Basic tips for working with content on the web

Visitors get their first impression before they read anything on the website. Properly organized content guides attention and highlights important information. It helps the visitor understand the message and guides them to the action we want them to take.

How do you work with content on the web to make it easier for visitors to read and keep their attention longer?

To make the text easy to read

No one will read text that looks bad on the web. The essential feature of a readable website is the contrast between the text and the background. You should think about contrast not only for the sake of colorblind people, but for anyone with a poorly set display or in a room with reduced lighting conditions.

The basic lesson that dark text on a light background reads faster than light text on a dark background also applies.

Keep the font size large enough to make the text on the screen easy to read. For plain text, don't worry about font sizes 16 px or larger.

Line length also affects readability. The ideal length is approximately 50-80 characters per line. This is because in order for the text to be readable, one must easily find the beginning of the next line. The greater the distance he has to travel from the end of a line to the beginning of the next, the more difficult it is to read.

Make it easy for visitors to scan

Website visitors don't read, they scan and wait for information that catches their eye to appear on the screen. They only pay closer attention to the content once they're interested. They tend to select individual sentences and paragraphs, and rarely read the whole page word for word.

Easily scannable text draws attention to the most important information. It helps you to:

• Highlighting important words in bold, ideally the visitor will understand the content of the page from the headings and highlighted words alone.

• intersperse long texts with headings (use headings H1 - H4),

• numbered or bulleted lists ,

• short paragraphs of 2 to 3 lines.

Only one idea per paragraph. If the visitor is not interested in the beginning, they will skip all other ideas.

When writing, keep the inverted pyramid principle in mind, because the most important information belongs at the top. Visitors spend the most time on the information in the first screen. This will increase the chances that you will engage visitors who don't scroll further.

Get attention with photos or infographics

Photos, infographics and images help you communicate complex ideas easily. You have about five seconds to get attention. If you don't capture their attention in that time, the visitor goes elsewhere.

Although they say a picture is worth a thousand words, the main reason for using photos is the need to capture attention in such a short time. A combination of a headline, a short paragraph and a photo works well.

Don't forget the call to action

Don't forget to tell visitors what to do next. A call-to-action (CTA) directs the visitor to what you want them to do on your website.

It doesn't necessarily have to be an outright purchase, just show other articles on the topic, invite them to share or sign up for a newsletter.