Having guest bloggers publish on your website can be a fantastic business building tool. Quality content certainly provides value for your readers. It helps boost inbound linking. Traffic is increased. Search engine ranking is increased as well. And those are the tangible benefits. Guest blog posts can also increase credibility and authority. It can help strengthen your brand and increase awareness and recognition.

Of course, the guest post needs to fit a few criteria in order to accomplish these goals. It should ideally be well written and informative, if not entertaining. It also needs to be easy to read. As the owner of your blog and the voice behind the brand, it’s your job to make sure the blog post is easy for your visitors to read.

#1 Spacing – Take a look at the spacing of your guest’s blog post. Are the paragraphs short? Is there enough white space to make it easy to read online? Do the subheadings stand out?

#2 Images – If your guest writer hasn’t included images in the content, and many won’t, then it’s up to you. Add a few relevant images to help draw your reader’s eye through the piece. At a bare minimum, include one image in your blog post. Make sure it’s relevant to the information being provided.

#3 Formatting – Use bold lettering or underlining to emphasize the key words or phrases. For example, consider placing the subheadings in bold and capitalizing the first letter of each word in the subheading. This helps identify it as a key point and makes the material easier to understand.

#4 Summary Paragraph – Do you share your blog posts via RSS and social media? Create a summary paragraph and a teaser paragraph to ignite interest in the guest blog post. There are WordPress plug-ins, like AllinOneSEO, that provide space for you to create a short description of the blog post. This description is what is viewed online in the search results.

#5 Proofread – Finally, even if you’ve read the guest blog post ten times, read it once more. Look for consistency with phrases and terminology. Make sure all proper names and titles are correct and consistent. Then review it for basic spelling and grammar mistakes.

Finally, to maximize the readability and value of the post and to enhance the marketability of it, interlink the guest post with other relevant blog posts or published content. Guest blog posts are a win win for you and the writer. Make them a win for your readers too by taking a few steps to enhance the readability.