I received a lovely comment from a newcomer to my blog last week, complimenting me on how nicely I relay information on my blog without adding a ‘lot of filler’ as he put it, and with legible font size and good white-space. What a lovely compliment!
I do try to live my life with the adage of ‘Do unto others’ mantra. That’s what inspired me to share this comment I received. I try my best to keep my blog ‘clean’ and not crowded, and thought I’d pass on a few tips. Now, I do know that sometimes my blog posts will have the occasional wonky formating in them – courtesy of WordPress and theme not playing nice. But I do use the ‘preview’ before scheduling a post to make sure it doesn’t look wonky, and sometimes, there are conditions beyond my control, which I will always state on my blog so that others don’t think I’m being sloppy. So below, I’ll mention a few options we have in our WordPress editors to enhance the reader’s experience.
Some Things to Keep in Mind When Drafting a Post
Are you aware you can alter the font size, color and styles on your blog? Are you previewing your posts before you hit schedule or publish? Are all your paragraphs conjoined without proper space breaks? Are you using sub-headings to break up your points of conversation or information? Is your font too light or too small for some of us with vision impairment? These are some of the things I take into consideration when drafting a post.
How to Give Your Post a Clean and Inviting Appearance
I like to summarize what my readers will find in my opening paragraphs so they can get a gist of what they’re about to read without having to scroll to get ‘to the point’. And using subheadings for talking points is a good way to direct attention.
Leaving enough white-space in between paragraphs and headings make a blog look crisp. Reading a blog shouldn’t read like a newspaper article, but should feel welcoming with white-space to give us a pause.
White-space is kind of like a giant comma where we can take a breath and read (or scan) through a paragraph with ease then take a breath for a pause before reading the next paragraph, enabling us to take what we want from that paragraph with ease, and without having to scroll through mounds of information to find what we’re looking for in a long tome of information not broken up. With no white-space, it’s comparative to talking non-stop without taking a breath where all the information that comes out is in one monotone long announcement.
Font size is also important. I know from my own experience, if I go to a blog with tiny font, it hurts my eyes, and doubly so if there’s barely any white-space. This will often cause me to leave.
Some bloggers, like myself, like to use colored fonts, which is a great idea to make headlines or words stand out, but not so much a good idea if the chosen font is too light – especially when used on a similar colored background for the whole post – not reader friendly.
You can use the ‘paragraph’ drop-down box in the editor to enlarge headings and sub-headings to make them stand out. You can also use the little box underneath the paragraph sizing box to change size of font for the whole post or just for parts you wish to emphasize.
I’m not sure if you all get a choice of fonts in another drop-down box in your editor with free WordPress blogs, which allows us to change the font and to add some flair to a post. My blog is self-hosted, which gives me the opportunity to add any new Google fonts to my font options. If you’re self-hosted or on the WordPress business plan, you will have the option to add new fonts. Have you noticed how I bolded some key words in the above paragraphs? By bolding certain words, it attracts the eye in those paragraphs at quick glance and indicates what the topic of that paragraph conversation is about. The same goes for highlighting and/or bolding and using italics – these tools are all there for the benefit of bettering our blog content.
Lastly, it’s also important to ‘preview’ your posts before hitting publish because trust me, the way we have set up a post in draft does not always display the way we think it will once published if the WordPress gremlins are at play, or if some of your plugins are not playing nice with your theme.
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I hope you found this post helpful, and if anyone would like to add to the conversation, please do so in comments.
Happy Blogging!
DGKayewriter.com 
Debby, superb clear and concise advice! Most bloggers do ensure their posts are easy to read regarding layout, fonts, images etc. I am still astonished how some are just great blocks of text with no paragraphs even in the tiniest of fonts … I admit an early defeat on these. Yours are always so welcoming, engaging – a joy to read, learn, be entertained!
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Oh thanks for the lovely compliment Annika. I was only inspired to write this after someone left me a lovely compliment, and I thought I’d elaborate on it to inform others the importance white space and font size for some of us with aging eyes. Thank you as always. ❤
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I’m a big fan of white space, Debby. I see far too many blogs with big blocky paragraphs that look so uninviting. Inserting images between paragraphs also helps.
I also come across many bloggers who fail to check what a post looks like in an email. Again, I see some dreadful blog posts in emails where images, words, lines, sentences and even just one letter are out of sync. There’s one blogger I get emails from where the first letter of each line of her post is in a line all on its own. It looks a bit like this –
T
oday I am going to talk about books.
W
e all love reading, don’t we?
W
hat is your favourite books?
I think many bloggers don’t think about what their post will look like when they don’t change the option in their blog settings to only show a preview of the blog post.
As for tiny font, it should be banned from the world of blogging. Nothing under font size 12 should be allowed.
