It is very important to understand exactly how your prospects read the web. If you have a firm grasp of this, then you will be able to tailor your copy to achieve maximum results. Jakob Nielson is a 'usability expert' and he writes on topics such as eye-tracking research, web design errors and banner blindness. As an expert on this topic, Nielson supports the idea that people primarily seek information on the web and even goes so far as to call it 'information foraging'. Key to this concept is the idea that we look for the 'information scent' by assessing a site quickly and when there doesn't seem to be any 'food' around, we move on quickly.

So how do users read the web - Nielson maintains that they don't read, instead they scan. They pick out individual words and sentences and his research has shown that just 16% read word for word.

The lesson here is that your Web Pages need to have scanable text, using:

• Highlighted keywords - this can include variations in word colour or typeface; or hypertext links;

• Meaningful sub-headings

• Bulleted lists

• One idea per paragraph

• The inverted pyramid style of writing - start with the conclusion first, i.e. your most important sales points come at the beginning of your site

• Half the word count of conventional writing - this does not mean that you should have short copy, instead it means that you should look at everything you write and try to re-write each section in a more concise way.

What you are trying to do through your copy is to lead your prospects down your intended sales path, in order to take action towards the end of your copy. This is called the 'linear path method' for writing copy and to employ this method properly, you need to apply the pointers above.

What you don't want is for your prospect to be distracted en-route, with the result that they fail to take action. This can easily happen if your WebPages are littered with buttons, adverts, links, click throughs or a slew of different subjects or topics.

Why is this important?

There is a principle in marketing called the Zeigarnik Effect (named after a Gestalt Theorist) which represents the state of mental tension and unbalance caused by uncompleted tasks. What you want to do is to stick to a simple message and subject and guide your prospects down a single sales path. What happens often in practice is that visitors come to a site; they start to read the copy noting the various buttons, links etc. Along the way, these links etc. are stored in the brain as uncompleted tasks and at some point the Zeigernik Effect takes over, causing mental tension by creating a need to click a link and thereby become sidetracked. The Zeigernik Effect is a relatively simple marketing concept, but yet happens to be one that few people employ.

Understanding just how people read online and how easily they can become distracted is important for shaping how you set about writing your copy. Remember, it is your words that must sell!