5 quick and easy ways to improve your website’s scannability - Suzanne Donovan Copywriter
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5 quick and easy ways to improve your website’s scannability

Have you been hearing about website “scannability” and have a sneaking suspicion, yours doesn’t have it?

 

“Scannability” is all about grabbing your reader’s attention. And when your readers are online, their attention span is short, scanning for information rather than reading each word.

 

Don’t make it difficult for them.

 

Get your message across quickly and concisely with content that’s brief, engaging and easy to read.

 

Here are five simple ways you can re-work your current web content, so it jumps from the page and drives your visitors to keep on clicking.

 

  1. Create white space

 

If you think your web pages are too text and image heavy, then it’s time to create white space. Clean, white space looks elegant, and crucially, it makes web pages easy to scan. Remember, “If in doubt, leave it out!”

 

  1. Use headers and sub-headers

 

Look at how you can separate out your current content into short sections and then write a short header and sub-header that clearly describe the content. If you know your keywords, add a few in where you can, as this will help your improve your website’s search ranking.

 

  1. Be concise

 

Break your sections out into short paragraphs. Readers may only read the first sentence to see if it’s relevant to them, so make sure you make your point straight away. Try and build each paragraph around one idea and vary the length of the sentences for added reader “scannability”.

 

  1. Use bullet points or lists

 

Bullet points are a fantastic way to transform text-heavy web pages into easily scannable text. Re-work long sentences into concise bullet point items, introducing each list with a short sentence. Try to keep the number of bullets pretty short, or it will defeat the object of using the list and make it all too much effort to read.

 

  1. Be engaging

 

When you write your online content, imagine your perfect customer sitting opposite you. Think about the words you would use to explain why they should use your product or service. Write as you speak, keeping your message clear and simple to understand, and don’t forget to remove any “weasel words” you find along the way.

 

Writing online content is different to writing for print so re-working your website with these tips in mind should help improve your click-thru-rate.

 

Good luck!