5 Tips for Making Your Church Website Content More Readable

Ever typed in a website's URL, clicked to the About page, and was presented a giant, novel-sized paragraph? I bet you muttered "forget it" and exited the page without reading a word.

The attention spans of website visitors continues to nose-dive as they are increasingly bombarded with information--ads, links, Flash presentations, videos, and images. Making your web content as stripped down and instantly readable as possible is a necessity.

Website users don't read--they scan. You have seconds to keep a visitor's attention before they leave your website forever, so you must optimize your pages' text for instant consumption. 

Here are five ways to maximize your content's potential and keep visitors on your site.

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Avoid jargon.

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Most website visitors come to your site to learn more about you. For a great deal of those visitors, your website is their first experience with you. If you use "insider" phrases and words, your visitor could get confused and leave out of frustration.

Churches are especially guilty of using terms that outsiders have no clue of their meaning. Here are a few to avoid and some alternatives to use instead.

Don't Use	Use Instead
"Reach the lost and dying"	Preach the message of Jesus to those who don't know Him.
"Covet your prayers"	Please pray for ...
"Stumble" or "fall"	Sin or disobey God
"Food, fun, and fellowship"	Meet together; socialize; celebrate; spend time with

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Use short sentences.

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To make your pages easier to understand, keep your sentences from being too complicated--the shorter, the better.

• Use the old rule for adjectives: "when in doubt, take it out."
• Try seperating compound sentences in two.
• Avoid big words and complicated ideas.
• Read a lot of Hemingway. He did it best.

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Use headers, bullet points, text styles, and lists.

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These devices make it easier for visitors seeking specific information to scan your pages. If your About page contains your location, directions, and service times, using a header to separate these sections is a good way to please those only looking for your address.

Bullet points, text styles (bold, italics, all caps), and lists can be used to highlight important content or separate examples from your other content (see the section above as an example). All of these elements come together to turn words into pictures.

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Write at an elementary grade reading level.

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See your website visitor. He sees your big words. See him run.

Don't introduce your We Believe section with a 12 paragraph explanation of your views on dispensationalism. And don't follow that up with a detailed section on Harmartiology. K.I.S.S.

Visitors want to know what you believe, what you value, and what you strive to accomplish, without having to grab a dictionary.

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Write in chunks.

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Just like short sentences make text easier to digest, short paragraphs do the same. Try to limit your paragraphs to three sentences. The white space between paragraphs will provide a less intimidating environment to page visitors.

They'll be more inclined to read a page that seems to have less content, even if it really doesn't. The shorter paragraphs "Jedi mind trick" them into thinking they'll have to read less.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT READABLE CONTENT

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Writing for the Web - iMinistries Blogs
How Users Read on the Web - Nielson Study
4 Guidelines for Readable Web Content - Marketing Tech Blog