You GOTTA Make Your Content Scannable - Here's Why

I've shared this before, but the average visitor only reads about 20% of your content. That's 80% going ignored. Stop taking this personally and see it for the metric it is.

What is this metric telling us? It's telling us that our audience is scanning for a specific answer, and if they can't find it easily, they’re hitting the back button. And since we don't know which 20% any particular reader is going to read, we have to make a real effort to make every single section highly valuable and impossible to miss.

Here's some easy and actionable habits to get into when it comes to your writing.

Keep your paragraphs short. Two or three sentences is the sweet spot. Long blocks of text is boring, starts to look like homework, and nobody wants to read homework. White space is your friend. It makes the page feel manageable and keeps the reader moving down the screen.

Use bold H2 headings and bold text as a guide. I do this constantly with my articles on my site. Your headings should be easy to find and tell the story on their own. In other words if a reader only looks at your H2s, they should still understand the core of your message. Within those sections, use bold text to highlight the "meat" of your sentences. It acts like a highlighter for the person who is just skimming for the answer.

Lean on bulleted lists and timely images. Lists are the ultimate skimmable tool because they break complex ideas into bite sized answers. Combine that with a few well-placed images to break up the flow, and you have a post that feels light instead of heavy. Just don't go overboard; too many images become a distraction. You honestly don't need as many as you think.

Stop writing for the English teacher you had in high school.
Make it easy to scan.
Make it easy to win.
YOU GOT THIS!

1. Have you looked at your most recent post on a mobile phone to see if it looks like a wall of text?
2. If someone only read your H2 headings, would they still get the main point of your article?
3. What’s one paragraph in your current draft that you can split into two right now?

Drop your comments below! 👇