Did you know that on average users read only 20 percent of the content that is on your webpage, according to a study done by The Nielsen Norman Group? For businesses this can be very concerning considering that in this day and age, websites are heavily relied on to relay tons of information to current and potential customers. So what can you do to your website to help your visitors absorb more information and stay engaged? Lets take a look at a few quick tips.
1. Be Particular With Your Formatting
When I say formatting, I’m not just simply talking about whether to pick Times New Roman over Arial. There are some slightly more complex formatting decisions that can really help guide readers down the page more efficiently and make it easier for them to stay interested. One of the main examples is creating a hierarchy of your information — the most important points and words should be at the top as headings or short statements. They should be larger than the rest of the text, and then a tiered system continues down the page to the least important information. It’s also important to utilize subheadings to separate the information, put text in dot points to make it quicker to read, implement strong paragraph breaks and bold or highlight important words when necessary.
2. Utilize Images and Infographics
It is true: pictures do tell a thousand words. So if you’re looking to condense a lot of data and information into a fast and easily comprehended format, then turning to images or infographics are a great alternative. Not only is a good image or infographic compelling and appealing to readers, it can also help boost traffic to your site. Oftentimes, other sites will adopt your infographic into their own content, and as soon as one of their readers clicks on it, they are directed back to your site, which leads to a larger volume of visitors. Infographics and sophisticated imagery is also a great technique to show off your expertise as a brand, because they are often viewed as more sophisticated and technical when it comes to content creation.
3. Less Is More
Your website may be the hub for all your company information, but it’s important to remember that you don’t want your audience to be disengaged and turn away from your site. Before deciding on the pages included on your site, and what content will be included, it’s important to appropriately strategize — what information is really vital for your customers to have? The idea of less is more really comes into play here, as you want to remain professional but also communicate all the right data. Once you and your team have narrowed down the important information, write the content in short and simple sentences that are easy for any person to comprehend. And don’t forget to use those great formatting skills to condense the information as much as possible.
With such an overload of content on the internet these days, it’s important for brands to keep in mind that audiences are not interested in reading any more information than necessary. Try using these quick tips to condense your website information, and keep your audiences engaged.
