On April Fools’ Day in 2014, a US media organization called NPR wrote an article and posted it to their Facebook page. “Why doesn’t anyone read anymore?” asked the headline. People were quick to flood the comments with personal anecdotes. That’s ridiculous, they said. I read all the time! Well, in a fun twist, they inadvertently proved they didn’t. If they had clicked the link to read the full article, they would have been taken to this short paragraph:
“We sometimes get the sense that some people are commenting on NPR stories that they haven’t actually read. If you are reading this, please like this post and do not comment on it. Then let’s see what people have to say about this ‘story.’”
Not only was this a clever gag, but it was a pretty cool social (media) experiment. Aside from what I consider to be a strange paradox of people using their own personal experience to make themselves the expert on a subject they haven’t even read about (BUT I DIGRESS), this is ironically a pretty good example of how people use the Internet (spoiler alert: they’re not reading. They’re scanning.).
Most internet users visit the average website for less than 15 seconds. We spend more of our time trying to understand a page’s navigation features. And the more copy there is, the less people read.
Ease of navigation and functionality is key. When you’re thinking about your copy, consider what your audience is looking for and your key messages. And then, treat your web visitors like wild animals. Wild animals hate reading!
I have five golden rules I follow when writing for web.
1) Know the audience.
2) Only include what’s important.
3) Keep it simple with short sentences and familiar words.
4) Make specific information easy to find.
5) Get to the point quickly.
You have less than 15 seconds to help a potential client find what they’re looking for on your website. If your website is copy heavy, it sounds like you need to slay it down.
Slay it in writing 