As a blogger it’s getting incredibly difficult to sustain the interest of our readers. People have short attention spans and with social media it’s getting even shorter. You may work hours trying to craft the best blog content but if the level of engagement on your content is low then that’s not time well spent.
However there are ways you can sustain your readers’ attention when reading your blog and encourage them to engage with your blog content. If you’re having trouble keeping your readers on your blog longer then here are some things you can do to increase the time people spend reading your blog content.
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Make it easy for your readers to spot the value you give
Since people’s attention span is short, you need to make sure that you put value upfront. Make your content easy for your readers to scan through your content and spot areas of value. When you do this you’ll encourage your readers to stop on valuable points and read further instead of keeping them lost in a sea of words.
Here are ways you can achieve this:
- Break up your content using bullet points, subheadings, subtopics or takeaways.Let each section focus on a single idea. This makes it easy to scan through and if they come across a section they’d like to know more about then they’ll read more about that bullet point.
- Make use of quotes or call outs.You can creatively use quotes or call outs to capture the attention of your readers and encourage your readers to dive deeper into your content.
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Incorporate imagery
If there’s anything that captures people’s attention it’s imagery. Readers relate with images a lot better especially when the images compliment the blog content. Images don’t only engage your readers, they also make your blog content colourful and more visually appealing. This makes your content so much easier to consume.
There are many ways you can add imagery to your blog content. Here are a few you can get started with:
- Break your content up with relevant images that enhance your content.Try placing images that represent the idea behind each sub topic. That way you’re creating a picture in the mind of your readers of the message you want to pass across in your blog.
- Insert infographics. Infographics present data in a creative, fun and engaging way which effectively sustains the attention of your readers.
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Add videos
If there’s anything that can keep your readers longer on your blog, then it has to be videos. People love videos. Videos can add more context to your content. Although it’s so much better to insert your own videos, you can place videos from other sources on your blog so long as the videos you choose are relevant to the content of your blog post.
Here are some types of videos you can incorporate in your blog post:
- Instructional videos.These are ‘how-to’ videos which teach your readers something related to your content. Instead of going into detail about how a particular thing is done, you can insert a helpful video which does just that for you.
- Complementary videos.These are videos which focus on enhancing your content like videos that give examples or summarizes the content in your blog post.
And remember to enjoy your blogging journey. It is a journey into the unknown.
Those are great tips – I could make a bit more use of quotes maybe 🙂
Yes you can. Glad you like the tips.
Great points! I always vote for high quality, amazing images. This is what will catch the readres eye for longer and make them wanna stick around!
I agree. Thanks for reading.
This was a great read! I get so consumed trying to get the words right on the page that I forget that content isn’t just Text, it’s everything you mentioned!! Thanks for the info!!
Thanks for reading Terry.
It is quite time consuming to craft content in hopes of a fruitful readership and can be quite disappointing to receive a low engagement. I love the notion to make readers spot your value.
Yea it works better that way.
I agree. Writing something and wishing people would come and read it after you put In hours and hours or even days constructing. it better to find one thing that works and to stick with that!
Exactly! Thanks for stopping by.
I can’t agree with you more, I feel the older we get, the shorter our attention span is! I like to still to a 250-350 word rule. Anything over and I feel my viewer’s eyes start to glaze over!
Yea. Best to stick to the 300 words minimum to help the blog post seo though.
These are some excellent tips, and I can’t wait to begin to incorporate some of them. Many of them I already utilize, but it’s always nice to have another perspective to spark ideas of different ways to create valuable content. Thanks!
Glad you like the tips Paula.
This is a really good blog. I know that I should add more videos to mine, so I will take that on board and hopefully it will help. Thank you.
Thanks Melissa. Yes videos do help loads.
Good tips! I’m always looking for ways to upgrade my blog and content!
Thanks Takara.
Another thing that makes a reader stay longer on a blog is to use bold print to call out the points you want people to remember. I was discouraged from doing this by another blogger. But I noticed that it was most useful in guiding first time visitors around my blog. It helps them to get to know my “voice”. The second thing I try to avoid is an overload of adds and pop-ups and pop-outs. It’s just annoying.
Pop ups are so annoying. I can’t stand them at all!
Really interesting tips, thanks for sharing I think showing value is key
Yes value is key, very important.
Thanks for the great advice! I’m still learning how to lay out my posts. I should try some video!
Yes try out videos Hailey.
I always find the greatest tips in your blog. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reading. Glad you like the tips.
You nailed it and the fact is when we pay attention to these tiny details, it make the blog stand out, attractive and magnetic so people return for more!
Exactly!
These are some great tips that I’m sure will help lots of bloggers out. Great!
Thanks.
Nice blog posting thank you very much!
Thanks for reading.
This is some great content! Thank you for sharing such useful tips. I will bookmark this post for future reference.
Thanks Joy.
I so agree with you about headings and pictures. If an article doesn’t have pictures then I am less likely to read it.
Exactly. Pretty pictures and headings definitely help.
Great Topic! I have not comment your blog in a while!
Thanks 😊
Thanks for sharing- after having a break from blogging I could definitely do with using those tips. 😊
Glad you like the tips. Thanks for reading 😊
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