This week we will be talking about SEO and formatting a page for maximum scanability
SEO and Scannability are not the same thing but both will have an effect on how you format your page
SEO - There are loads of amazing websites out there that know a lot more about SEO than I do.
This is a particularly good one and we will look at it now
Scannability - Once you have a great title the next thing worth
thinking about is what happens when your reader actually arrives at your
website. Sure, it would be nice to think that they will read everything you
wrote once they've clicked through.
In actual fact, a lot of readers will disappear from a site
in seconds unless they are captivated and encouraged to stay.
Readers will often read content diagonally to
determine its usefulness before giving it a proper read. And in order to pass
this direct filter test, you need to write for "diagonal" readers who
scan your content from headline to close in a zig zag pattern."
You have ten seconds to convince that reader to continue and
dip into your full post.
So how do you make your text "scannable"?
Chunking is an approach to
the formatting of the text that strives to "modularize" contents into
the greatest number of meaningful text blocks possible. Similarly to what is
done in poetry, each concept and idea is given greater space to be read and
understood. There is no packing of paragraphs into long blocks of text that
know no pause. There is no saving in having less digital screen space used...
In order to facilitate readers scanning
page contents, it is a great idea to use some "bolding" to highlight the first three or four words of content
paragraphs that are particularly important.
In contrast then with traditional editorial and
formatting approaches where bolding is used in the middle of sentences to
emphasize relevant content elements, my personal suggestions is to use bold to
again highlight opening words of critical paragraphs.
The use of images in
your posts is an all but essential component that will really help to grab
the attention of your readers.
