Writing content with the “F” factor
Monday, 2 February 2015 | Posted in: Articles | 5min read
Monday, 2 February 2015 | Posted in: Articles | 5min read
Most of us at one time or another have arrived on a website, only to be presented with a wall of copy that feels too overwhelming to read. While content writers try their best to lovingly craft their words in order to capture their readers interest, studies reveal that when it comes to website content, readers engage best when “F” Factor principles are adopted.
To write effectively for the web, content authors should take into account that the majority of people who arrive on their website, may not read beyond the opening title and paragraph. To accommodate these visitor trends it is best to have an understanding of how people “F-read” on the internet and how writing with the “F” Factor will help to make your content more engaging and improve SEO efforts.
The F-reading phenomenon was first discovered by the Neilson Norman Group in a heat mapping study (Nielsen, 2006) that examined how people read internet pages. The study revealed that on English language websites, users consistently read in a pattern that looks like the letter “F”.
Armed with an understanding of how users F-read, content authors can adopt these principles and start F-writing. Your headline and opening paragraph may well be the only things a visitor to your website read so they should concisely summarise the content to follow. The first rule of F-writing is write powerful headlines.
The opening paragraph, along with the headline, forms the top bar of the “F”. Visitors are almost always skim reading when they first arrive on a site, and they know that just a click away a hundred other sites might hold the information they seek. Therefore your opening paragraph should be a concise and captivating summary of the content to follow.
Once a content author has invested time into the creation of quality headlines and opening summaries, the page content can be created. Your content should be concise, written in plain language and contain only the relevant information and calls to action. Too much useless information and you will overwhelm your visitors and entice them to leave. When writing for the web, less is more. Your users will also F-read the remaining parts of the page so it should be structured placing the most important information at the top and descending to the least important. Each section of information should have its own sub-heading.
F-readers also notice links, as do search engines, so it is important that your content uses them effectively.
F-reading acknowledges that writing for the internet is different to writing on paper. F-writing ensures that you are giving your readers what they want, without wasting their time and inadvertently encouraging them to leave. Adhering to the principles of F-writing will be beneficial for your search engine optimisation as it encourages the inclusion of keywords in headings, opening statements and links.
So when you next write content for your website make it more engaging and see better SEO results with the “F” Factor.