I'd like to introduce you to Mr Relevance and Ms Attention Span - they have a bit of a love/hate relationship.
The Internet has made us lazy! We don’t like to read lots and lots of “stuff”.
So, let’s start here. CUT OUT THE CRAP… or at least make it less prominent on your pages.
I have two points to make here.
I’ll define “crap”. It’s anything that isn’t interesting or relevant to the people you are trying to engage with. In other words, if it’s not going to directly impact on their lives, they’re probably not going to give a _ _ _ _ about it. So think about your content from your community’s perspective, not your CEO’s, or your Mayor’s. Your Community!
My next point relates to attention span and the time people have/make to read web pages. A study conducted by the Nielson Norman Group in 2008 found that “on the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely”. The more words you use, the less they read. This image from the article is a great case in point.
