Jun 10, 2014 / Beginner

Five Fixes to Clean Up Your Posts

Readers love easy-to-read, uncluttered text. Here are five quick fixes to clean up your posts and pages.

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/batega/1596898776">Image</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/batega/">Josep Ma. Rosell</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY 2.0</a>)

While we offer tips for storytelling, social media strategy, and more, it’s important to point out quick fixes on the most basic level — such as common phrases to avoid. Below, we’ve rounded up five examples — from posting habits to customization choices — to watch for on your blogs.

1. Not linking your text

Take a look at this passage:

At my previous job in animation, I worked alongside talented compositors. (You can read about compositors here: http://www.media-match.com/usa/jobtypes/compositor-jobs-413172.php)

In your dashboard editor, you can link text in your post with the Link button, so there’s no reason to drop entire URLs into your post, as shown above. In a cleaner approach, use the Link tool to link a piece of text:

At my previous job in animation, I worked alongside talented compositors.

You also don’t have to tell your reader to “click on the link to learn more” (which we can add to our list of bulky, unnecessary phrases).

2. No breathing space

We’ve said this before: embrace the white space. You might write a stellar post, but if it’s published as one lumpy mass of sentences, the form overshadows your content, and people may not bother to read it.

Exhibit A:

It’s five in the morning on a Saturday. I don’t remember the last time I’ve sat in front of my computer to write, just like this, without interruption. Without having to think about anything else — my work, my husband, or any of the noise unleashed on other tabs in my browser. Time when I can sit and think and type and hope that, in these hours, a part of me — unaccessible at any other time — will make its way onto the page. I’ve come downstairs to my sofa, to my laptop. Always glowing, always waiting — rarely touched in quiet, intimate hours like these, when I’m up and automatic, when the day hasn’t seeped in, when the outside world hasn’t grabbed hold of me. I don’t know how long this lapse will last, so I’ll just type until I stop. For Roxana, the writer of “How I Get to Write,” coffee is part of this delicate, easily pierced space. The elixir of the imagination, she calls it. I once felt the same, but in the past year I’ve delayed putting on the coffee until later in the morning, or waited for my husband to wake up and do it. At first I thought I was just lazy. But now, I realize this lengthens the in-between state of free-flowing thoughts. It’s a bit of a game I play with myself: creating these magical hours to produce something — anything — unrelated to my waking world. Because once the day starts, my window closes. So here I am, molding jet lag into something productive and creative, carving out a bit more time. Squeezing out as much as I can between 5 am and 7 am, as dark turns to light outside of my window and this play time for my mind runs out . . .

This excerpt is from one of my favorite posts, “26 Hours,” merged into one suffocating paragraph. I wouldn’t expect anyone to read all of it.

The lesson? Insert paragraph breaks.

3. Too small or (too big) body text

In your dashboard, you can control basic body text styles. You can use the B (bold) or I (italic) buttons for certain effects, but you probably don’t want to bold or italicize large amounts of text:

So here I am, molding jet lag into something productive and creative, carving out a bit more time. Squeezing out as much as I can between 5 am and 7 am, as dark turns to light outside of my window and this play time for my mind runs out. There are not enough hours of the day, I’ve begun to think.

If you’d like to emphasize a passage, use blockquotes instead; placing an entire paragraph in bold is hard on the eyes and makes the bold tool less meaningful.

Likewise, don’t use the heading tags (like <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, and <h4>) to make your body text bold or big — it makes your text clunky, distracting, and hard to read:

So here I am, molding jet lag into something productive and creative, carving out a bit more time. Squeezing out as much as I can between 5 am and 7 am, as dark turns to light outside of my window and this play time for my mind runs out. There are not enough hours of the day, I’ve begun to think.

To change the default font size (and color) in a post, you can use HTML in the Text Editor to adjust size and color. Heading tags like <h3>, used in the example above, are best used to insert headings and sub-headings in your posts and pages, using the Text Editor.

4. Excessive capital letters, exclamation points, and LOLs

Some of what we’re discussing today is a matter of style, as well as taste. You don’t have to make any of these fixes, this one included, as we’re offering tips to clean up your posts — not completely change the voice and style with which you’re comfortable. But consider this passage:

I DON’T REMEMBER THE LAST TIME I’VE SAT IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER TO WRITE, JUST LIKE THIS, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION, LOL!!! Without having to think about anything else — MY WORK, MY HUSBAND (LOL), OR ANY OF THE NOISE UNLEASHED ON OTHER TABS IN MY BROWSER. Time when I can sit and think and type and hope that, in these hours, a part of me — unaccessible at any other time — will make its way onto the page!!!!!

And then consider this version, which has the same text — minus the capitalization, exclamation points, and LOLs:

I don’t remember the last time I’ve sat in front of my computer to write, just like this, without interruption. Without having to think about anything else — my work, my husband, or any of the noise unleashed on other tabs in my browser. Time when I can sit and think and type and hope that, in these hours, a part of me — unaccessible at any other time — will make its way onto the page.

Comparing the two, you don’t need these extras to create emotion or get your point across. Trust the strength of your own voice.

