Is your blog search engine and reader friendly?

I ask because I was looking at a well known firm’s blog posts. I thought the headlines were extraordinarily too long for search engines and social media, the font was too small and the paragraphs too long.

blog

Headline

How long should your headline be? For an idea, read: What Really Is The Best Headline Length?

  • Twitter: 71–100 characters
  • Facebook: 40 characters
  • Google+: 60 characters
  • LinkedIn: 80–120 characters

Check also: The Anatomy of a Perfect Blog Post. There you will see:

In terms of SEO, the headline (or title tag) will need to be around 55 characters or fewer in order to fit the entire title on a search results page and avoided being abbreviated with an ellipse.

Font

What size should your font be? Some say:

  • 16, or even 18 is the new 12.

My blog font size has been 14 for many years. Recently I changed it to Helvetica 15. What do you think?

White Space

That post also discusses white space. The blog posts I read on the well known firm’s blog, included lengthly, dense paragraphs that gave me a headache when I tried to read them.

It’s not just about font size – though it’s important. But white space is just as important. Your content is like a fine wine – it needs room to breathe.

Width

How about line width? Check out: 5 Simple Font Changes to Boost Readers, Comments, and Shares on Your Blog:

Here’s another little-known rule that a lot of blogs break. In order for your eye to easily follow one line to the next, you want no more than 75 characters in each line. This is called the line measure. Beyond a measure of 75 characters, it’s hard to track the end of one line to the beginning of the next without getting lost.

So, go back and look at your blog.

  1. Is your headline SEO friendly?
  2. Is your font easy to read on line for old guys like me?
  3. Are your paragraphs short?
  4. Do you include a visual to break up text?
  5. Is the line measure short enough to be easy to follow?