Online Reading Format Fundamentals from the Yahoo! Style Guide

Online reading thrives on a balance between SEO, meticulous editing, informative content delivery and an intuitive ability to engage a casual browser. The Yahoo! Style Guide reveals must-know eye-tracking essentials to make writing for the Web more effective.

The Online Reading Dilemma

Those writing for the web frequently only have a site visitor's first look to grab the reader's attention. Miss the opportunity, and the site visitor clicks off and goes somewhere else for online reading. How does a writer capture the audience's attention?

Adding bold fonts or words sure to generate interest - "free samples" and "wardrobe malfunction" are frequent winners - are great for catching and holding that first look. Of course, if the article deals with unclogging the drain or digging a trench, the idea of working in a wardrobe malfunction is pretty much out.

This is where the Yahoo! Style Guide and its eye-tracking science are must-know bits of online reading fact that cannot be overlooked!

Tracking the Eye when Writing for the Web

The Yahoo! Style Guide explains in its text-shaping section that the flowery language of literature is of little use when writing for the Web. Online readers want fact density that stands out during an initial scan. When tracking the eye, researchers found that the online reader will scrutinize the top of a page and take in bolded statements and images. Short sentences that come to the point quickly grab the attention.

Eye-tracking studies suggest that the professional writing for the Web has as little as three seconds to convince the site visitor to read on or click over to the next page. Fail to make the point or supply some little-known facts, and the online reader's eyeballs will likely focus on someone else's website next. The upper left corner of the page is of utmost importance in this setting.

Tracking the eye is cold science rather than online reading conjecture. Cornell University tested online reading patterns of volunteers searching Google results pages. The scientists discovered that site selection occurred in less than eight seconds. The first-ranking link received more traffic than any of the others.

Links displayed below the scroll point received even less traffic. Online behavior such as this translates neatly into the discovery that writing for the Web demands factually intense content that hooks the reader's attention with eye-popping formatting right off the bat.

How to Incorporate Eye-Tracking When Writing for the Web

Since online reading is substantially different from enjoying a leisurely novel over lunch, it pays to make eye-tracking information work. To this end, write factually dense articles that reveal some of the most interesting details in the first few sentences. Use boldface, italicizing and paragraph breaks to your advantage. As pointed out by Marie Anne St. Jean, bold paragraph headings break up longer content while bullets and lists make for easy to digest information.

Format the text to display gripping keywords and must-know information toward the top left of the page, followed toward the right by an attractive and relevant image. Of course, the true challenge for any writer (with a penchant for flowery language) is that authoritative yet engaging tone of voice.

Sources

http://styleguide.yahoo.com/writing/write-web/eye-tracking-where-do-readers-look-first

http://styleguide.yahoo.com/writing/write-web/shape-your-text-online-reading

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/People/tj/publications/granka_etal_04a.pdf

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5631098/simple_techniques_put_the_optimization.html?cat=4