How People Read Web Content

 

Content is crucial, not only for the search engines but also for your audience so it’s important to know how people read your content…

Here are 10 stats regarding content on your website that may surprise you:

 

1) On average, users only read about 20% of content on a page.

2) Only 10-20% of readers actually make it to the bottom of the page.

3) 80% of time is spent looking at the information above the fold.

4) The average attention span of internet users is 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000.

5) On average, webpages with 1000 words or more have an engagement time of 123 seconds, compared to only 57 seconds for short articles.  

6) 97% of people will read the title of the page.

7) 98% of people will read the sub-title.

8) 60% of readers will skim the content rather than read it.

9) 91% of people will read the image caption.

10) Users who spend 15 seconds or more on a webpage are 25% more likely to remember your brand, than users that only spend 10 seconds or less on a webpage.

 

With this in mind, it is clear that you only have a very small window of opportunity to grab your visitors’ attention before they lose interest and leave. There is a lot of content out there being uploaded every single day so people have plenty of options if you aren’t giving them what they need.

The longer you keep people on your website the better, so how do you go about doing this…

How to get people to read your content?

If you want to get more people reading your content then you will have to find a way of making your content more interesting. If your content is interesting, people are more likely to read and share it.

People want answers fast, they have come to your website for a solution and it is your job to answer it. Your readers will scan your content in search of answers, so make sure you know what questions your audience is asking and provide well written clear answers.

Your content should be clearly structured with short paragraphs, lots of headings and bullet points.

Also, your headings need to be enticing because that’s the first thing they are going to read.

Produce content that they will want to read

You may be writing great content but if it’s not relevant to the reader it won’t get read by the right people. People want something relevant, interesting, informative, educational or entertaining to read. If the content is at least one of these things, your audience will keep coming back for more.