Do you ever get the feeling no one is reading the copy you have spent hours writing for your website? You're probably right: people don't read the vast majority of information they come across online. Persuading them to stick around is one of web designers' and copywriters' greatest challenges.

The Problem

People fail to read web pages for all sorts of reasons.

- Screens are difficult to read from. It takes about 25% longer to read an article from a screen than from a printed page, and this is likely to be the case for the foreseeable future. Because of this, if people can't find what they want quickly, they'll move on. They are also not as likely to sit and read a long article for fun as they are if they find it in a magazine.

- There's a lot of competition. With hundreds or even thousands of competitors vying for your visitors' attention, web users are strongly aware of the fact that they can always go elsewhere. If your website is hard to read or not forthcoming with the information they want, they know they can get what they're looking for elsewhere at the click of a button.

- The internet bombards its users with information. When we are online, not only does browsing the web throw up vast quantities of information, but we are also subject to emails, voice-over-IP and instant messaging networks and RSS alerts, as well as our ordinary telephones.

- People like to interact with websites. A good website has lots of interlinking and links to external sources, and people are likely to click them.

There's not a lot you can do about most of these problems. You simply have to make sure that your website is as conducive to a good read as it can possibly be.

An Encouraging Design

The first step towards getting people to read the copy on your site is this: don't annoy them with your site design. Aside from specifically content-related concerns, you should make sure that all the rules of a well-designed site apply. Your design should never detract from the content of your site.

- Adhere to web standards. Your visitors should be able to read your site even if their browser doesn't support every feature (so don't design it in Flash). They should also be able to use a screen reader and enlarge the text if they want to.

- Ensure that the background behind your text is a pale colour – preferably white – and that your text is a dark colour – preferably black. Avoid dark backgrounds and pale fonts.

- Sans-serif fonts (like Arial or Verdana) are, for reading on-screen, preferable to serif fonts (like Times New Roman).

- If your visitors are likely to want to print your pages, don’t discourage them. Make sure that your site is printer-friendly or that you have a link to a printer-friendly version of your page.

- Use graphics sparingly. Really, they should only interrupt the flow of text if they are directly and usefully illustrative of something you are writing about. For example, a diagram of something you are discussing would be fine. However, if your picture is as wide as your text column, make sure you tell your readers that the article continues underneath.

- Avoid breaking the flow of text with advertisements.

Write for the Web

Once you've built a site which will encourage your visitors to read what you have to say, you need to check that your copy itself is likely to hook readers and keep them hooked. You will never achieve a situation where every visitor reads every article from beginning to end, but you can at least get your most important points into the majority of visitors' minds.

- Keep paragraphs and articles short. Paragraphs should be no more than about five sentences, and you should roughly halve the wordcount that you would expect if you were producing the article for print.

- Split up your text. Put a clear white line between your paragraphs, and use lots of subheadings and bulleted lists where appropriate. This will make it easier for visitors to scan your text and find the information they want.

- Embed links in your article to other relevant pages of your website. Then, at least when they click away, they'll be clicking to more of your content.

- Put the crux of your article at the top. That way, you'll have a better chance of grabbing your readers' attention by telling them exactly what you are going to talk about. You can employ this technique with paragraphs and bullet points as well: have a short sentence at the beginning which describes the point of that paragraph.

- Only introduce one idea per paragraph, as people are likely to skip onto the next when they feel you've reached any sort of conclusion.

- Write concisely.

By Iain Ford

For more information on domain names and domain name registration questions please feel free to contact Domainmonster.com support team who will be happy to assist you.