How much content can human eyeballs absorb on your website?

Probably not much.

And this is the most overlooked aspect of creating a successful blog/website – getting viewers to stay on your website, enjoying your content.

Can you imagine your attention span being compared to a goldfish? Could be even less these days.

Now I’m not an expert on this, but  from my own experience of visiting different websites I know what I do:

• Does the website have what I’m looking for?
• How long is the article – I’m not interested in reading a book
• How is the content presented – is it factual or a personal diary-type written content
• Does it offer info I can use?
• Is it visually confusing?
• Is the website educational (my favorite)
• Is it a quick read?
• Does the website inspire return visits and following
• Is the website visually inviting and uncomplicated – easy to navigate

Ok. So these are things I personally, consciously, and in a nano-second consider  when perusing the internet. Be it for shopping, enjoyment,  videos, and doing my website reviews.

[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Often blogs / websites  are created without thinking about the viewer experience.[/tweet_box]

We are attracted to things we like to see visually. It excites us. If we don’t like it, we move on based on personal likes and dislikes. In this era of time, we want to grasp information quickly. We don’t want to waste time. Social media and cell phones have produced scanners. Because we scan now, information is provided in a shorter amount of time.

So. How do we help scanners absorb content?

By putting more effort into the viewers experience when creating a blog/website. By implementing some of the following:

• Highlighting sections of content of important to absorb visually and intellectually. Highlight using  H2, H3
• Avoid a lot of visual clutter – packed sidebars with Ads, promotions, etc. There is something called “Sidebar Blindness” Meaning they’re often ignored by the viewer.
• Creating a lot of white space on the post/page to allow content to breathe
• Use a text size around 18
• Avoid colors that are hard to figure out when linking. Use contrasted colors, black on white, white on black for example. This adds to easy navigation
• Use short sentences and paragraphs. Viewers (like me) don’t want to read a book
• Write for the scanner

It’s surprising to think all of the above could be a reason why  some blogs are not viewed and ranked on the internet. It’s not enough to just create a blog and not invest in your scanners, your audience visually.

If you need some help with what