I wanna be read by you: how to optimize the readability of your blog posts

The space on the world wide web is almost limitless – but the attention span of users is not. To ensure your blog post doesn’t get lost in a sea of digital text, you should optimize the flow of your writing. We have tips on how to do just that.

Definition of reader experience

Reader experience refers to the way in which a reader navigates a text. The reader’s background (including age, education level, interests) plays a significant role in how they perceive the text. However, content-related factors such as text structure, font size, and font type also have an impact.

Internet users and goldfish have a lot in common. They float along in the vastness of their virtual or aquatic worlds and get bored quickly: the human attention span reaches its limit after an average of just 8 seconds. A goldfish, on the other hand, can hold out for 9 seconds before losing interest. Our blog readers are no exception.

Still with us? Great! Here are the most important tips for optimizing your website’s reader experience.

This is how users enjoy reading your texts:

• Do it like the pros and write according to the “inverted pyramid principle”. This journalistic technique suggests that the information in a text should become progressively less important as you move down. Core (conclusion) → Source → Details → Background.

• Include the most important information in the first 2 paragraphs: what are you offering your reader?
• Use subheadings, bullet points, highlighted keywords, and graphics to break up your text.
• Write short sentences.
• Express only one idea per paragraph.
• And no matter how much you intended to write, cut it in half. Users read about 25% slower online and tire more quickly.

For online texts, this means they must quickly convince the reader.

The first impression counts: communicate value

The key word is value. If the reader finds what they are looking for within the first 10 seconds, your text delivers on its promise. This increases the likelihood that they will stay on your site longer.

Reading behaviour on the web

Good content is essential. Since we read online about 25% slower than offline, you should engage users with the proper formatting of your texts.

Sampling

Users read selectively, focusing on keywords and headings. Users make assumptions about the quality of the entire text based on these elements.

Satisficing

Users read the text only as long as the information is satisfactory. The term combines the words “satisfy” and “suffice.” This means that if a paragraph contains too little information, users will move on to the next and repeat this process until their need for more information is satisfied.

F for “Fast”: users scan texts in an F-shape

Users don’t read your texts — they scan them in an F-shape. Jakob Nielsen and his research team discovered in an eye-tracking study that users perceive content on the left side more strongly. Users’ attention first focuses on the two horizontal lines of the F, followed by the vertical bar.

…but also “lazy”: users rarely scroll

Above the fold

Refers to the area of a webpage that is visible to the user at first glance, without the need to scroll.

In the early years of the internet, users didn’t scroll at all. Usability studies from that time (1994-1996) show that websites often failed if visitors couldn’t find important information “above the fold”, the area of the webpage visible at first glance. However, the evolution of the web hasn’t passed users by without leaving a mark: nowadays, much more scrolling occurs. Still, the 80/20 rule remains valid: 80% of users’ attention is given to content visible immediately, while only 20% is focused on the lower parts of the page.

For your website, this means: don’t ignore the fold. There are two important reasons for this:

1. The short attention span of your readers.
2. The upper part of the website holds more value for the user, as in most cases, they won’t reach the end of your text (see point 1).

Conclusion

If you don’t want to imagine your readers as goldfish, your blog posts need to be more than just a sea of text.

Observe yourself when reading online. If you regularly reflect on your own browsing behavior, it will be easier for you to consider the possible behavior of your users.

More tips for great web content:

• Blogbeitrag schreiben: 5 Tipps für guten Artikelaufbau

• Der Eichhörnchen-Faktor: 6 Tipps für Website-Texte, die wirklich gelesen werden

Sources and useful links:

Reading in a F-shaped pattern: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/

Scrolling on the web: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/scrolling-and-attention/

Time spent on websites: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-long-do-users-stay-on-web-pages/

Do you still have questions?

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