Blogging 101: Setting out a Blog Post

As per usual I like to have all my Blogging 101 posts, centered more around design and layout aspects, rather than anything related to what to write. This post today is going to be focused formatting, layout and design of your actual blog post. There will be some things specific to Blogger but the majority of this will be relevant for everyone. 

The Blog Post Title 

Naming your blog post is very important, it gives your readers a glimpse into what the post is about before they even click on it to read. It's pretty critical that your title is actually relevant to what your post is about. 
Not just because you don't want to trick your readers, but because a vague and irrelevant post title means no one really knows what they are about to read. Your loyal followers will most definitely still read the post anyway, just because they like you. But you're less likely to draw in new readers. 
Relevant titles are also handy as they work well with SEO. (Search Engine Optimisation) It's much easier for people to find your lovely posts if it is likely they will search something similar into google.

Images in Your Post

99% of the time I like to have an image before I have any text. This is something that is purely optional of course, and is hardly necessary all the time. Especially if you want to talk about something specific before you start posting photos. 
Though whatever you decide, you need to have a main photo. In Blogger this is the first photo that you upload to your blog, and it must be uploaded through your computer not through a URL. The main photo is kind of like a visual label for your post. It will pop up next to your post in your sidebar widgets popular/recent posts, as well as in Bloglovin' and when you link it on Facebook.  So you really want to make sure you have one.
Full Size your images! Live and breathe this rule! If anything is a rule in this post this is it. You've got the space, and you've got lovely photos so show them off! Find out what your maximum photo width is and resize it so it is that width. You can use this Image Resizer to do it for you. Just upload the image, type in what width your image needs to be, (mine is 701 pixels) and go! Save the image and upload it to your blog post. 
Doing this not only helps your images look their best, and fit the page properly, you've just helped a reader with slow internet, load your blog so much faster!
You can also click your images, and then click "properties" then type in what your image is, or even the title of your in ALT Text. This is helpful in searches, and will be the words that come up if someone pins your post to pinterest!

Your Post Content

Once you have written your goldmine of a post out, it's time to actually read back through it. Any obvious spelling errors? Any words you were unsure of how to spell so you guessed? Have a read, google words if you have to, run it through an online spell checker.

I'm a bit of a spelling nut, there are typos and then there is having no clue. I've been reading quite a few posts lately with the topic of "Cease the Moment". Unfortunately you're saying cease as in stop/halt/terminate the moment, instead of what you definitely meant "Seize" as in grasp/grab/take. Seriously type into google "define [word]" You'll save yourself some heartache later!

Use paragraphs! They're easier to read, you don't feel like you're reading as much, because you're only reading small chunks at a time. When you see one big lump of text, oh boy is that daunting. Look at all those word! That is going to take you forever to read, probably just skip over that part.

Finally, please Preview your posts before you publish! There's a button for that, and it shows you what your blog post is going to look like when it finally goes live. This is a super important step! It only takes a moment, and you can see if you have some kind of weird spacing issue or if one of your pictures is being gigantic for no reason.

Post Settings

This is in the sidebar next to your post when you're on Blogger, which is what I use for my own blog. So I'm not too sure what you have in yours if you're using another blogging website.  Some of these will be relevant for everyone though.

Labels

Otherwise known as tags, or even categories. The number one mistake people use here is using labels as some kind of hashtag for searches. I know that on a lot of social media eg. Tumblr & instagram. You want to tag your stuff with as many things as possible, because that's how people find you. This is not how blogger works! Labels are basically just for you and your blog.

They're pretty much a way to keep your blog posts organised. I have a few main labels I use, and sometimes I'll throw some other relevant categories in there. Some of my labels are "Fashion" + "Personal" + "Travel". People can click on an individual label from each post, and find all posts from that category all together which is really nifty!

Permalink

I've been getting into the habit lately of using a custom permalink. Which means instead of a url for your post going straight from whatever you blog post title is, you can make it up yourself. So your post could be called "Cats Cats Cats" but when you go to your website the link would be www.myblog.com/a-story-about-my-cat.html if you catch my drift.

Search Description

I used to always leave this blank, but not anymore! When someone uses a search engine and they see your post title, this will be the little paragraph that appears underneath! So it's super important! If you don't write anything here then there will just be a small excerpt from the beginning of your post. So it probably won't make much sense. For example, on this post I would write, "A quick guide to setting out your blog posts so that you and your readers will get the most out of it!" It doesn't need to be long and will be something that people can glance at so they know what they are clicking.

And we're done!

Awesome, thanks for reading guys! You'll now be well on your way to becoming a Blogging Pro, or you know, at least look like one!

Cya!!

More from Blogging 101:

• The Sidebar
• Template Design Basics
• Creating a Photo Header
• Add Your Blog Link to Comments
• Create a Favicon for Your Blog
• How to Remove the Frame on Bloglovin'

Did you know you can subscribe to Permanent Procrastination via Email?? 

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Follow Me on Bloglovin' / Follow Me on Instagram