All visitors to your site have one thing in common—they could be spending their time somewhere else. If the content on your site isn’t reader-friendly, it’s time to roll out the welcome mat. And it may be as simple as a matter of looks.
1. Bite size it
Break up that wall of words into snack-sized paragraphs. A good rule of thumb is one idea per paragraph, three to four sentences, tops. Even though you don’t have total control of how small or large the words will appear, brief paragraphs will prevent readers from seeing a daunting wall of words.
2. Take a break
White space is easy on the eyes. Make the page more reader friendly by using a full line break between paragraphs. In today’s fast-paced world, scanning content is second nature so use subheads to give your visitors a reason to pause and dive in deeper get the information they’re looking for. Your visitors won’t take time to scroll through endless text to guess where they’ll find that nugget of expert advice or service they’re looking for.
3. Stop babbling
It’s OK to be concise. Really.
Take a look at this wordy example 91 words:
Our superintendents take up the task to review current projects at each and every one of our construction job sites each week. The superintendents, who are LEED certified, identify ways the project team optimized maximum savings on material and labor costs due to the all of the team on the project. At this time our project managers compile the reduction in cost data and now prepare a report for the leadership team. We take these steps to educate ourselves on each project and eliminate processes that cost people a lot of money.
When you edit for grammatical correctness, the word count is reduced to 52 words:
Our superintendents review all of our current construction projects each week. Our LEED certified superintendents identify material and labor cost savings due to the project team’s ingenuity. Our project managers compile the cost reduction data and prepare a report for the leadership team. We learn from each project and eliminate costly processes.
How can you further avoid babble?
- Cut out the jargon and technical words.
- Don’t feel obligated to fill your web pages with an epic novel.
- Bulleted lists make it easy to get to the point and give your visitors what they’re looking for—quickly.
Bottom line: The more time they take to get to know you, the better your chances of building your business.
