Let’s talk about the Wall of Words.
How often do you visit a blog or a website only to find nothing but a ton of words. How appealing is that? I guess ultimately it depends on your motivation. If you really want/need the information you may read it. If you are like me you may just skip it or better yet skim it.
Skim it?
Yes, that’s what I said. Most readers don’t read, they skim over the words, to see if they want to read it. So this being the case, let’s format our wall of words for the skimmer.
Give them Headings and word breaks.
Isn’t this easier to read when the copy is broken up into smaller parts? Each header should be relevant or at least catchy to keep the reader’s interest. Keep pulling the reader’s eye down your copy, giving them the “gist” of the content in each header as you write.
How do you format headers?
Using HTML it is easy to format a header. It looks like this (only omit the spaces after the < )
< h1>This is the largest header</h1 >
There should only be one <h1> tag on a page. Obviously it would come first. After the <h1> tag comes a series of 4 more tags, each getting progressively smaller.
< h2>This is the next smaller size< /h2>
< h3>This is smaller yet< /h3>
< h4>How small do we need to go?< /h4>
By now you get the general idea. Use the H tags to help the reader skim the copy and give visual appeal to your content.
Don’t want to try HTML?
OK, HTML can be a bit scary at first, if you are timid at this point, never fear. Most blogs offer the same result in the editor. Just look at the Bar Above when you are in “Visual” or “WYSIWYG” (what you see is what you get) mode. Here there is a drop down box that will provide <h1> tags for you.
Here’s how it works:
- Highlight the text you want as a Header or heading.
- Click the Format or Paragraph drop down box
- Select the <H> tag you like
- You are done. No step 4!
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