Creating clear online content
(And why it needs to be even simpler than you think.)
Many people are used to writing business documents and consider themselves to “possess a good standard of written English”.
However there are some critical differences in how digital written content is absorbed, when compared to print materials, that aren’t necessarily intuitive. So if you were to simply ‘lift and shift’ words from a document already in circulation in order to create digital content, you’d probably find that it just wouldn’t work in the way you would want it to (for you or for your readers).
Hear are six of the most common reasons why you should keep your content way simpler than you would expect you’d need to.
People don’t care about you
When someone arrives on your page, ninety-nine times out of a hundred it’s because they need something for themselves:
- an answer
- a next step,
- a thingummybob to fix their whotsit.
They DO NOT come to read about you.
They come to get what they want and move on as quickly as possible. If they can’t find what they want rather quickly, they’ll look elsewhere quicker than you can say [← backspace].
Content that is about the reader it rather than the writer is more engaging. If you can adapt your writing so your reader can easily grasp how this applies to them, your words will have a greater impact.
People don’t read all the words
When reading online people generally skim-read. There is a greater focus down the left-hand side of the content (because that’s where any headings or bullets begin).
Readers naturally try to minimise effort and maximise benefit and this often results in the employment of a scanning technique (known as the ‘F pattern’).
Keeping your words clear and simple and writing headings and subheadings that are front-loaded will help your message to be absorbed without it needing to be read word for word (or even in order).
People don’t read all the words *
Only a small percentage of those who visit your page will get to the end of the page.
If your page’s purpose is ‘read-this-then-do-something’ and it’s bloated and wordy it’s likely that you will lose a lot of your readers before they get to the call-to-action.
Also…
Your words are in competition (sometimes to the death)
People are easily distracted.
If they are interrupted with a notification from another page or program before reaching the end of your content, it’s highly likely that they’ll stop reading to check what triggered the notification, possibly never to return.
Checking email etc. can release the pleasure hormone dopamine. This is the same hormone discharged during sex, gambling, and drug consumption. Unless your subject and writing can compete with that, keeping your content simple maximises the chances that someone will get to the end and take action without distraction!
The brain’s working capacity is finite
There’s this thing called cognitive load. Basically, if you make people think too hard they are more likely to quit or fail (or cry) and that won’t make them feel good about you or your subject matter.
By ensuring that your writing is as simple as it possibly can be (without diluting it so much that it no longer makes sense) you will help more people to get what they came for quickly. And this will reflect positively on your brand, often helping to humanise it.
You have a duty to be inclusive
To my mind, the best single reason for writing clear, simple content is that it will be accessible to more people, including those who may struggle through no fault of their own.
The average reading level in the UK is lower than you would imagine. Given this fact, combined with all of the above, it simply makes good business sense to make sure that your digital content assets are optimised for best performance.
