How little do web users read? Even less than you think

May 14, 2008 –

Before you struggle too hard and long over that golden prose you’ve drafted for your web site, consider this statistic, as cited on Jakob Nielsen’s USEIT.com site last week:

On average, users [in the study discussed] will have time to read 28% of the words if they devote all of their time to reading. More realistically, users will read about 20% of the text on the average page.

The takeaway: Write as though your reader has one foot out the door and the other on a banana peel. Get to the point and then move on!

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Posted in Online Copywriting, Web Marketing |

One Comment to “How little do web users read? Even less than you think”

  1. Ron Shevlin Says:
    May 18th, 2008 at 2:45 pm

    Assuming that statistic is correct, it does recall the Wanamaker dilemma. In other words (no pun intended), you don’t know WHICH 28% of the words on the page the page visitor is going to read. In fact, it’s likely that no two visitors will read the same 28%.

    Conclusion: You still have to craft (not just write) all the words that are appropriate — even if no one reads all of them.

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