As Neilson explains, when looking for information on the web we tend to behave like ‘Informavores‘ following a scent. If we think the article is of interest, and likely to get us closer to the information we are really looking for, we continue reading. If we seem to be loosing the scent we abandon the information hunt (on the existing article/site) and look elswhere.

How to help visitors scan your information efficiently.

If you want to keep a viewer interested enough to continue reading your information try the following:

• Use keyword highlighting to help people scan your article for relevancy to their needs. Just make sure that you don’t use the same sort of highlighting as you use to indicate hyperlinks. In fact never underline text that is not hyperlinked.
• Use sub-headings intelligently. Avoid ‘clever’ ones in favour of ones that convey clear meaning.
• Use bulleted lists for key points
• Write compact paragraphs that are limited to one clear idea.
• Keep the overall word count as short as possible.