The readability test is a great way to truly understand how a visitor (i.e. a total stranger) will see your website and copy.
Many tests have shown that visitors skim-read text. Many don’t even read past the first sentence if it doesn’t grab them. This is why headlines and sub-headlines are so important. You could put benefits into your copy which are simply missed if they’re in a block of text.
How people see your copy
When you write copy, you may see it in a very different way. You’ll be naturally more passionate about your own product/service, understand it better than a total stranger and be more interested in what you have to say about it - compared to a stranger who has just visited your site.
In a nutshell, you could write copy which doesn’t work and doesn’t convert visitors into sales - even if you love it. Just because you find your copy compelling and interesting with the enthusiasm you have for your own business, it doesn’t mean the visitor will.
Do you want to have a glimpse into how visitors and prospects may see your text?
The readability test is a great way to understand how some visitors will see your text, So lets get started:
1). Write some sales copy now, or take a piece of text from your own site
2). Read through it once at a speedy, yet comfortable pace
3). Read through it again
4). Read through it again
By now you may notice your eyes skimming over certain words and pieces of text you’ve lost interest in.
5). Read through your copy three more times. Everytime you read through, try and read through it faster and faster.
By now you may be skimming over most of the text to get to the end, as you’re getting restless due to reading the same piece of text over and over again! This is a good example of how some visitors will read your text.
This test helps to create a realistic sense of interest which your visitor will have. They will have this level of interest naturally, and you can get close to emulating this lack of interest by getting bored of your own copy!
So, how does it fair up? Can you still pick out the features and benefits within your copy? Do sentences still make clear, concise sense, or do they just turn into an undecipherable mash-up of words? If it’s a mash-up, then you have some work to do.
Main points of your copy should still be absorbent even if a visitor skims over your copy with vague interest. A large, attention-grabbing headline works well to make people take notice. Likewise, sub-headlines throughout your copy give your visitors something to pick up on. The sub-headline should make a point clear, and also create interest, so the visitor may spend some time to read a relevant paragraph.
It’s the job of a copywriter to be impartial and unbiased about readability when writing copy. It’s imperative that copy is written with the visitor in mind, and knowledge of how the visitor will read the text. Visitors can become very interested in what you have to say (and they should), but you have to give them a reason to be first. If they see an immovable, hefty block of text with nothing which grabs their attention, then they won’t bother reading it.
If you can write your copy in a way that is easily absorbed even whilst being skim-read (and put through this test), then you’re onto a winner.