You have to write the text so it becomes easy to read, interesting and relevant for the user. Don’t waste your user’s time with unnecessary words. Give him the information he needs to complete his goal or to move on. Replace hard words to easier ones. Re-write long sentences to short sentences. A tip is to write your texts in “we” form. But all this is not enough for a good result. You also need to think of how you show the text on your homepage or blog. Because it’s harder to read text on a screen than it is on a ordinary paper you need to think a couple of steps longer.

It is much easier to read a sans-serif (Verdana is an example of a sans-serif) text than a serif (Times New Romain is an example of a serif) text on a screen. So gladly use the font Verdana, Arial or Tahoma on your homepage. However, it is fully acceptable to use serif fonts on the titles because the title is usually much bigger than the ordinary text on the homepage. The best thing would be too use different CSS stylesheets depending on if the user reads the text on his screen or if he chooses to print it out on paper. Then you should change CSS stylesheet so that the text he prints out is some sort of serif (ex: Times New Roman).

To increase the readability for your users you can also try to make the text bigger. It’s hard to read a text that it’s too small. Italic text is also hard to read on a screen. This definitely applies if your text is small and italic. Also beware of bold text. It’s hard to read long and several sentences in a bold text.

One really important thing is to divide your text into different relevant groups (like this text is). You can also make small headlines on top of these groups that tell shortly about what the text is about.

You also have to think of the contrast between your text and background. It’s easier to read a black text on a white background than it is to read a black text on a grey background. Just to take one example. It’s also hard for the user to read your text if you have a background with a pattern.

The user also finds it hard to read a text that stretches along his entire screen, from left to right. You should decrease the width of the text so that you only have between 15 to 25 words per line. It’s also a good idea to have a big distance between the lines. Something similar to what this blog uses.

When it comes to links in your texts it’s smart to make them stand out from the ordinary text. Make them in a blue colour with a blue line under them, for example. The important thing is that the user should directly see that it’s a link and not just an ordinary static text. Because links often has a line under them it’s wise to refrain from using underlined text on your site that can confuse your user to think it’s a link. Another thing about links you should think of is that the links should explain themselves. Avoid to write your links as “click here” or something similar because text like that doesn’t explain what the link is about or what it will lead.

If you do these small changes on your homepage or blog it will be a lot easier for the user to find and complete his goal. If you got any comments, ideas or if you think I am completely wrong please post a comment.