Often when I arrive at a content page online, I read the first few lines and find the answer or information I was looking for. Or I at least get the gist of it. I then stop reading and hit the back button.
In other words, the writer has revealed the good stuff at the top of the page, and has given me little or no reason to keep reading.
In fact, I have made the same error with this post. You have already finished reading the short version of what I plan to say and – if you were in a hurry – you could pretty much move on at this point.
(That said, the good stuff is yet to come…I just didn’t flag it in the intro.)
If you want me to stay on your page for longer, you need to hold back on some of the good stuff until later on in the post or article. This will ensure that I keep reading, and am exposed to any links you might want me to click on.
And yes, you do want me to stay on your page and on your site or blog for longer.
First, because if I stay for just 10 seconds and leave, you might have lost me for ever. I won’t have had the time to get to know you. Nor will I have clicked on links to any products, services or subscriptions you may offer.
Second, because Google will notice. Yes, Google does track how long people stay on your pages and on your site. If someone leaves your site within a few seconds of arriving, Google concludes that you probably don’t offer much value.
In other words, you should be working hard to keep readers on your pages for as long as possible. And one way to do this is to avoid sharing your core message within the first few lines.
Reveal the good stuff slowly.
OK, now for another complication…
When writing a blog post, you may well be showing readers an excerpt on your home page, before they click through to the full post. This means your excerpt needs to be interesting and compelling enough to maximize the number of readers who do click through.
Sounds tricky…you need to let readers know that your page will provide the information they are looking for. But you shouldn’t reveal too much in the first few lines. But you should say enough to make your post excerpt intriguing.
How can you do this? You need to hook your reader, intrigue your reader, but not give the whole game away.
If I were to follow my own advice for this post, I would change my first few lines from:
Often when I arrive at a content page online, I read the first few lines and find the answer or information I was looking for. Or I at least get the gist of it. I then stop reading and hit the back button.
In other words, the writer has revealed the good stuff at the top of the page, and has given me little or no reason to keep reading.
To something more like this:
You may pat yourself on the back each time a reader arrives at one of your content pages. In fact, you probably count the number of visitors who arrive through various site pages or blog posts, and congratulate yourself.
But here is something to consider. If those readers don’t read the entire page, or simply leave after a few seconds, that visit may have done you more harm than good.
This time, instead of writing a preview of the entire post, I have created some intrigue, and with a sense of urgency. Now I can be more confident that my page visitors are more likely to keep reading.
Remember, this isn’t important just for your on-page text, but also makes a difference when those first two or three sentences appear in excerpts.
You have to give your readers a good reason to keep reading. Unwrap your content slowly, revealing a little at a time.
About the author: Nick Usborne is an online writer, copywriter, author and coach. Read more…
Yikes! Great info. I gotta go check on my web pages and note this in my new posts! Thanks, Nick.
I know you’d love to hear my comment about so I’ll get to it in the next sentence or two. 🙂
Great tips Nick. I think the challenge for some of us who have been around for a long time, is to erase the training we had way back when.
Long before the web, reading was always hard copy. Stickiness wasn’t an issue. People chose the book, paper or magazine before they sat down to read. The challenge was to grab their attention and hold their interest right from the first word.
The logic was that different personality types read things differently. You typical “Type A” person might only read the headline and the bolded sub-heads where as someone who was more detail oriented would want to have a summary but then needed to read all the fine points.
The rule of thumb was to divide a piece into three sections.
1. Tell them what your going to say
2. Say it (in detail)
3. Tell them what you said.
It actually stems back also from old-school journalism. If you go back beyond the net and go back beyond word processors, you had typewriters. On a newspaper, if the editor had to cut an article he did it based on how many column inches were available- so if your article was too long, it would be cut from the bottom up. You better have made your point early in the article or people would never even see it.
Those were all valid reasons for a head-based article. Some of the logic still applies to some degree but, I think that your points outweigh those considerations. Readers have changed so writers have to adjust if they want to be read.
Thanks for an interesting post.