Readers love easy-to-read, uncluttered text. Here are five quick fixes to clean up your posts and pages.
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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This was rather helpful. I have been struggling with keeping my posts from getting too long! Anybody know the ideal word count?
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There is no “ideal word count” — I’d pay more attention to your words themselves, and that you say what you want to say.
From what I see on WordPress.com, there are readers who don’t prefer to read longform, although to some, “longform” is 500 words, while to others it’s 2,000. Length is subjective; I sense that the most important thing is taking the space you need to craft your post/story, and if done well, it doesn’t matter how long it is.
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Alright, will keep that in mind! Thanks! 🙂
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Thanks for the heads-up. I am certainly guility of not using the link function – i think it has something to do with the fact that i blog from my phone and navigation is sometimes challenging.
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Ah, yes — it is tricky to perform some of these functions on your phone. Kudos to you, though, for using the mobile app!
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All this are the basic etiquete of not just writing but a presentation, so I like to think that our blogs are how we present ourselves after we are here no more. Its a safe for the future us.
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testing testing 123. my first blog- thanks for the tips!
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Hi,
Here is my entry for Day 7.
Do have a read 🙂
Feedback and constructive criticism is always welcome! 🙂
http://awanderingstoryteller.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/caged-in-a-ring/
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That’s great that you’re participating in Writing 101 — although this post is not associated with that blogging challenge. You should post your link on the appropriate day in this list: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/courses/writing-101-building-a-blogging-habit/
Or in the Commons: http://writing101june2014.wordpress.com/
Thank you!
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With Nishita, which has a wide column and tiny default text, I am experimenting with using the headings for my text. My text on heading 2 is about the same size as in- that theme, the one with the blavatar displayed in a circle above the header text. Unfortunately, it causes problems on the emailed copies of posts and the mobile version.
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This is so helpful!
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Thank you for this post. Could you also make a post that gives tips on grammar correction. I am struggling with this.
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We have a few previous grammar posts: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/?s=grammar
I’d recommend sites like Grammar Girl (http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl) or fun books like Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, which discuss grammar in accessible, entertaining ways: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8600.Eats_Shoots_Leaves
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Thank you this is very helpful. Now let’s see how long it will take us to increase the font size on our site.
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Great tips! I’m a new blogger and I’m looking for ant advice I can get. So, thanks!
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Great tips! Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you, when you are starting a blog for the first time, it is wonderful to read your suggestions to be better.
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This makes a lot of sense!
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Any helpful hints on how to control line spacing?
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Great tips!!
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Thank you for this!
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Very great tips!
I agree with you on. Having a breathing space.
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Forgot to add:
I also agree with on you on linking your texts. Another tip for text linking is to use different colors if you use bold-colored themes.
I have a reddle theme for my blog. Because red is the main color of the reddle theme, I like to use pink for the text link color as it easier on the eyes and goes along with the colors of the theme.
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I think this is a great post, especially for people, like me, who are just starting out. The key is to get the people to want to read your articles, not have them be interested, but it’s too blocked or hard to read. Thank you very much!
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I actually dislike it when people link text – I want to clearly and plainly see where they want to lead me before I agree to follow. I hate clicking on linked text only to find out that I’m now viewing something on a site I normally boycott.
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Unless I know and trust the blogger I don’t click on links.
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That’s the only sensible way to approach it. If you don’t know and trust them, that linked text might be taking you for a swim in the computer virus pool.
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On google chrome if you hover over the link, the web address appears in the bottom left of the screen, I always check this before going there. I don’t know if other browsers do this, but it is a useful feature.
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Yes, I’m aware of that – but I’ve also read that particularly malicious individuals have ways of making it display something other than the true destination.
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Eek, I didn’t know that! I’ll be careful of blogs I don’t know in future, thanks.
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But then of course, such people could probably pull the same trick with a web address in the text, so it’s probably safer just to be paranoid.
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Regarding #5 why are there even themes which have small white text on a black background? It hurts my eyes to try and read it, yet two blogs I like use this theme. OK they could choose a different theme, but since you are aware of this issue, why even make such a theme? Light grey on a dark grey background with a normal sized font would be more tolerable. Mostly such issues as font colour and size are decided by the theme though, as it is a paid add-on to be able to change them.
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Those themes exist because some people have vision problems which actually require those types of display to enable them to read. I have a friend on LiveJournal who has his blog set that way – I can only read his posts through my friends page because I can control how it displays.
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So what would be really ideal is if it was possible to set a reader theme to override one you could otherwise not read, both for people like him and for people like me 🙂
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Yes – something akin to “use my theme to display all blogs I read”.
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I’d only need it for the problem ones, otherwise I prefer to read the blogger’s choice. So a setting for ‘use my theme to display this blog’ would be better for me. Both options would be useful I think.
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I like this post so much. I have been puzzling over how to change my text size. You’re just full of great tips. I recommend the site to anybody.
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You and I both know that the people who really need to read this won’t.
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Thank you for these great tips, Cherie. I agree with all of them, but regarding number 2, I think too much white space is also a mistake. Some bloggers leave a space after every sentence, when writing prose, which I feel breaks the thought flow making them harder to read. I also agree with number 5 — faint-colored texts or dark backgrounds are difficult on older eyes.
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wow wonderful website
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this was very helpful, thank you. check out my blog? http://fixingtalia.wordpress.com
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Unless I missed it no one mentioned photos. Great to break up text, but please, add captions. Captions can be witty, funny, informative, and add to your post. Don’t just stick a pic in without a caption.
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Thanks for the addition. We could do a lot of these “five quick fixes” posts, to be honest. Maybe we can do a photo-focused one.
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It was a good post concentrating on the essentials. I – endlessly – tell people to break up their pars. White space isn’t just about design, it’s proven that it makes text easier to read.
If you do a photo focused one, make it about how to use photos in non-photo blogs. Big difference.
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Great advice! I did my first reference link post just last night 🙂
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Great tips & a big help–especially the last one regarding color pallets. Normally we might leave it to the designers but even us bloggers should heed that advice as well.
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great post. Now i see why this was at the top of my reader 🙂
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Sure to help.
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Thank you very much for those important details. It gives me a better insight as a young blogger . Thanks again
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