What if you knew the viewing habits of your website visitors? Eye tracking research is finding fascinating results of what marketing copy grabs attention and where is should be placed.
We all know for proper exposure we need to have an active website that generates the right attention. But how do you know what is working?
Do you know how is your website is viewed by your visitors? So often we get caught up in the number of how many hits and page views our blog or website gets, but what does that really tell us?
Eye tracking reveals higher validity in data compared to conventional marketing research methods. Eye-tracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.
According to Jacob Nielsen's research, of the 322 people he studied, although not everyone had the exact F-pattern they all resembled the quick read pattern of two horizontals scans and then a long vertical scan. So what does this research tell you about your web writing for maximum marketing exposure?
1. Users will not read your text as written.
Writers tend to fall in love with their words and spend hours working on the correct prose of their articles, marketing pieces and web information. The fact is, we have such an unlimited access of information and such a limited time to take it all in, people don't read web copy as if they were reading a novel. (Come to think of it, I wonder how novel reading habits have changed in the information age as well?)
2. The lead is really the lead.
Readers are going to read your first paragraph most likely word for word so your most important information must be right up front. A mistake many copy writers make in web marketing is "burying the lead." Get to the point of what you want to say and say it -- fast.
3. Start bullet points with information-carrying words.
The research found that viewers will notice information words when scanning down the left side of your copy; therefore, all of your marketing copy bullets, subheadings and highlighted information must jump with information. If you can make the reader stop they are more apt to scan a few words beyond what catches their attention. Otherwise, the scan of the marketing copy on your website may last less than five seconds.
Have someone outside of your organization do a quick look at your web information and see what jumps off the page at them. What specifically pops? What grabs their attention? Did they lose interest quickly? One caution I will add: too much of a good thing is a bad thing. If you revamp your copy to be so busy with grab words, icons and "hit me" buttons you will only confuse the reader into thinking they just walked into an arcade and went on input overload.
Make your words count where they need to be located.
Posts
