Arranging website content to make it worthy and user-friendly is a challenging task for the web designers and content developers. The basic insight needed for this task is to keep the end users in mind and make the content fully understandable to the target group so that they can effortlessly browse through the pages.

Readability is the primary aspect to be made considered in order to make your website a hit. When the content is kept simple and easily comprehendible, then the audience can instantly digest what you want to communicate. This is very essential especially when you run an e-commerce store, a promotional website, or a knowledge-sharing blog.

Development of easily readable and informative content is a combined effort of the web designers as well as the content writers. The design should be built to offer a proper platform to host the content in a unique manner by using appropriate spacing, colors, typography etc. On the other hand, to meet the purpose of usability and readability, the web content developers also should be well aware of the appropriate writing approach to be taken with regards to the purpose, objective, and target group of the website.

The content text font and typography should be made pleasant and the articles should be kept simple as well as concise. It is fact that the users don’t read much online. We will discuss few tips and tricks to enhance the readability and usability of your website and make browsing easier for the users.

1. Keep the Content Precise and Keyword-Specific

It is proven over research that the website users do not spend much time reading through the articles. It is also well known that web users have very short attention spans and they don’t read articles thoroughly and in their entirety. People tend to skim through pages to gather the needed information. So the writers should strictly stick to the point to make the content precise and simple. They should also make the content keyword rich to gain attention.

2. Make the Content Attractive

You can make your content more attractive to grab the customer’s interest, especially for the e-com sites. Make a note of the following tips.

· Concise it to the point.

· Assess it from the reader’s point of view and cut out any unnecessary information.

· Always use short, easy to interpret, straightforward words, phrases, and short sentences.

· Avoid long paragraphs and page full of text.

· Make use of scientific writing techniques and proofread your content for grammatical and typographic errors.

3. Use Proper Headings & Subheadings for Articles

It is evident from the studies that internet users check pages block by block or in different sections, which is referred to as ‘block reading’. This should be taken care of while creating pages and content. Rather than scanning pages as a whole, people tend to go directly to the item, which matches their requirements.

Another study reveals that the users moves their eyes from left to right while viewing a page and the eye movement goes down in an F-shaped pattern by skipping the text in between. So, the effective way for designers and writers is to keep the text and content in blocks for easy browsing.

4. Let the Users Quickly Scan your Pages

Designing the web pages by keeping in mind the skimmed browsing style of the users can improve the usability as much as 47% according to the researches. For this, your headings and the first few words really count, which people tend to read while quick scanning a page.

5. Use Bullets and use Easily Distinguishable Context

It is also noted that the readers tend to get fixated to bulleted items, tables, and bolded and italicized text for longer period than plain text. The mode of writing can speed up reading by offering the readers a special notion by highlighting the important points. For this, you can;

· Break up paragraphs into small bullet points.

· Use bolding and italics as necessary for the text which need highlighting.

· Use separate coloring for key terms and links etc.

6. Assure Sufficient Spacing

A grave mistake, which many web designers unknowingly tend to do is to stuff their pages full with content. Making use of every single inch of the page is not the right way to design a good website, but success lies in making use of the available space effectively. Necessary spacing between the words, lines, paragraphs as well as different blocks of content is important.

7. Strategically Use Images

The images, photos, charts, and graphs, which you include can replace thousands words. But it is vital to choose the right images to add value and credibility to your site. It is a proven fact that the users pay close attention to the images and photos rather than exploring the text on pages. However, on the other hand it is essential to avoid unnecessary images also to get the concentrated attention of the users to the most needed content.

8. Put User-Friendly Hyperlink Text

Unlike other media, the unique advantage of web-based content sharing is the facility to use hyperlinks to assure interconnectivity. The proper usage of hyperlinks can increase the usability and readability of webpages as well as offer more credibility to your website. The hyperlink sharing can also help in increasing the traffic to your site.

9. Speed Up the Site, Don’t Get the Users Bored by Waiting

The new-age internet users are very impatient. On not getting your site loaded instantly, they will simply ignore it and move on to the next. What is the point in having an awesome site with high-end animation and mind-boggling graphics if you get no one to have a look at it? A research report shows that even less than a 2-second increase in the page loading can reduce user satisfaction by more than 10%.

10. It is not just the Home Page Important

Considering the modern browsing style where the users land on a page directly from the search engines, it is not just your home page that counts. Unfortunately, the wrong practice still followed by many of the designers is to spend time on furnishing the home page and give only minimal attention to the inner pages. If you want to get your site popular, then give the same importance to the other pages also to be designed in a user-friendly and attractive manner.

Above mentioned are just a few inputs to increase the effectiveness of your website. On doing a more comprehensive research on the internet, you can find myriad of such tips to develop an excellent user-friendly website, which people love to be at.

Written by Mark Ross, working with one of the most reputed PSD to HTML and PSD to WordPress Conversion service provider company called MarkupBox. You can contact him on twitter @MarkupBox.