HOW TO FORMAT LISTS CORRECTLY
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Formally, a list is a set of data connected by a common characteristic (for example, a to-do list, a grocery list, or a bibliography). A simple list is a single sentence. Let’s check this using a children’s poem as an example.
What Are Little Boys Made Of?
Snips and snails, and puppy-dogs’ tails;
And that’s what little boys are made of.
This can be presented as a simple list.
What Are Little Boys Made Of?
- snips,
- snails,
- puppy-dogs’ tails.
This kind of list is convenient to use and immediately gives you the full picture.
Lists are built according to certain principles: parallelism, internal logic, consistency, and so on.
Each item in a list should be similar to the others. In the children’s poem example, the author used all nouns in the plural form. You can expand the list by adding adjectives. But syntactic consistency works in such a way that if you add an adjective to one noun, you will need to add adjectives to all the items.
- sharp scissors,
- slippery snails,
- short puppy tails.
Syntactic Consistency in Lists
You cannot mix different approaches within a list. Once you choose a principle for creating a list, you cannot break it later — readers figure out the logic of the list from the first few items and then automatically “read” the rest according to that logic. It’s like entering a building: if the first thing you see is a staircase going down, it’s probably a basement or bunker, but if you see a long hallway, it’s probably a government office, and so on. Don’t make your readers work harder by mixing the logic of your list. One useful feature of an organized list is that readers can easily find the item they need. First, readers understand the principle you’ve chosen, and then they expect to see it in every item. This is especially relevant for instructions, audits, and reference materials: readers shouldn’t have to figure out the logic of each item all over again.
| Correct | Incorrect |
|---|---|
| The key to a successful case study • A successful strategy. • Professional specialists. • A friendly team. | The key to a successful case study • Strategy. • Professional specialists. • A friendly team built over the years. |
All list items must be consistent: if the first item begins with a verb in the infinitive form, all the remaining items should begin the same way, rather than using different verb constructions. You shouldn’t mix participial constructions and verbs in the same list, and so on. Start lists with strong verbs: completed, implemented, created, planned, and so on.
Keep list items consistent in length. One item shouldn’t consist of just a few words while another takes up several paragraphs. Ideally, each item should contain 1–2 sentences.
| Correct | Incorrect |
|---|---|
| Work strategy • Conduct a comprehensive audit. • Choose a platform for promotion. • Set up analytics. • Choose reporting dates. | Work strategy • Conduct a comprehensive audit. An audit usually takes one to two business days. • Choose a platform for promotion. Set up analytics. • Reporting. |
List Design
For example, let’s look at a list from a marketing audit.
- Add form submission tracking through GA4 and Google Tag Manager if website inquiries are not currently recorded as conversions: without proper tracking, it’s impossible to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
- If a significant portion of the advertising budget is spent on irrelevant search queries, regularly add negative keywords.
- The landing page should have a visible call to action. Users may leave the website without understanding what to do next if the submission button or phone number is difficult to notice.
- A high cost per click may be associated with low ad relevance. If ads lead to an overly general page, create separate landing pages for your main services.
All the items in this list contain the same components: a recommendation, a situation, and an explanation of the reason. However, they appear in a different order, which makes the list difficult to read as a whole — you have to figure out each item separately every time. Let’s make the descriptions consistent: first “What?”, then “When?”, and finally “Why?”.
- Set up form submission tracking through GA4 and Google Tag Manager if website inquiries are not currently recorded as conversions. Without proper tracking, it’s impossible to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
- Add negative keywords if a significant portion of the advertising budget is spent on irrelevant search queries. This will help reduce spending on clicks from users who aren’t interested in your services.
- Make the call to action more visible if users visit the landing page but rarely submit inquiries or call. Visitors should immediately understand what action they’re expected to take.
- Create separate landing pages for your main services if ads lead to an overly general page. A more relevant page helps users find the information they need faster and can improve advertising performance.
Easier to read now? Let’s polish the list completely by highlighting the most important information.
- Set up form submission tracking through GA4 and Google Tag Manager if website inquiries are not currently recorded as conversions. Without proper tracking, it’s impossible to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
- Add negative keywords if a significant portion of the advertising budget is spent on irrelevant search queries. This will help reduce spending on clicks from users who aren’t interested in your services.
- Make the call to action more visible if users visit the landing page but rarely submit inquiries or call. Visitors should immediately understand what action they’re expected to take.
