Communication
Your client does not read
They look at the page for eight seconds, skip about, hunt for one word. Writing for that person is a different trade from writing well.
Nobody reads a web page from top to bottom. People scan, they skip, they hunt for the word that answers their question. Writing for the web means being found by an eye in motion: headings that say something, short paragraphs, the answer at the top.
Watch somebody open a website on their phone. They do not read: they scroll with a thumb, pause a moment on a word in bold, carry on, hit the bottom, come back up. The whole thing takes about ten seconds. If in those seconds they have not found what they came for, they close it and open the next result.
You are not writing for someone reading. You are writing for someone hunting.
How people look at a page
The eye does not take the lines one after another: it jumps, and catches on whatever sticks out. Headings, bold words, bullet points, figures. Solid running text, the full block, the eye vaults straight over.
Everything else follows from that. If the answer to «what do you do» sits in the third paragraph, it is not on the page: it is hidden inside the page, and that is not the same thing.
Six moves that always work
- The answer at the top. First thing you say: what you do and who for. Everything else comes after, not before.
- Headings that say something, not headings that introduce. «What it costs» beats «Our services» ten times out of ten.
- Three-line paragraphs. Over five and the eye skips the whole block. And pick your words from the ones clients use, not the ones you use: see say it like you would say it.
- Bold on the words the reader is hunting for, not on the ones you happen to like.
- One idea per paragraph. Put two together and you lose both.
- Numbers instead of adjectives. «We deliver in 48 hours» gets seen. «We deliver promptly» disappears.
The thumb test
Open your page on your phone and scroll fast, the way you would on a site you do not care about. Then stop and ask yourself: which words stayed with you? If they are «excellence», «quality» and «experience», the page said nothing. If they are «shelving», «48 hours» and «from 500 euro», it worked. It takes the same care as getting found on Google.
Writing short does not mean writing little
A long page is perfectly fine if it is built in steps: people in a hurry take the headings and leave with their answer, people who want more go down. The problem is not the length, it is the wall. Nobody reads a thousand words in one block; the same thousand split into six sections with real headings, they do.
And if you have to read a sentence twice to get it, rewrite it: the client will not read it twice, they will close the tab! If the pages need rebuilding altogether, have a look at the 48-hour rebuild.
- The eye jumps and catches on headings, bold text and figures: put what matters there.
- The answer goes at the top, not after the preamble.
- The problem is not length, it is a wall of text with nothing to grab.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a page on the site be?
As long as it needs to be, provided it is built in steps. With real headings every two or three paragraphs, people in a hurry take what they need and people who want more carry on. The problem is not length: it is running text with nothing to grab.
Should you write for people or for search engines?
For people, but using the words people type when they search. If your clients say «awnings» and you write «solar shading systems», nobody finds you and nobody understands you.
Does bold help or get in the way?
It helps when it sits on the words the reader is hunting for: products, timings, figures. It gets in the way when you scatter it for emphasis, because when everything is highlighted nothing is.