Our goal in school was to avoid getting an F, right?  We failed when we got an F.  But when creating the content for your website, you want to make an F.  Not because you want to fail, but because you want your site to succeed.

When creating your content, it’s important to know how people view your page.  Do you know anyone that leisurely reads a web page?  With the shear volume of competition on the web, browsers will scan a page to see if that site has what they are looking for.   If you want your site to be in the running for their consideration, you need to make sure they see the major points of your site.

Here’s where the “F” comes in.  Researcher and writer Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D. conducted a study of how people read on the web.  In his groundbreaking eyetracking study, he found that the reading behavior was pretty consistent.  The dominant reading pattern looks like a large letter “F”.

• Users first read horizontally across the top of the page, which forms the top bar of the F.
• Next users move down the page a bit and read across a shorter area, making the lower bar of the F.
• Finally readers scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement, completing the F.

Move outside of your website owner’s chair and look at your site with an objective eye.   What jumps out on your page?  Is your content capturing your browsers attention or are they hopping off your site to your competitor?

Gary Wagnon and 800biz has been providing website design, search engine optimization and social media marketing for small to medium sized businesses since 1999.

Tags: content, online marketing, web content, web site design