It might not seem like a big deal, but the design of your website text matters.
When was the last time you read a science journal?
Not recently?
There are a few reasons for it.
Here’s an example of a journal article.
And that one actually isn’t too bad.
But can you see that’s it’s not really calling you in and getting you to read.
You’ll see this all the time in all types of content from website pages to blog posts to letters to articles and much more.
Whenever you create text or if you have text somewhere already use these tips to help make it more visually appealing and readable.
Short Paragraphs
The first thing you’ll see on that journal article above is that each section is basically one long paragraph.
I’m not sure what the right word would be, but it’s almost scary or intimidating to read. You see a big block of text and you kind of sigh a little. You’re going to have to work a little bit to read all that.
The Onion claims to be a satire website, but it’s funny how true to real life they can be. They wrote an entire article kind of poking fun of people that are afraid of reading big blocks of text.
It’s all in fun. I know that we shouldn’t be afraid of long blocks of text, but it’s almost human nature to look for the path of least resistance.
And shorter paragraphs are easier to read. They allow people to scan. They’re not intimidating. They breakup thoughts. It’s easier to stop and start and jump around and go back to where you were.
This is a big one for websites. Check your website and see if you have any large blocks of text. If you do just look for where you can break it up.
2-3 sentences per paragraph is a good rule, but don’t be afraid of even 1 sentence for a paragraph.
Short Sentences
Building on the idea of keeping it short is going with shorter sentences.
I have a tendency to be a little verbose sometimes. So I have to watch myself with sentences.
If I find myself writing long sentences I like to break them into two or even three sentences. And it’s not that difficult.
I don’t mind starting sentences with “And” anymore.
My new rule of thumb is that if it’s easier to read then it’s good for the reader. I’ll toss aside formal rules to make it easy and enjoyable for the reader.
So keep those sentences short just like paragraphs.
Headings
One thing the journal article does well is break up the text into headings. It’s always good to see right away that text is broken up into segments.
Imagine reading a book.
There’s a reason they break most books into chapters. That breaks things up and makes it easier to read.
You can start and stop. You can jump here and there and easily find your way back to where you were or find your way quickly to where you want to go.
It’s good to read in sequence, but many people want to skip around a bit and take in the content that way.
Check out the content on your website and look to add headings and sub-headings so it’s easier for your readers.
Images
The old saying that an image is worth a thousand words is true with your website.
Images serve a few purposes with websites.
First, they help to break up the text. Again, we’re getting away from big blocks of text and images can help to do that.
Second, images also help express what you’re communicating. You can have an article, for example, explaining how to do something. That’s great, but you can probably take it to another level with images for each step. Just like an instruction sheet for putting together a piece of furniture.
Smaller Widths
It’s easy to kind of rag on newspapers these days. We all know they’re kind of a dying breed in some respects, but newspapers had hundreds of years to figure out how to make it easy for readers.
Something newspapers do really well is keep the column width small. They seem to do a good job of balancing widths. They can be really short and compact, but rarely are they too big. Usually they’re just right.
Some websites are wide by design. This can lead to awkward text areas that are also very wide. Look to break those up to make it easier for readers.
Distractions
Get rid of them.
Social sharing buttons should be easy to find, but not in your face.
Popups…I recommend avoiding them or doing what you can to having them not get in the way of the main focus of the page.
When someone comes to your homepage they want to learn about what you can offer them. They don’t want to be immediately asked to sign up for a newsletter.
The same is true for a blog article. They want to read the post, not subscribe. Give them a second.
There are all kinds of distractions that can crop up on a website. Usually it comes from trying to cover all your bases on what you think a visitor might want to do.
Bring the focus down to the main one or two things a visitor will want to accomplish and remove the rest or hide it.
Conclusion
It’s important to have readable text on your website or on any marketing material. These suggestions here are things that will make your text more readable.
With your website, you should find that customers are asking fewer questions. They’re not skipping to your contact information and asking you all the information that’s on your website.
You should also see more conversion. When people can easily read and take in what you’re communicating they’re more likely to take the action you want them to take.