- Create separate landing pages for your main services if ads lead to an overly general page. A relevant page helps users quickly find the information they need and can improve advertising performance.
Formatting Lists
A list in a document must be formatted using actual bullet points, not em dashes, not simply separated by pressing Enter, but as a proper list using <ul> or <ol>.
Use numbered and bulleted lists. If a bulleted or numbered list follows a heading, you shouldn’t put a colon after the heading.
Bulleted List
List items begin with a lowercase letter when a colon appears before the list, and with an uppercase letter when they follow a heading. They end with a semicolon. If the list items are simple, you can use commas or leave out punctuation.
| Simple list with semicolons | Simple list with commas | Capital letters and periods |
|---|---|---|
| There are three markers on the table: • the red one, which I brought from Paris, is almost dried out; • the yellow one, which I found on the floor yesterday evening, was broken by the kids; • the green one, I don’t remember where it came from, still works perfectly. | There are three markers on the • table: • red, • yellow, • green. | This information helps improve: • Advertising, the website, or sales scripts. The quality control department hears who is genuinely interested in the product and what matters to those people. • Business processes within the company. The quality control department is aware of all customer complaints and requests. • The sales team’s motivation system. This helps when sales managers “drop” difficult customers. |
Numbered List
List items begin with a capital letter, and each item ends with a period. Use a numbered list only when you need to list actions one after another.
Nested List
It’s better to avoid nested lists — a, b inside 1, 2, 3. Nested lists make the text column narrower and the website page look messy. Ideally, lists should have only one level.
List Titles
Give your lists names. In the past, it was enough to write a description of the list, add a colon, and start a new line. That doesn’t work anymore. People read lists separately from the rest of the text because they often scan content. But the brain always perceives lists as important information. Give your lists separate names and turn them into mini-stories within your larger story. If you name a list “In particular, we:” and then start listing items, readers will frantically scan the page trying to understand what it’s about. But if you name the list, for example, “Comprehensive Anti-Fraud Measures in Google Ads,” it will immediately be clear what the list is about.
Another way to show respect for your readers is to structure lists so that keywords appear at the beginning of sentences and to bold the main phrases in each list.
Examples of List Formatting Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Most problems can be solved by giving a list a title and highlighting its key points.
Більшість проблем вирішуються тим, що у списку з’являється назва та виділяються ключові пункти.
| Bad | Not bad | Good |
|---|---|---|
| Among the main recommendations: • create separate landing pages for each service category, and where pages already exist, update them: add more details and specifics, and structure the text; • optimize text and headings for target keywords so that pages fully match user intent. | List of recommendations after a CRO audit • Create separate landing pages for each service category, and where pages already exist, update them: add more details and specifics, and structure the text. • Optimize text and headings for target keywords so that pages fully match user intent. | List of recommendations after a CRO audit • Create separate landing pages for each service category, and where pages already exist, update them: add more details and specifics, and structure the text. • Optimize text and headings for target keywords so that pages fully match user intent. |
| We fixed everything, adapted it to our needs, and added important settings: • removed filtering for certain numbers so that all calls without exception would be sent to GA4 and Google Ads for a complete picture of performance; • set up dynamic number insertion on the website so that phone numbers would automatically change for each session, ensuring accurate tracking of the source of each call; • created separate tracking numbers for calls from ad extensions and Call Only campaigns. | Key CallRail Settings We fixed everything, adapted it to our needs, and added important settings. • Removed filtering for certain numbers so that all calls without exception would be sent to GA4 and Google Ads for a complete picture of performance. • Set up dynamic number insertion on the website so that phone numbers would automatically change for each session, ensuring accurate tracking of the source of each call. • Created separate tracking numbers for calls from ad extensions and Call Only campaigns. | Key CallRail Settings We fixed everything, adapted it to our needs, and added important settings. • Removed filtering for certain numbers so that all calls without exception would be sent to GA4 and Google Ads for a complete picture of performance. • Set up dynamic number insertion on the website so that phone numbers would automatically change for each session, ensuring accurate tracking of the source of each call. • Created separate tracking numbers for calls from ad extensions and Call Only campaigns. |
Conclusion
Lists hold readers’ attention and have long become separate elements of reading. In other words, if a page contains both a list and regular text, there’s a good chance that readers will focus only on the list and won’t read the text. Just as they might read the examples of lists in this article and completely ignore the conclusion.
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