Did you know that using italics can also hinder reading blog posts on some tablets? I found that out from another blogger, so I tend to no longer use italic font
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Thanks for hopping in to the conversation Hugh – master of great blogging tips. 🙂 Yes, simple tweaks pay off, but they must be noticed first. Now, are you referring to italics specifically, or do you mean a change of font style is harder on a tablet? I mostly reserve italics for book titles. 🙂
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It’s when you highlight a word and use the italic button to change the font used to italic, Debby. Several people have told me that the words changed to italic can be difficult to read on phones and tablets. I like to use my desktop computer to read and comment on posts, so it doesn’t affect me.
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Ditto for me Hugh. And as always, thanks for sharing some more helpful tidbits. ❤
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Some useful tips here, Debby. You will not be surprised to find that my philosophy is also ‘Do as you would be done by’!
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Lol, just another probability of why we connected. 🙂
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I try to practice what you preach here, the Golden Rules of blogging. Less than a year ago, I discovered the tool for adjusting font size via headings. Yay!
Keep up the good work here, Debby.
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Thanks Marian. I’m glad to hear you’re experimenting. 🙂
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thanks for the useful tips, Debby. I remember that it took me four years of blogging to realize I could change the font color and size!
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My pleasure Jim. I think all of us started out pretty green. I learned a lot from fellow writers and bloggers through the years and just hope to pay things forward. 🙂
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Great post D.G.! I also deal with those pesky WordPress gremlins, haha. I’m going to try the paragraph drop-down box tip next. Thanks. 🙂
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Hi Melanie. So happy you found this post useful. Experiment away! 🙂
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Thanks, sis, a great post and lots of tips and help too. ❤
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So glad you found this helpful Adele ❤
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Lots of truth here in these formatting tips! Preview, preview and more preview–monotonous but often essential, especially as one edit messes up something else. One related tip–I first typically draft in Word and paste the content into WordPress. That’s where some of the glitches come in because the two often don’t play nice.
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Yes, I agree. I know many like to copy and paste from Word, which I do sometimes, and especially when I receive docs for the interviews I post, it’s a nightmare after copy and pasting. So yes, review! Lol 🙂
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Great Debby and so important to make posts clear and easy to navigate… I do find some of the Gutenberg posts overwhelming as if everything in the tool box has to be included and every font in the one post. It loses flow and takes the focus away from the content.. I don’t have that problem with yours I hasten to add….have reblogged today at 13.30 to pass along the message..
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You’re a doll Sal. And yes, I too notice and have heard from a few that Gutenberg is giving them grief. I know Colleen had to change her theme quite a few times to get everything working. Mostly, people have lost some of their share buttons. ❤ ❤
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Thank you Sal! ❤
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Great tips, Debby. Frankly, I turn away from blogs with too many words in one paragraph- I lose interest. It’s best to keep paragraphs short and easy to read, with plenty of white space or images to break up the posts- at least for me!
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Hi Jacquie. Thanks for visiting. Just as I suspected. I think many of us feel the same way. 🙂
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Thanks, Debby. Very useful tips and reminders. I prefer the less is more approach to posts. I remember telling a blogger who uses a different platform, that I found his blog (a poetry blog) too distracting. He had music playing, hearts floating around, a dark background with many different fonts, and very long posts with many things attached. He told me people loved his blog. I guess we all have different tastes, but trying to make life easier for others is always the best policy.
Enjoy the weekend!
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Hi Olga. Thanks for dropping by. Yes, I totally get what you’re talking about. I should think for regular blogger who read many blogs a day (like me), many wouldn’t have the time to read longggg posts. 🙂 And happy weekend to you too! ❤
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All good advice, Debby.. Small text and sometimes background colours make reading more difficult for me… Getting old and some of these young whipper snappers don’t think about an oldie like me… Haha.. Xxx
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Lol, you mean like ‘us’. LOL ❤ xx
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Yours is a beautiful blog site, Debby. It reflects the essence of who you are. Thank you for sharing these tips! They are spot-on. I agree with Hugh, I like to use images to break up text as well.
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Thank you so much for your lovely comment Jan, and for visiting. And yes, what would a blog be without photos? ❤
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Hi Debby – so necessary to make one’s post comfortable to read, and flow along … the thing I hate is flashing ‘wobblies’ … and occasionally when people follow – their ‘avatar’ wobbles around – such a pain and not good for eyes – mine are fine, but I think of others. Great post with tips – Cheers Hilary
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Hi Hilary, I so agree with you – or flashing popups within a second of landing somewhere. 🙂 Cheers xx
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Really great advice Debby! When I’m about to start writing a post-it really helps if my goal or the “WHY” is clear. It helps me speed up the writing process.
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Hi Noor. Thanks so much for visiting, and so glad you found it helpful 🙂
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