I wrote in my last posts that most people typically scan what they read on line. They don’t read everything from top to bottom. Neither do they read in sequence. Fiction books are meant to be read sequentially. That’s why I can fall asleep reading a book, then pick it up the next day and find where I left off my reading even if I don’t remember the page.
Web readers are less predictable. You can’t tell what they’ve read and where they go after reading a page. Even when you provide links for them to continue getting more information, you can’t force a reader to continue. That’s why you need to provide a fairly comprehensive amount of information on just about every page.
You provide that information in chunks. Chunks allow the readers to quickly find the materials they want. A good website provides readers with a comprehensive amount as well as links to related topics.
Here are some content areas that do well for the reader when they are chunked.
Your content list, for example, should have information chunks. A content item is any piece of information that needs to be accessed individually. Think about how your readers are going to access your information once they get to your website. That’s what categories and menus do for your websites and posts.
If I want to lose weight and I get to your website, I’m going to look for diets. There must be hundreds of different diets from Mediterranean Diet or the no crab diet to the no salt diet. You may have a category on your website entitled diets and a drop down subcategories of the lasting a dozen or so specific diets about which you have some information.
There’s a debate about how long should your pages be. Some think very short because online readers don’t have patience. Others think you need longer pages so that the search engines will recognize you are serious about your content. I prefer somewhere in the middle.
A couple of things I do know: online readers don’t like to see a bunch of affiliate links scattered throughout the article. They don’t mind, however, if you list them under “Resources” for example. I happen to dislike popup ages and others say they have been very successful with them. You may also lose some readers if you provide a link to another page in the middle of your content. A reader may move on to that other page and never return.
And keep in mind that links break.
Let me know what style you choose to you and how it works for you – good or bad. Everyone gets help form other stories.
Much success in you online writing.
Ruthan
Ruthan Brodsky is a copywriter and business health writer in Michigan.
She started her own business in her home as a freelance writer 30 years ago. She can tell you stories about the transition of writing from print to digital.
