A Comprehensive Guide to Formatting Your WordPress Posts

January 31. 2020

There are many reasons why WordPress has become such a powerful and widespread platform nowadays. The fact that you can create easy to read and engaging posts is certainly among the leading reasons why people decide to forgo other platforms and choose WordPress instead. However, in order to create articles that people will love to read, you will have to use most of the tools on the editing bar. By the time we reach the end of this article, you will understand the importance of formatting your WordPress posts and will learn how to easily do it. All with the help of our team of WordPress experts.

The main elements of formatting your WordPress posts

• Bold and Italic
• Subheadings
• Bulleted list
• Short paragraphs
• Blockquotes

1. Let’s start with the basics – bold and italic

When it comes to formatting options, it really doesn’t get much simpler than bold and italic. And let’s just say that the rules of using these two are quite flexible. They are a great way to break up blocks of text and emphasize your message. One great idea is to bold the first sentence of a paragraph because that will automatically attract the reader to the concept you are creating. And you can italicize words in any sentence in order to add shades of meaning.

However, modesty is the key to everything in life, and the same rule applies here. You don’t want to go overboard with bold and italic because you will achieve the opposite effect from the one you are striving for.

2. Subheads are a great way of formatting your WordPress posts

Not a lot of people will take the time to read a lengthy article unless something catches their attention. The majority of visitors will first skim through your text and read the subheadings before deciding whether to read it completely or not. That’s why you need to ensure your subheadings are catchy, as well as informative.

When creating posts and pages in WordPress, think about subheadings that will hint at the content of your text. You don’t want to reveal everything, but you want to show just enough to spark a person’s interest. And that, as you probably know, takes certain skills.

3. Use numbers in your posts

You may not be a huge fan of it, but research shows that readers love numbered posts. It might be because it makes a text more readable or it could be due to the fact that it gives a sense of progress. Either way, you can’t go wrong by numbering your subheadings. Especially if you plan on writing long ones. Formatting your WordPress posts is all about giving the readers what they want – not about tailoring the text to your needs.

4. Break up your text with a bulleted list

People don’t like reading a very long piece of text. With shortened attention spans, this simply feels like too big of a chore. And this is something you need to have in mind when formatting your posts in WordPress, as you will have to strive to create a text that isn’t overbearing. A great way to do that is by introducing a bulleted list somewhere in your article.

Bullet points are a great way to list all the different concepts you plan on covering in your text as they will make it easy to digest. Trust us – that’s all people are in need of these days.

5. Keep your paragraphs short and sweet when formatting WordPress posts

You have to understand one thing – the people who come to read your post are usually people who are either looking for a solution to a problem or simply want to kill some time. They are not expecting to see long paragraphs that can usually be found in print. They are looking for short paragraphs that won’t be burdensome and that will be easy to read.

For that reason, one of the best pieces of advice we can give you is to always stick to one topic per paragraph. There isn’t an ideal length of a paragraph, but consider three to four sentences to be the norm you should stick to. Of course, you also shouldn’t aim for one-sentence paragraphs because then the text will look like you are reading stripes. If there’s one thing we here at WP Full Care propagate, it’s modesty!

6. Inspire your readers with block quotes

WordPress offers one tool that might become your best friend if used right – the blockquote function. It is used to emphasize and highlight an important quotation, a piece of information or a concept. Setting a sentence or a famous saying apart will directly draw everyone’s eyes towards it. There are many ways to manipulate text, its color, and size in WordPress and this is certainly one of the best ones.

You are going to start noticing a pattern here, but we advise modesty – no surprise there. One to two block quotes will be more than enough to give your post that extra flair it needs. Add anything more than that and you risk them becoming a distraction.

Start and finish with a bang

The first and the last sentence of your article will either make or break the entire text. You need to relay a strong message to your audience because these two sentences make the most lasting impression. Otherwise, you can design your website to perfection but it still won’t bring the amazing results you expect and deserve.

Far be it from us to say that formatting your WordPress posts is all that stands between you and great success. But it certainly is a great start! And when you take into account how easy it is to make these tweaks, we don’t see a reason for you to skip this important step. The time you invest in this process will be well worth it!