Jakob Nielsen remains one of the most well-respected usability experts when it comes to web design. While many of the articles on his website are quite dated, as Nielsen points out, he is writing about human nature, which doesn't change even as Internet technologies evolve at a rapid pace.
With that introduction we'd like to share some quick pointers from a 1997 (yes, over 11 years ago!) column written by Nielsen on how to write for the web. Nielsen's studies of how people view web pages revealed that 79 percent of users always scanned any new page they came across; while only 16 percent read word-by-word. The lesson for law firm website copwriters is to use scannable text, which Nielsen describes as:
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highlighted keywords (using either hyperlinks or formatting like bold)
- sub-headings (so multiple paragraphs are easier to digest)
- bulleted lists
- one idea per paragraph (Nielsen says users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
- brevity (lower word count than conventional writing)
Check your website copy today and see if it meets these criteria.
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