Need help writing your blog? Here are a few tips:
Length
Keep the length of all posts between 700-800 words unless there is an editorial justification.
Links to other materials
Include links to other sites or articles that supplement your topic. When quoting other blogs or publications in your post, please link to the original material if possible.
Style and formatting for blogs
The UHC Forward blog adheres to current AP Style Guidelines. To write a compelling blog, write succinctly and use headings to break up long blocks of text. Consider breaking posts that reach the 1,000 word mark up into a series of posts. Please keep the below in mind:
Pay Attention to Titles: The first thing your visitors will notice are your blog post titles. Make sure you have enough clear and concise titles, so visitors don't have to search very far to know what your blog posts are about. Also, remember that search engines weigh blog post titles heavier than the content of each post. Try to make the titles as close to the maximum length as possible. Only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.
- The first title: Should be no more than 50 characters long
- The second-extended title: Should have a maximum of 94 characters
Use Headings:Headings in your blog posts makes your content easy for the reader to scan quickly because it breaks it into smaller pieces with clear headlines for each section, but search engines also weigh text published using a "heading" format heavier than non-formatted text. Make your headings relevant, clear and search-engine friendly.
Make Lists: Bulleted and numbered lists work equally well in turning text that could be published as long paragraphs into easily readable content. Use lists whenever you can to break up long blocks of text.
Go Easy on the Links: Links can be very helpful in directing your readers to more information. They're also helpful in search engine optimization because search engines weigh linked text higher than non-linked text. However, too many links can have a negative effect on the readability of your blog.
Use Images: Images are a great way to break up a text-heavy blog post. They can help to draw attention to a specific post, add color to your blog, and help with search engine optimization.
Write Short Paragraphs: Blog posts are easiest to scan and read when paragraphs are short. In fact, one or two sentence paragraphs are perfectly acceptable and usually welcomed by blog visitors. Short paragraphs add white space and visual relief to text-heavy blog posts.
If you would like more information on how to write a blog post for UHC Forward, please contact Nkem Wellington at [email protected].