How to Keep Website Visitors Engaged (and Reading)
People move fast online. Their eyes skip over the screen, scanning and filtering for the information they want.
Web reader behavior studies show site visitors don’t want to read as much of your web content.
This presents a major challenge for content business leaders. How do you make sure the people you have worked so hard to attract to your website actually read your content?
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Provide web content that is useful, valuable and interesting
If you want your readers to stop and pay attention to your content, you have to offer them something worth their time. To do that have a really clear picture of who your reader is. If you don’t know your readers well enough to buy them a thoughtful, meaningful gift, you have work to do.
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Put the most important information at the top
Eye-tracking studies show that most readers look at the first paragraph, but by the fourth paragraph, most of your visitors have stopped reading.
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Use headlines and subheads as signposts
Use good design to draw the eye to the most important information and summarize sections with well-written headlines. Readers like to get the gist of the page and home in on what interests them.
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Use short paragraphs and lists
Long slabs of text are difficult to scan read. To make information more accessible, break large paragraphs into multiple smaller ones, or better still, use bulleted or numbered lists.
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Use digits for numbers
When scanning a page, the digit “5” stands out more than the word “five” and draws in the reader’s eye. In addition, the numbers indicate that there is hard, factual information and that it can be accessed quickly.
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Keep to the point
Understand the page’s purpose and keep your web content focused and on-topic. Avoid sidetracking your reader.
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Straight-talk
Jargon and highbrow words have no place on most web pages. Instead, select simple and familiar words.
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The Goldilocks principle
Respect your readers’ time and keep your copy just the right length. Ruthlessly remove wordiness. My personal rule of thumb is to write, then edit the copy down by 50%.
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Don’t use ambiguous links such as “Click here” or “Support”
The best links act as navigational signposts that describe what the user will find if they click. Informative links such as “chocolate recipes” or “application forms” help the reader choose where to go next.
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Put your reader first
To draw your readers into your web content, you need to talk to them, not at them. Replace terms such as “our customers” with “you”. And because your readers are only interested in what you can do for them, highlight the benefits of your products and services instead of providing a list of features, and use an educational and informative writing style.