Image via WikipediaAbout a week ago I wrote an article about how to optimize your web writing for the reader and not yourself. Realizing that you are writing for the pure experience of a stranger can be overwhelming and intimidating.
What do you write?
How do you write it?
Should you have voice?
Should it be a technical "how to"?
Okay, those are all important questions. But what if you knew exactly where the human eye falls when it reads web text? That would make it easier, right? Why? Well you would know where exactly a reader is more likely to look first and if you know the market and audience you're writing for then you have a chance to lock in their attention (steal it!) right away. Then….BANG!
So What Do We Know About Web Writing Already?
1. Readers arrive looking for information or entertainment.
2. 95% of the time they'll never read an article from beginning to end.
3. They scan the web writing for the information or words they're looking for.
To accomplish the "theft of attention" you do the following:
1. Make sure that you have a catch phrase with your key word up-front. Maybe you ask a question.
2. As web writers we don' do "fluff" so in an attempt to ensure all information is pertinent and attention getting we never write anything for the web that the article doesn't need. We get to the point and use engaging text.
3. We use bold words, bold subheadings, and the correct keywords throughout (but not stuffed) into the text so that the reader can easily find the information and stay engaged.
Below is a "heat map" from the Yahoo! Style Guide and the text that precedes it:
"When people do decide to read a page, their eyes sweep horizontally from left to right, often focusing on a roughly triangular area in the upper-left corner of a webpage, or the upper-left corner of the webpage’s main block of content. But this pattern varies depending on a page’s layout and purpose. For example, a person’s eyes will move differently over a photo-heavy slideshow, a text-heavy blog, or a page with a two- or three-column layout."
As you can see when the person first lands on the page they are concentrating on the upper-left hand corner of the main content on that page. This is the reason why so many people (and rightly so) do two important things with that area: They put the keyword in the title and first sentence of their web writing and they put in an advertisement around it.
Notice this page's upper-left hand corner. There's a large area for both subscription and a Google Adsense unit...a big one! Just to the right is my title (keyword included) then my main text (first sentence keyword included). I then go through my text and I use bold subheadings and other bold words that I think the reader may find interest in.
Web writing for money is a tricky thing. I always try to offer quality articles, posts, and text throughout the page. (I particularly like the "word of the week") BUT...if a person does not find what he or she wants on this page then they can always click out by way of an advert or a link to one of my other posts.
What are some of your best practices that you could share with us? I'd like to know! Don't forget to subscribe!
No comments:
Post a Comment