Comments on: Make Your Homepage Copy More Readable in 1 Easy Step

By: yogesh

yogesh — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:58:00 +0000

Hi Georgina. Very simple and highly beneficial piece of advice. In the quest for conveying the message, we sometimes forget to check the post for readability. Paying attention to these details definitely accomplishes the objective of informing the readers. Thank You.

By: ralph.m

ralph.m — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:10:19 +0000

Those are great articles, Georgina. Thanks for the links. I know ‘dumbing down’ is a controversial term, and perhaps not the best way to describe what’s going on here. But as I’ve said in comments on those articles, there is a place for more complex language (even if not in the marketplace). I enjoy rich, wordy, sophisticated language, and would hate to see it disappear altogether … though I don’t necessarily want to read product descriptions in Shakespearean verse.

By: Chee How Chua

Chee How Chua — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:32:26 +0000

Thanks for the great article! I’ve always been struggling with good copy. This certainly helped a ton!

By: Georgina

Georgina — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 01:30:51 +0000

Hey Ralph,
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. We talked about the kinds of information you can provide about your new service or product last week: http://www.sitepoint.com/launching-an-mvp-youll-need-more-than-an-mvw/ and next week’s post will explore the difference between features and benefits :)

On dumbing down, I respectfully disagree ;) I wrote a piece (with examples) for buildmobile.com a while ago which explores that question in some detail: http://buildmobile.com/mobile-first-content-in-practice/

Thanks again!

By: Georgina

Georgina — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:56:31 +0000

Hey Andy, thanks for sharing your own readability score with us :)

Yep, when you’re looking at small pieces of text contractions can make a difference to the score, but on the other hand, I think they can make a different to your chances of connecting emotionally with your users, too. It’s a fine balance ;) But at least with readability scores we have some idea of where we’re heading.

By: ralph.m

ralph.m — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:24:27 +0000

P.S.

One gripe I have with the ‘readability’ concept is that it does contain an element of ‘dumbing down’ language. Certainly, clarity and simplicity are useful in the marketplace, but rich and sophisticated language also has its place. Shakespeare, Dickens and the like don’t necessarily score well on readability tests.

By: ralph.m

ralph.m — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:11:05 +0000

Nice article, Georgina. I didn’t know about such tools. Hopefully a side effect of this article is to remind site owners to have any kind of introductory text *at all*. It drives me nuts how few sites actually tell you clearly what their product or service is actually about.

The next step—beyond this brief overview—is to have a systematic and thorough introduction to the features and functions of a product or service. I can’t count how many times I’ve given up on a site because it failed to give me a sense of what it was all about. There often seems to be an assumption that ‘people will just know’, or that they will just download/buy the product and find out how it works later. That certainly doesn’t work for me.

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:15:47 +0000

I always need to work on being concise. This will help! Thanks

By: AdWords Management

AdWords Management — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:44:31 +0000

Thanks Georgina, you can & should apply this to all your Google AdWords pay-per-click landing pages as it will lower the bounce rate & improve conversion rates on your PPC & organic landing pages.

By: andy2004

andy2004 — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:08:16 +0000

That’s a great tip thanks. Just checked my homepage and it is shockingly bad – 50 & 12!
Noticed too that changing ‘With Flickr, sharing’s easy and secure.’ to ‘With Flickr, sharing is easy and secure.’ takes the readability score up a touch. Interesting….

By: Efren

Efren — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:36:47 +0000

Excellent information Didn’t know about the readability scores.

By: Beeingsocial

Beeingsocial — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:58:42 +0000

extremely informative , thanks for sharing with us