Your words · Readability
Big blocks of text are hard to skim
Most people skim web pages. Long paragraphs get skipped, so your best points may never be read.
- Applies to
- every page
- Typical severity
- medium
- Effect on conversions
- medium
- Effort to fix
- Quick to fix
What to look for
Paragraphs of roughly five or more lines on desktop with no subheading, list or visual break, especially in key selling sections.
What good looks like
Text is broken into short paragraphs, lists and clear subheadings.
How to fix it
Split long paragraphs into two or three sentences each, put the main point first, and use lists for sets of items.
Based on
- Writing-for-the-web research
Related checks
Your wordsYour words are harder to follow than neededPlain words are understood faster by everyone. If people have to work at it, many will give up.Your wordsYour section headings don't tell people anythingPeople skim headings to decide what to read. Headings like 'Why us' give them nothing to go on.Your wordsYour lists are long and hard to skimLists only help people skim when each point is short and written the same way.
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