your post has encouraged me. I need to work on my blog titles as this matters just as much as the content.

  32. Hi ALI, what a wonderful article you wrote, i wish i could have that skill like yours. I love the way you covered all the basic points , they are so easy to understand and simpe to follow, we generally forgot to apply basics in whatever we do, so your article reminded us to always focus on improving basic things, because these small things adds value to ur writings.

  33. Great post and adding more white space is a very good suggestion so it is not a wall of words. And proof reading is important as well. Thanks for sharing.

  34. This is useful information Ali, and clearly set out.

    – I need to remember to add a quote – that was a good point.

    – Summing it up in a conclusion like a take away message – that is gold.

    – You even hit on my pet hate – a long intro. I go straight past introductions in ebooks, I just want to get to the information, so I could pretty much say that I don’t read introductions ever.

    – And I’m now using more white space, even in this comment.

    Cheers
    Jan

  35. Thanks for these helpful tips Ali! It is crucial that we make our blog posts easier to read so they will be interested to read the entire post.

  36. i have tried this method but not get a good amount of visitors .. actually i am Hindi writer could you suggest me any tips

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