Am I Suppose to Read all that?
I was talking to a client today about the amount of copy they have on their website. From an SEO perspective I know more copy is better, but then there is the design aspect. I hate sites with tons of copy. I think it’s overwhelming for the visitor, and can often be a quick turn-off. Or, maybe I am just a doe-doe who likes to look at lots of pretty pictures.
I suggested putting a lot of the copy into neat bullet points. There are several advantages to this approach.
1. Bullet points are much easier for the eye and brain to absorb
2. From a design perspective they usually look nice
3. It allows you to bold keywords or phrases which help with SEO
Overall, the main advantage to using bullet points instead of paragraphs is for the visitor. In general people like reading lists instead of paragraphs. It allows busy folks to get what they need and go. So if your copy is long but important, try creating a few bulleted lists like; a product features list, benefits, point of differences, common concerns… you get the point.
March 7th, 2008 at 2:14 am
I agree, as much as content is king, you always need to find the correct balance as well. There is no need to babble on about things, if you just put what needs to be there, as well as using a few optimisation techniques.
There is no point in optimising a website, and it having that much text that the user, once they find the site are put off straight away by the paragraphs. Else the optimisation techniques are pointless.
My conclusion would be to clean up the page, put what needs to be there and both enough information for the user but also enough for the search engine.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I would make an exception for academic websites and those for more data-seeking sorts. The majority of the time I read a bullet-pointed article it contains virtually no helpful information - so I’ve pretty much equated bullet-point artices with articles that aren’t rich in content. But - it’s hard to get great content in a 500 word article - regardless of bullet points.
Personally, it’s very easy on the eyes to read bullet points. And they DEFINITELY look better. They’re perfect for some articles - but they can’t always substitute for a good story because they break a flow.