During a recent discussion with a client about improving their website, we stumbled across a study showing how web-site stickiness increased 124% with two simple changes:
1: Make It Uber Concise
>Be super-brief. Why? Because people read the web differently than how they read a newspaper or book. Consider these differences:
- Our eyes follow an “F Pattern” on the web – we read headings, taglines and then scan down the rest of the page. With a book, we read and/or scan the whole page.
- The web is an interactive medium, books are not. Clicking makes us feel like we’re using the web productively. Asking someone to take their finger off the mouse and wade through your wordy content is asking a lot.
- The web offers millions of choices for readers to find content – all just a click away. Readers will keep moving if they don’t quickly find useful information.
>Avoid using “weasel words” or boastful language which “imposes a cognitive burden on readers“.
- Seth Godin writes: “Be vivid. Tell a story. Don’t be bland. But [most of the time] avoid using [carefully selected] weasel words that [sort of] dull your story.”
- Check out Muhammad Saleem’s technique for concise writing.
Useful Tip: Find the “King or Queen of Concise” within your non-profit. Have them carve down all content with a fresh pair of eyes. They will feel valued for their “hidden talent” and you’ll end up with content that gets results.
2: Make It Uber Scannable
>Web users don’t read content – they scan it. Knowing that there might be more relevant content on another site, they will scan your content for the most useful points. If your content is organized for scanning (rather than reading), visitors will stick around longer or at least bookmark your page.
Darren Rowse (a personal mentor of mine) recommends 5 ways to make content scannable:
- Use Lists – using bullet points draws the eye and makes your content more digestible.
- Headings – headings scattered throughout your posts stand out on the page and give your readers visual cues that lead them down into your post.
- Formatting – using different text formatting (bold, italics, font sizes and even colors) can also draw the eye of your readers to different parts of your posts.
- Blockquotes – highlight quotes or other key parts of your posts with blockquotes that indent text – again this draws the eye and adds variety into your feed. See this example.
- Short Paragraphs – Large unbroken slabs of text will end up turning off many readers.
Quick experiment:
Try reading this article at TheAtlantic.com – I’ll wait right here…
How did you do?
If you liked this, you should read these:
Taking Your Tagline Personally
Your NPO’s Sustainable Energy
The NPO Elevator Pitch
Poop In The Tapwater
