Web users don’t read, at least not in the same way as if reading a book or newspaper.

According to web usability expert Jakob Nielsen, web users scan the page, looking for words and headings that are relevant to them. On the web, less is better in terms of words, but they need to be targeted to the audience.

Popular business marketing guru Seth Godin writes in one blog post  “If you’re writing for strangers, make it shorter” which pretty much sums up the concept of writing on the web. This is where careful selection of headings and keywords is beneficial, not only from a reading point of view, but also in terms of search engine optimization (SEO) – that is, making the content of your site clear for search engines like Google and Yahoo to see.

In fact, whilst reading some of Nielsen’s work, I found myself scanning through the content and predominantly reading just the headings, bold content, and lists until I came across something of particular interest. Nielsen states “On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely”. Probably about right in my case.