5. Faint, too bright, or jarring colors against a dark background

With the Custom Design upgrade, you can update your color palette. Be careful, though, with your body text color choice, particularly against a dark or black background. Consider this lime-yellow shade against the dark background of the Trvl theme:

This shade works great as an accent color, but probably not for your body text — it’s bright and distracting. You want your readers to stay on your blog as long as possible, so experiment with color combinations and text colors that are easy on the eyes.

We hope these five quick fixes help to clean up your posts and pages. Are there any other posting habits and style choices that belong on this list?

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  10. Great tips. Maybe I’m guilty of one(?) of them. Chunky text is a big pet peeve of mine. I actually follow someone who always posts that way, and while I read the post, I tend to rush through it because it makes for very uncomfortable reading.

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  12. This is great! I was on the Yearbook Committee for my high school’s yearbook, and a lot of these tips are very similar to what we learned. Along the lines of using the white space, we were told to write in short paragraphs so people got a “break” so to speak and didn’t get overwhelmed by the amount of words they saw. I use these little tips in my blog posts for sure!

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  13. I like all your suggestions, but I especially agree with number 5. As I grow older reading colored text on a colored background becomes more difficult. In some cases I don’t even try.

    Thank you for pointing these thing out.

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  16. Great tips. I use a greenish color (against a dark background) for my links. I love that hue, but sometimes I wonder if it may be off-putting to some readers.

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  17. About inserting links – please pardon the long question. The question is about the quickest way to find the link to insert: I’ve pre-written about 100 posts [working on finding the voice and point-of-view of my work]. The posts contain references to books, mags, etc. I type the post into my blog, get to a book reference, open a new tab to google the book or author, then tinyURL it, and enter that at the blog ‘link’ tool. It takes so much time and seems an archaic way to insert a link. Is that the quickest way to find/copy/insert a link?

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    1. When you say you “tinyURL it,” do you go to tinyurl.com to shorten the link? If so, that seems like an extra, unnecessary step. When you’re writing a post and get to a piece of text you’d like to link, just insert the entire, original URL:

      Screen Shot

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      1. you’re right, after posting to U, I realized I don’t tinyURL it, I put in the entire URL. But still, a new tab, a google search for the reference, click the reference, then take the URL back…? I assumed, being a beginner, that others knew a faster better way. Isn’t there a faster way? thanks for answering so quickly. I feel a glimmer of hope 🙂

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    2. Like @Cheri, I’m not clear on why you might be using tinyurl, as that seems unnecessary. I love tinyUrl, but I only use it for the longest, gargley types of urls, or when I’m sharing a link with someone via email or the like and want to make it easier on them. With the blog link tool, the length of the url doesn’t matter much.

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      1. you’re right, after posting this, I realized I don’t tinyURL it, I put in the entire URL. But still, a new tab, a google search for the reference, click the reference, then take the URL back…? I assumed, being a beginner, that others knew a faster better way. Isn’t there a faster way?

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    1. Colors, title font, and body font size look fine. The site is clean, minimal, and easy on the eyes.

      I did notice a recent post’s title: http://evabowman.com/2014/06/06/watch-my-tedx-talk-httptinyurl-comn2na44g/

      You might want to avoid inserting links in your titles — just keep the titles succinct.

      And also, for instance, instead of…

      My TEDx Talk starts with Drew’s awesome introduction at minute 2:54:13. Watch us all on livestream.com. Watch the Livestream at http://tinyurl.com/n2na44g or http://new.livestream.com/tedxcc/events/2984573

      …do this:

      My TEDx Talk starts with Drew’s awesome introduction at minute 2:54:13. Watch us all on livestream.com.

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  20. I thoroughly enjoyed this article – like I did Ben Yagoda’s. The use of links in articles was very welcomed too. As a novice I have lots to learn and to explore. As an example, I still struggle with the question of how to use a tag. Any articles on that subject that you could refer me to please?

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    1. If you’re referring to HTML tags like the heading ones, those two posts I linked to are helpful:

      https://wordpress.com/support/editors/styling-individual-posts-and-pages/#changing-the-default-font-size-and-color

      This page shows the heading tags “in action”:

      http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_headers

      You can try it yourself in a new post or page — switch over to the Text Editor view and try inserting opening and closing tags and place text in between them, ie:

      Screen Shot

      Save the draft, preview it, and see the difference — this text should be bigger than your normal body text.

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  22. Great pointers, but not sure they’ll be understood by a generation of texting-facebooking-tweeting bloggers. Which is not their fault; that’s how they grew up, absent any better literary education. But it is their imperative to learn how to write.

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    1. Hi there — at a very quick glance, looking at your June 10 and 8 posts, I think those long paragraphs could probably benefit from paragraph breaks, which I talk about in #2.

      I can’t offer more thorough feedback on your entire blog and your style of writing, though — hopefully others can chime in.

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  25. All great points. Using a font that does not have serifs, is also harder. Am I writing an capital i or a lower case L?

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  28. Great tips. I think I’m sometimes guilty of exclamation marks… But not quite that bad. Otherwise, I’m on track. Woot!!! <—- couldn't resist

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  30. I do follow the above 5 points and in addition, i do the following:

    I generally use Powerpoint where on the powerpoint slide – i add pic(s) and add the content along with it. Further save the ppt slide as jpg or take screen shot for image. Upload the ppt image on the blog.

    My followers can read entire post from readers section as it is image. and can like it. I see this method works fine and better. You may check my blog to better understand.
    regards

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