Web-Based Reading: Content on the Web

It is hard to get someone to focus online attention to reading content in detail. Most people browse the internet just as the action word describes: they browse or scan through content. Therefore, it is important to focus web writing efforts on creating concise, objective and scannable text.

Rarely do people thoroughly read through web page content word-for-word (only 16% of test users) according to studies by Jakob Nielsen. Instead, they scan over the page, picking out words and sentences that may strike an interest. Almost 80% of test users always scanned new pages they came across; therefore, it is important for web pages to be designed with scannable text.

Some ways to incorporate scannable text into the web page include:

• Using highlighted keywords. This can be achieved with bolded text, italicized text, colored text or even hyperlinked text.
• Writing meaningful, rather than clever, subheadings.
• Using bulleted lists.
• Including one idea per paragraph. People will skip the remainder of a paragraph if the first few words or sentences don’t capture their interest.
• Using the “inverted pyramid” style of writing that introduces the most important information first before going into the detailed discussion of background info.
• Use fewer words than you do in conventional writing (half or less).

Of critical importance in web writing is credibility. Web users appreciate increased credibility regarding the information presented to them in web writing with the use of high-quality graphics, good writing and links to outbound sources where information was gleaned from.

At the other end of the spectrum, web readers absolutely hate promotional writing. If you make boastful, subjective claims in your writing, you will surely turn off readers with your content. Web users usually look for objective facts rather than subjective opinions, so focus on concrete facts. Also, exaggerated writing has an adverse effect on credibility.

Jakob Nielsen measures the effects of improved web writing styles to compare to the base, control condition of promotional writing. He charts the details of the style, respective content and results to display the effects when compared to one another. In order of usability improvement measured against promotional writing (0% as the control condition), objective language (27%), a scannable layout (47%) and concise text (58%) performed considerably better. Even more impressive was that when the three improved writing styles were combined, the usability improvement was 124%.

These are all suggested methods of improvement for writing for the web. Incorporating any one of these styles or using any combination of them may improve usability. Use them to improve the content on your website or even in articles you may write to help in your link-building efforts.