How Your Visitors Read Your Website

Writing content for your website is very different to writing for other mediums. Your visitors will read your website text much differently then they might read a novel or newspaper. Research suggests that about 85% of people will “scan” your website text. Only about 15 percent of people will read your website text word by word. The research done is accurate and is done by using “heat maps” that tracking eye movement as well as other testing measures.

How to Make your Text “Scannable”

In the words of Albert Einstein:

Most people don’t have time to read your website text word for word. They need you to provide the key concepts as fast as possible.

To achieve this, follow these guidelines:

• Avoid slang or jargon. You want to keep your text as free from nomenclature or technical babble as possible. If you need help with this, use a Thesaurus. http://thesaurus.reference.com/
• Shorter words. Use “Begin” instead of “Initiate”. Use “used to” vs “accustomed to”
  Again, a thesaurus can help with this.
• One Idea per paragraph. Avoid complex sentences and keep your paragraphs down to one idea.
• Headings that make sense. Avoid “creative” headlines.
• Bold keywords in a paragraph. This helps with scan-ability.
• Use Lists (like this one). Slows reader down, makes complex concepts less intimidating.
• Your article word count should be kept around 500-700 if possible.

Next

Have a look over your website content now and keep these guidelines in mind.

Remember, the attention span on the web is very low. We want to do everything we can,
to help our visitor reach their goal as fast as possible. Our competitor is often one click away.