Heyyy Reader,

Welcome to the seventh issue of A Way with Words, a bi-weekly newsletter where I share writing and editing tips to help you create clear, coherent, and compelling content. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, subscribe here to get the next edition in your inbox.

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Newsflash: Most people don't read to the end

I've always known theoretically that most online readers don't read long-form content word-for-word to the end. But because I don't fall into this category, the reality never hit me.

Until last week Friday when I dropped by the office for a meeting with my new colleagues. (Yes, I started working as a Content Marketer for a fintech startup called WoodCore — LinkedIn post coming soon 😊)

After the meeting, the Co-founder brought up a long-form article about agency banking he'd shared with the team the previous day (I'd bookmarked the article to read later).

And everyone else in the room had a confession: they didn't read the article exhaustively to the end — they skimmed.

In other words:

What does this mean for you as a web content writer? Should you create shorter content?

Well, not if you're optimizing your content for SEO. Marketing experts advise that blog posts should be about 2000-2500 words to rank well on search engines. Also, if you want to establish your reputation as a thought leader in your industry, you certainly want to publish long-form content on your platform (which is why that agency banking article was long).

So, here's what you should do instead: create scannable content.

Research by Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman group shows that many people read in an F-shaped pattern.

What does that mean?

They read the upper part of the content in a horizontal movement, move down the page and read horizontally again, and scan the rest of the content in a vertical movement. (Not a perfect F, but you get the point.)

You should create content with this in mind.

7 quick tips for creating scannable content

1) Nobody wants to read a large chunk of text. Keep your paragraphs short, 3-4 lines max.

2) Your sentences should be concise. Don't ramble or repeat yourself.

3) Break down your content into relevant subheadings.

4) Use bullet points or numbered lists to highlight key information.

5) Put the most important information at the beginning of your sentences, paragraphs, and sections. Then, add examples, analogies, context, etc.

6) Use lots of white space.

7) Your introductions should go straight to the point and tell the reader why they should read your article.

Bonus Tip: Use a Table of Contents for your articles (there are WordPress plugins for this). In my opinion, this is the easiest way to help readers navigate your content more easily.

Two quick notes:

1) Scannable content mostly works for informative or educational blog posts, sales pages, and landing pages, and that's because people want to get information quickly. If you're writing personal essays or other storytelling-driven forms, you don't need to worry about writing scannable content. Focus on writing engaging content instead.

2) Your loyal fans will read your content thoroughly to the end because they trust that you'll provide value to them. Some people tease me about writing long-form posts, but many people actually read those posts because they like what I write. So, read what people need, want, or like — they'll read even if it's long.

If you need help self-editing the structure and organization of your content, my self-editing checklist will be great for you. Get it here.

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With love and semicolons,

Oluwadunni

P.S. Need an editor or know someone who does? Reach out here.