Sean D'Souza: Web text that sells: Keep it simple and keep it short

Have you ever struggled to read the text on a web page? You're keen to read the material and you're not sure why you're struggling. It's not because the language is difficult. It's not because the topic is unknown.

It's something on the page itself, but you can't put your finger on it. And it's causing a bit of reader fatigue.

Reader fatigue happens when something on the page causes the reader grief. They desperately want to read what you're saying, but tiredness creeps in and they give up. And off they bounce to the next web page - the one that isn't so tiring.

What's interesting is that you can quickly remove this reader fatigue by considering three core issues.

But before we get started on removing reader fatigue, let's get one thing straight. What I'm about to tell you may sound like a grammar lesson. Well, it is, in a way, but not quite. It's more of a conversion lesson.

If your customer gets tired reading your articles, or your sales page, they just leave. And if they leave - heck, I don't have to tell you what happens - you've lost a customer. And you've lost a customer over a matter that can easily be fixed.

So let's get back to those three issues:

* Constraining the thought to one idea.

* Width of the line.

* Avoiding chunky paragraphs.

Issue 1: Constraining the thought to one idea.

The rule is simple: keep your sentences down to 15-25 words at best. This is because a sentence with fewer than 25 words usually contains one thought. And when there's just one thought, the reader can quickly grasp the thought and move on to the next sentence.

Long sentences tend to be long because the writer is unable to restrain their thoughts, and they just plough on relentlessly, not knowing where to stop, till finally they stagger to a halt, and you get a sentence like this one: where the reader has forgotten what you were saying in the first place.

Now of course you don't write 60-word sentences, but it's easy to slip into sentences of 35-40 words. After all, 35-40 words are just two lines on your word-processing program.

The easy way to restrain your thoughts is to focus on your word-processing program when typing. If your sentence is streaming across the width of the page, you've probably written about 15 words.

If your sentence is going to 25 words, that's about a line and a half. It's now time to put a full stop and start a new sentence.

This takes us to the second factor: the width of the line.

If you look at your newspaper, you'll notice it is divided into columns. And the width of the line doesn't go past eight or nine words across. This width restraint is put in for a reason. It allows your eye to read, get some breathing space and then go to the next line.

The width of your web page text needn't be as constrained, but should not be much more than 15 words wide. An average web page can easily accommodate about 30 words of text on one line. And putting 30 words of text in one line is a big mistake. It's a mistake because the text becomes tiring. It's hard to read.

The way around this problem is to make sure you split your web page into two or three columns (ask your web designer if you don't know how).

How many words do you have in your main text column? If it's 15 words or thereabouts, you're OK. If not, you need to fix it right away.

Once you're done fixing those two issues, let's examine the third: chunky paragraphs. If you have long, dense paragraphs, the material on the page looks intimidating. An intimidating page is more likely to drive a customer away.

The way to fix this problem is to restrict your paragraphs to about four to six sentences. Once you've put in about six sentences, just put in a break.

This break gives the reader some breathing space, and visually it's far less intimidating.

Time for a summary:

* Constrain the thought to one idea: keep sentences down to 25 words at best.

* Check the width of the line. About 15 words. That's it.

* Four to six sentences in a paragraph is enough. Move to the next paragraph and create breathing space.

Some of these changes are easy to make from now, and some may mean going back to edit your existing web content. It's well worth the trouble to make the time to implement these changes.

Because as I said: this ain't about grammar. It's about conversion. If you drive a customer batty with your web pages, you have only yourself to blame.

Sean D'Souza is chief executive of Psychotactics and an international author and trainer. He is the author of The Brain Audit - Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don't).

www.psychotactics.com