Is it easy to scan?

Time and again, I come across webpages with too much text, including that of a client I’m working with right now. I know it is hard to edit yourself because you have a message you really want to get across. But users do not read a pages like they might a magazine article. Users scan the page foraging for information that looks relevant or interesting. In fact, users probably only read about 20% of the content on an average page.  And for every 100 words over average, the percentages drop even lower.  

Think of text on the website like “life advice” you may give to your kids or spouse. The less you say the more influence your words actually have.  

What’s the best way to accommodate the reading style of web users?  Follow these pointers from  Jakob Nielsen to make your content very easy to scan.

• highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)
• meaningful sub-headings (not "clever" ones)
• bulleted lists
• one idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
• the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion
• half the word count (or less) than conventional writing

Imagine you only have a few seconds of your user's attention (which is true), what are the one or two things you'd want him to get from the page? Make sure those items are the easiest to find with a quick scan.

Credits
Image:Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think
Stats: Jakob Nielsen, How Little Do Users Read
Pointers: Jakob Nielsen, How Users Read on the Web