10 Tips for Web Page Content Layout

If you are one of the many small business owners who out of necessity to stay within a budget, has become a newbie web author, then you need to know a few easy to remember guidelines for publishing reader-friendly, relevant and effective web page content that will have your visitors staying around for more.

Studies have shown what we already know is true - reading a web page is very different to reading a printed page.

Many people dislike reading on the web so intensely that they print out web pages and articles to read in greater detail later. And the truth is that most visitors to your web site will merely skim through your content and make a lightning fast judgment as to whether or not it is worth printing and reading later on.

So what can you do to ensure that visitors to your web site will stick around until the last paragraph? Make your point - and make it fast!

You have to grab your visitor's attention immediately so that in those few precious moments that they scan your web page content to see if it is relevant to them, they can see that it is. So, what is the best way to get your message across effectively?

Here are my ten top tips to writing effective web page content:

1. Well written, relevant content is important - use a spell checker so typos don't let you down
2. Use your keywords in a manner that won't bore the reader - don't needlessly repeat them
3. Give concise information - get to the bare bones fast, don't waffle!
4. Use short sentences and very short paragraphs - a few sentences per paragraph tops
5. Break up long content and link it to bullet points at the top of the page
6. Cross-reference your content with other pages
7. Format your page's text content width to narrow
8. Keep content relevant to the subject header - extraneous information should go elsewhere
9. Make use of white space to make your text easy to read
10. Bold/enlarge your subject headings so that they are clear

Small business owners are often too busy to frequently update their web sites and often leave them full of old, stale pages. If you are in this situation, but you want to write relevant, effective web page content and don't have time to add new copy, use my tips and re-work what you already have. You don't need to spend hours generating new text, as often just a few aesthetic enhancements, like those listed, can go a long way to making your web site an easy read.