writing in an F-shaped pattern

Have you ever bought a book just because of it's hardcover and fascinating design ? Without knowing what it actually contains and how good or relevant the information in it was ?

I did . In fact , I bought many books just for their hardcover . I like books . And most of the times I don't even know if I like reading them as much as I like having them around . They have a certain ... je ne sais quoi that I absolutely love .

How do you ensure that your blog has that special something that keeps people coming again ?

There are a lot of design rules that you should follow . And most of the times you might just get away with breaking a few of them . Why ? Because of your content . Having good content lets you skip a few design rules . And in order for that to happen you need to make sure people read your articles .

It all starts with headlines . Visitors see an interesting headline and they click to read the article . And this is where the fun part begins . A few years ago someone ( I'm sorry I can't remember who or where ) invested in a study on internet users reading habits . And using some cool gadgets they discovered that internet users tend to read in an F-shaped pattern .

This means that when they see an article they first read in a horizontal movement across the top part of the article ( the first 2-3 paragraphs ) . This is the F's first horizontal bar .

Then they read in a second horizontal movement across the next part of your article , usually covering less horizontal space ( this means they will no longer read the far right side of your text ) . This is the F's second , shorter bar .

And finally they scan the text's left side vertically .

What does this mean for us ?

It means that after we have our killer headline that gets people wondering : 'What is he talking about ? I'd better find out !' , we need to write our article in such a manner that the first 2-3 paragraphs offer the most relevant information . This is what draws them further into the article . If we manage to get them excited in the first 2-3 paragraphs we have a chance at getting them to read the next part of our article .

Your article's should be divided in 3 parts . The top part should contain the most information in a clear , concise writing . The second part should contain add-ons to the first part . And the third part should contain various information that the user could do without .

Chances are you will not get your readers to read the whole article from top to bottom . But if you manage to send the message to them and make them understand what you are talking about while at the same time not stressing their eyes and not forcing them to read an entire article just to find out 3 rules of dating ... you will most definitely get them to return to your blog .

People love quick to catch , easy to understand information .