Like to load your pages with copy? Studies suggest that, on average, users read only 20% of it all. Less copy per page and more visual elements can get your message absorbed easier, which means less money wasted, and more money to be made.
But simply writing less copy isn’t the answer. Users expect questions to be answered to help them make decisions. Search engines expect content as a means to determine the value of your website. Since you want all questions answered, and the best possible search engine rank for your website, a different approach is needed.
A 1997 study suggested that 79% of people scanned through a web page. Only 16% read word-by-word. A more recent study, conducted in 2008, suggest that users will most likely only read 20% of the copy on a page. Today, due to the rise of so much attention-demanding technology in our daily lives, it’s safe to accept that most users will scan your pages. Many will only bother to read if it’s interesting. The advent of microblogging, the proliferation of easily accessible information on the internet, and content-savvy competitors who know how much copy to put on a page, means that that 20% content absorption will soon shrink to the headline and probably the first sentence or two of a page.
Humans are visual
By and large humans are visual creatures. Before we begin reading, we tend to notice the layout of the page first – where the navigational tools are, areas we’re going to avoid (ads, most of the time), and of course the content – and what it looks like. Content that looks like less effort to read because there is less of it, tend to get read more.
The key, then, lies in seducing the visual faculties of your audiences. But where do you start?
Information classification
Spacing out volumes of content on a single page defeats the purpose of making content more visual – it simply creates a vertical page which the user will soon realise may take some time to consume. Instead, it is necessary to only include information on a page that truly belongs there.
A technique here is to categorise the different informational areas relating to the content you want displayed. In other words, if you want to sell cakes on your website, different content segments might include:
• Visual description + photographs
• Ingredients used
• Dietary information
• Dimensions (+ how many people it can feed)
• etc.
Where traditionally all the information above would have been displayed on the same page, each type of information can be displayed on its own page. The benefit here is that you’ll have a lot more keyword options (“cake photographs”, “cake ingredients”, “cake nutritional information”, etc.) than simply “yummy cakes”). Pages with tabbed blocks are another common technique used to separate different types of information – the aim being that the user’s judgement of content volume is essentially allayed, despite the fact that the amount of copy remains the same (or is even slightly more).
Other techniques
Much like everything else, there’s some talk about the efficacy of infographics, and whether they will last. On the ground, however, infographics provide a quick, interesting, and sometimes entertaining way for users to consume information. An infographic about said cake is more likely to attract attention, boost your conversion potential, and be shared on social channels with the result being a stronger search engine presence for your website.
Other techniques of copy visualisation include:
• Videos
• Kinetic typography
• Presentations (e.g. slideshare)
• Storytelling (virtual tours, etc.)
So does this mean you have to fire your copywriter? On the contrary, behind each of the visualisation techniques mentioned (and those not mentioned, too), words form the foundation of the final product. If anything, the increase of copy visualisation will emphasise the need for copywriters with oodles of creativity – enough to give your competitors a run for their money, enough to get and keep the attention of your audiences.