Blog post headings vs. no headings for your financial blog
Should you use blog post headings when you write? One of my readers asked me this recently as he worked on his financial firm’s blog.
Reasons to use blog post headings
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve probably guessed that I like headings.
For starters, headings make blog posts easier to scan by dividing your content into distinct blocks. When the headings capture the focus of each of your blog post’s sections, they make it easy for your reader to decide if your blog post is worth reading. They also add visual appeal.
Here’s what one of readers told me about why he likes headings:
Blog post headings help me to:
- Quickly scan the content of an article – beyond just reading the title
- Zero in on the action steps that the writer is recommending.
Headings may also improve the SEO (search engine optimization) of your blog post. According to “Headings and why you should use them” on the Yoast blog:
…headings still help Google to grasp the main topics of a long post. …Google might scan your post…and why not make that as easy as possible?
When to skip blog post headings
Skip headings when your blog posts are too short or unfocused.
How short is too short? This post has fewer than 300 words, but I still think the headings are helpful. If I didn’t use headings, could you grasp at a quick glance that I discuss when to skip headings?
On the other hand, I don’t think headings would have added anything to my post, “Writers, do you know when something’s wrong?” There wasn’t enough content there.
YOUR thoughts
I’m curious to know how you use headings in your blog posts. Please comment.
